In 2007, I was a teenage mother in a doctor's office in Alabama, holding a prescription for my son's asthma. I trusted the standard of care, like any parent would. What I didn't know was that the medicine in my hand, albuterol, worked significantly less effectively in Black people than in the population it was tested on. Nobody had told me that and nobody was required to.
That realization found a partner in 2019, when I met Del. He told me about losing his mother to tuberculosis, and how he'd never once heard the words "clinical study" mentioned as an option for her care. Two different families, two different conditions, the same silence.
Recognizing that our stories weren't isolated but part of a pattern affecting communities everywhere, Del and I co-founded Acclinate together, determined to build the bridge between underrepresented communities and the pharmaceutical industry that neither of us had. NOWINCLUDED, powered by Acclinate, is that bridge brought to life.
NOWINCLUDED, powered by Acclinate, is a safe, supportive platform for underrepresented communities to connect, share, and find the resources they need to navigate their health journeys with confidence.
Courtesy of Tiffany Whitlow
Nobody Asked Me About Clinical Studies
As a young mom on Medicaid and WIC, I didn't know clinical studies existed, let alone that they were how my son's medications got developed. When people in our community hear "clinical study," many think of Tuskegee first — real history that deserves acknowledgment, not burial. But we now have real protections in place, and we can't let fear of the past keep us out of the future of medicine. Through NOWINCLUDED, community members are empowered to take actions for better health, including clinical trial education and participation.
Why We Need Our Communities Represented in Healthcare
Lack of representation in healthcare isn't an abstract, someday problem. It's happening in New York City, right now. Black New Yorkers have the shortest life expectancy of any racial or ethnic group in the city, and carry the highest number of deaths tied to heart disease and diabetes. Brooklyn's diabetes rate runs higher than Manhattan's, and Black New Yorkers are diagnosed with diabetes at roughly double the rate of white New Yorkers. That's heart disease and diabetes showing up in the men Heart, Body & Soul serves every day, in Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, and Crown Heights.
Closing that gap takes the kind of trusted, on-the-ground relationships Heart Body & Soul has already built.
Before Clinical Studies, NOWINCLUDED Builds Relationships First
Most people only learn about a clinical study once a flyer that shows up the moment a study needs bodies, then disappears once it's full.
NOWINCLUDED was built to help community members get access to trusted resources and information and connect with others who may have similar health experiences, before presenting them with a clinical study opportunity.
We don't wait for a clinical study before we show up. We're already at health fairs, Little League games, HBCU campuses, and barbershops, long before there's an ask. That's what makes us a community platform, not a recruitment funnel.
You can meet us through a community ambassador, a Health Circle built around a condition affecting your life, on our app, podcast, and at local events.
Why NOWINCLUDED Partnered With Heart, Body & Soul
Here's something I want every Heart Body & Soul reader to understand: we didn't come to Brooklyn to build something new from scratch. Heart, Body & Soul was already here, already trusted, already doing the hard, patient work of getting Black men to check their numbers and take their health seriously.
That's exactly the kind of partner we look for. We know that trust isn't manufactured overnight, it's earned block by block over years, and Heart Body & Soul has earned it. We've partnered with Heart Body & Soul to help enable programming they already want to launch — resourcing an event, bringing research into a Walk & Talk or Vitals & Vision panel, connecting members to a health circle or Ambassador — while Heart Body & Soul carries the conversation forward in ways we never could alone, because it's their voice and credibility that make it land.
Courtesy of Heart, Body & Soul
Benefits of Joining NOWINCLUDED
Join NOWINCLUDED and you get honest education about clinical studies, in plain language, so you can say yes or no on your own terms if an opportunity comes your way. You get connected to research that reflects people like you, a health circle of people navigating the same condition, and an organization invested in your community whether or not you ever enroll in a study.
This matters especially for Black men who are so often the last invited to the table on their own health. Representation isn't a checkbox, it's the difference between a medication that works for you and one that doesn't, because no one who looked like you was in the room when it was tested.
That's part of why I started interviewing men for our Unfiltered podcast, sitting down with guys like Paul Bryant and Kelvin Wooten and asking them to just talk, honestly, about what their health journeys have actually looked like. Not polished talking points, the real version. Because the guy who's scared to get his numbers checked, or who's never heard the words "clinical study" spoken out loud, needs to hear another man say it first. Every conversation we record is for the next person who might be listening.
Building NOWINCLUDED With Ourselves in Mind
The best part of being an entrepreneur is building something you'd actually want to be part of. I built NOWINCLUDED as the resource I wish someone had handed me in 2007 — one that respects our history, tells us the truth about the science, and treats trust as something earned before it's asked for. We're here, alongside partners like Heart, Body & Soul, so that when the future of medicine gets written, Brooklyn's Black men are already in it.
Join us at nowincluded.com or download the NOWINCLUDED app to find your Health Circle, connect with an ambassador near you, and become part of a community that was built with you in mind from day one.