An Asian American’s perspective on the importance of diversity and inclusion in advancing human health

A year has passed since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and in the past 12 months, the world has been in a multidimensional crisis.

Most recently, we’re seeing an increase in disturbing news reports of crimes against Asian Americans in the US. As a father, a colleague and an Asian American myself, I am deeply saddened and concerned—these events are rooted in issues that have too long persisted and affect many of us first-hand.?With this in mind, I would like to share my perspective.

I moved to the United States from Asia at the age of seven. In our school in Kentucky, where we grew up, my siblings and I were the only Asian kids. I was used to being stared at because I looked different.?I realized at that time that the world was not learning about minorities from a lens of “what do we have in common?”, or “what can we learn from each other?”, but mainly “how are we different?” It was clear to me from a young age that differences in physical features are the most obvious traits to observe and compare. It didn’t take long to realize that this can quickly translate beyond observations and comparisons, into judgement, xenophobia and outright racism. These experiences have followed me throughout my life.

As a teenager, I recall feeling that I didn’t want to be different. I didn’t want my family to speak a different language at home. I wanted them to watch football on weekends like all the other families. In reality, what I really wanted was to be accepted for who I am and not to be defined by the differences.

I’m fluent in Mandarin but also fluent in English, and when I was working as a practicing physician I remember patients inquiring whether I studied or was trained in the US, remarking that I spoke English so well.

The most common question, a query with deeper implications about how we perceive race, identity and nationality, is “where are you from?” or even “where are you really from?” Almost half a century later, my kids still get asked the same question. A question that may arise from curiosity and have good intentions, but can make people on the receiving end feel like they don’t belong, or at least don’t belong here. When others quickly assess your physical traits as “not belonging here, it can easily become “go back to your country” —regretfully an insult that is still heard by my family even today.

I’m sharing my own story because I believe creating awareness through speaking up is critical for us to advance as one society. It’s been important for me to educate my kids about racial bias. I want them to be able to look beyond their own and others’ outward appearances, and I hope their exposure to diverse cultures as they’re growing up is enabling them to understand and provide different perspectives.

I also believe that acknowledging and overcoming issues like this and embracing our diversity is essential to advancing human health and human progress overall. My personal purpose is to develop the best medicines that improve the standard of care for all patients—regardless of race or ethnicity. Diversity plays a critical role in how we discover and develop our medicines. I chose to work in this industry because I was excited about the potential of having impact at scale. In my role as Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, I oversee over 160 projects in clinical development across about 50 diseases. It is essential that we are able to run broad, inclusive trials that reflect the expansive diversity of patients who could benefit from our medicines. As a company, we are committed to ensuring people around the world have access to life-changing medicines, and last year they reached 769 million patients in more than 150 countries. My teams are continually looking to improve how diversity considerations are embedded along the entire clinical development process—for example, our work to increase education about and enrollment for clinical trials for communities with underrepresented populations.

In order to accelerate drug discovery and development, we also need to be agnostic of the source of the science and focus on the right capabilities. As I noted in my previous article, we’ve seen many examples of cross-industry and cross-country collaborations during the pandemic. To harness the full potential of innovation across the world, we need to think less about boundaries and our differences and more about how we can collaborate across the broader ecosystem as a global life sciences community.

According to Deloitte, organizations with inclusive cultures are eight times more likely to have better business outcomes and six times more likely to be innovative.* Throughout my career, I’ve seen many examples of how different perspectives and inclusive behaviors have helped generate new ideas, drive innovation and better understand our patients and stakeholders. I’m also convinced that we can only reach our full potential if we can be our true selves and feel valued and included. I’m proud to work for a company that embraces diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our work and has zero tolerance for racism or bias of any kind.

We all have a part to play and I‘m committed to do mine; to speak up, listen, learn, offer support, and champion diversity and inclusion in my work to help develop the best medicines for patients to progress human health. I hope you'll join me.

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*High-Impact Diversity & Inclusion: Maturity Model & Top Findings, Bersin by Deloitte 2017