Kauilaonālani Tengan is inspired to encourage greater participation from Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Filipino communities in diabetes clinical trials to ensure research better reflects the populations most affected by the disease.
Leave your assumptions and biases at the door and engage these communities with aloha.
—Kauilaonālani Tengan
He is translating that goal into practice through applied research. A master of science student in epidemiology at the University of Hawaiʻi at 惭ā苍辞补 , Tengan was part of a study team at The Queen’s Health Systems (QHS) whose findings were published in in the study Exploring Diabetes Clinical Trial Participation: A Diverse Group Interview Study.
“I have a family history of cardiometabolic diseases and I remember visiting extended family who had to fly from Moloka?i just to receive quality care here on Oʻahu,” he said. “This [experience] instilled in me a desire to learn more about health issues so prevalent in our islands and contribute to innovative solutions.”
Research findings and lessons learned
While at QHS, Tengan split his time between health equity research and clinical data management, utilizing electronic medical records to address research questions. He helped conduct interviews with 56 hospitalized patients to explore what motivates—or prevents—patients from joining diabetes clinical trials.
Although 84% expressed willingness to participate, most had never been asked. Barriers included mistrust, concerns about medication risks, and lack of understanding, while many Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander participants cited family and community benefit as key motivators.
“Engaging face-to-face with people in a clinical setting humanized health data for me,” Tengan said. “It reminded me that these are people, not statistics. I realized that my work has a lasting impact, so it is my responsibility to do things in a pono manner.”
Tengan hopes to carry these lessons forward. “Leave your assumptions and biases at the door and engage these communities with aloha,” he said. “It is vital that we do work in an ethically and culturally nuanced way because there are real world impacts in the data that we publish.”
The study was part of an Food and Drug Administration-funded project at The Queen?s Medical Center, in collaboration with the 东精影业 惭ā苍辞补 , and clinical partners. also found that Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander participants are consistently underrepresented in U.S. clinical trials.
“Kauilaonālani’s perspectives and real-life application from quantitative analyses are so important to building collective public health,” said Tetine Sentell, public health professor and study co-author.