Josh Carpenter, CEO of Southern Research, presents the Catalyst program in the Alabama State House in Montgomery on Oct. 8, 2024. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
State officials in Montgomery Tuesday announced a new program aimed at providing free genetic testing and medical insights and linking patients to clinical trials across Alabama.
The program, known as Catalyst — unrelated to Gov. Kay Ivey’s Catalyst economic strategic plan — hopes to improve health care outcomes in rural Alabama by offering access to advanced genetic screenings and evaluations for certain chronic diseases, as well as promoting biomedical research in Alabama.
Josh Carpenter, CEO of Southern Research, a research organization leading the program, said people in Alabama’s five largest counties have the most access to clinical research and new medical developments. He said he wants to make new medical technologies accessible to all Alabamians, particularly those in rural and underserved areas. Depending on the screening results, patients could be matched with a clinical trial aimed at treating the chronic disease.
“It’s my plan that Southern Research can be a part of the broader vision of how health can be reimagined so that the line between research and development and healthcare delivery aren’t just blurred for the wealthiest among us,” Carpenter said.
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Southern Research received $20 million in state funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support Catalyst’s development, along with an additional $5 million from the City of Birmingham. Southern Research is based in Birmingham.
Susan Wilhelm, an assistant director of the Alabama Department of Finance, said Southern Research was not subject to the request for proposals (RFP) process. She said that the organization was the only one to submit a proposal for “clinical access” funds, which the department helped them finalize to comply with ARPA rules.
The program will start by hosting educational events in Selma, Tuskegee, Demopolis, Jasper, Florence, Dothan, and Mobile. Officials did not provide a timeline.
Dr. Khalilah Brown, Southern Research’s vice president of medical affairs and patient advocacy, said the free tests will be provided through primary care providers, but because there is a shortage of primary care providers in rural Alabama, she said the program will have a team of public health officials across the state providing locals, providers and community leaders with information about it.
“We’ve gone through and found every free clinic, community clinic, [Federally Qualified Health Clinic], private office that is accepting patients, and so we will first connect patients back to primary care,” Brown said.
Brown also said after the announcement that this will also provide a way to diversify clinical trials, where more than 90% of participants are white males.
“We’re missing women. We’re missing people of minority populations. We’re missing rural populations, and so when Alabama is more than 45% rural, so many of us are being left out of that,” she said.
Dr. Scott Harris, state health officer for the Alabama Public Health Department, said at the announcement that around 60% of Alabamians live with some sort of chronic disease, though genetics is not the only factor in developing chronic diseases, with about 1 million having at least one form.
“If you live here in Alabama, these conditions take a real toll on the quality of life that people have. They run up tremendous health care costs, which is a real problem for us,” Harris said.
He said that the program could help rural Alabamians manage their medical decision-making and help their providers with information that may get them linked to clinical trials, which would benefit “all of us, including the people involved in those trials.”
Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth said that the growing clinical trials industry could offer substantial financial benefits for the state, noting the potential economic impact of the program. He said he sees “tremendous room for growth,” with the clinical trial industry expected to grow from $50 million currently to $80 million by 2030.
“Our goal is we want to plant a flag in Alabama as a national leader, and certainly think this is one of the ways we can do that,” Ainsworth said.
The Catalyst program has IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval, and patient data will be de-identified and securely stored at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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