Embracing unity at OMERACT: Valuing equity, promoting diversity, fostering inclusivity.

Objective: To increase awareness and understanding of the principles of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) within Outcome Measures in Rheumatology's (OMERACT) members. For this, we aimed to obtain ideas on how to promote and foster these principles within the organization and determine the diversity of the current membership in order to focus future efforts.
Methods: We held a plenary workshop session at OMERACT 2023 with roundtable discussions on barriers and solutions to increased diversity within OMERACT. We conducted an anonymous, web-based survey of members to record characteristics including population group, gender identity, education level, age, and ability.
Results: The workshop generated ideas to increase diversity of participants across the themes of building relationships [12 topics], materials and methods [5 topics], and conference-specific [6 topics]. Four hundred and seven people responded to the survey (25 % response rate). The majority of respondents were White (75 %), female (61 %), university-educated (94 %), Christian (42 %), spoke English at home (60 %), aged 35 to 55 years (50 %), and did not report a disability (64 %).
Conclusion: OMERACT is committed to improving its diversity. Next steps include strategic recruitment of members to the EDI working group, drafting an EDI mission statement centering equity and inclusivity in the organization, and developing guidance for the OMERACT Handbook to help all working groups create actionable plans for promoting EDI principles.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest GS, AA, JLB, SG, CH, CB, EN, PH, JP, BJS have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose. LJM is a paid staff member of OMERACT. GCW has received fees, research grants from AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Janssen Biotech, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi Genzyme, UCB FG received a grant from NOVARTIS paid to his institution. WC reports payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events from Abbvie and Einstein Medical College; support for attending meetings and/or travel for previous OMERACT and GRAPPA meetings; and was past GRAPPA PRP Chair. NG reports support by OMERACT to attend the 2023 OMERACT in person meeting. Owner of stock in Abcuro and UCB and stock option grant at TrialSpark. TrialSpark grant expires 11 Oct 2023. Minority holder in all companies. Former employee of TrialSpark, Inc. (position terminated 11 Jul 2023). LSS is on the Management Committee of OMERACT and is Chair, Finance Committee of OMERACT. PT: Consulting Fees from Reformulary Group. An independent Committee Member for clinical trial Data Safety Monitoring Boards for FDA approved trials being conducted by: UCB Biopharma GmbH & SPRL, Parexel International, Prahealth Sciences. I am [unpaid] Chair of the Management Group of a registered non-profit independent medical research organization, OMERACT, whose goal is to improve and advance the health outcomes for patients suffering from musculoskeletal conditions. OMERACT receives arms-length funding from 11 companies: Abbvie, Astra Zenaca, Aurinia, BMS, Centrexion, GSK, Horizon Pharma Inc, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer & Sparrow.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)