Transforming Healthcare Through Media and Trust with Nicholas Jackson

Access to healthcare, awareness, and trust in medical research remain ongoing challenges for many underserved communities.

In this episode of Voices of Inclusive Research, Dr. Renarda speaks with Nicholas Jackson, founder of iHealth Network, about how culturally tailored media can bridge communication gaps and improve clinical research participation.

Nick shares how the loss of his mother and grandmother shaped his mission to advance health equity, emphasizing the importance of early detection, education, and access to resources. 

The conversation also highlights a critical shift in perspective: the gap is not only about trust but also about awareness and access. 

Together, they discuss how researchers and sponsors must engage communities with intention, show up consistently, and build relationships that go beyond short term projects.

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

• Personal Inspiration: How Nicholas Jackson’s personal loss fueled his mission to improve health outcomes and close life expectancy gaps
• Awareness vs Trust: Understanding that lack of awareness and access can be just as significant as trust in limiting clinical trial participation
• Tailored Media Matters: Why culturally relevant messaging and representation are essential for building connection and engagement
• Community Engagement: The importance of showing up consistently and building relationships before making an ask
• Rethinking Outreach: Moving beyond one size fits all strategies to intentional, community centered communication
• Sustainable Impact: Why ongoing presence, even beyond funded projects, is key to maintaining trust

Follow Dr. Ren:

• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

We Want to Hear Your Voice!

Your insights on how inclusive research impacts your life and community are invaluable. Share your experiences and thoughts on how we can bridge the gap between research and real-world needs. Your stories drive our mission and inspire the future of inclusive research!

Transcript

Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Dr. Ren: Welcome to another episode of Voices of Inclusive Research Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Rand, founder of Diverse Research now and today you'll hear the voice of Nicholas Jackson. Nick is an Inglewood, California native healthcare advocate and founder of I Health Network, a multicultural health media and engagement platform.

Focus on building trust in communities where healthcare has historically fallen short after losing both his mother and grandmother within six months of. to cancer and dementia. Nick dedicated his career to advancing health equity, early disease detection and clinical trial diversity. For the past five years, he's worked in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, focusing on clinical community engage.

And health advocacy in 2025, Nick was nominated for a pharmaceutical marketer of the year by a fierce. pharma Eye Health network is currently in beta and preparing for an official lunch. So I'm so excited to have Nick here today. Let's get started. Nick, how are you doing? 

Nicholas Jackson: Hey, Dr. Ren. Hey, first off, thank you for the intro.

Wow, that was cool. I'm doing great. It's another day, another dollar, another day in Paradise. How are you? 

Dr. Ren: Another day at Paradise. Paradise are you talking about Southern California?

 Yes, I agree with you. Then a new day in Southern California. Hey, it could be paradise if you want it to be. okay. Well, Nick, thank you so much for being here. Tell us more about you and, you know, get into your, to I Health Network. Let us know, where that, passion comes from for this new venture that you're doing.

 I'm super excited to hear more about it. 

Nicholas Jackson: Definitely. I think the passion to start off About, you know, where the passion lies. in 2020, was a really crazy year of my life. my mother was diagnosed with cancer obviously this is through, you know, the COVID period as well too, right.

Diagnosed with cancer, and I had to take care of my mother while she was passing away. that was a whole thing of, watching her kind of fade away and, having to know when that was gonna, you know, finally be, put to sleep in that case and all that.

and then shortly after, six months later, my grandmother passes away. and I was raised by those two women. yeah, 

Dr. Ren: my life 

Nicholas Jackson: changed tremendously from there. I was 24 at the time, but I still felt like I was a kid 'cause I had my people with me, you know, like they always, that 

Dr. Ren: was young Nick.

That's young. 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah. Still, yeah. Yeah. Still young. But yeah, those are the people that, that took care of me, obviously. they did everything for me. So I had become real man, I felt like pretty early. my mother passed away from a cancer diagnosis.

My grandmother had a really bad case of dementia. One thing I learned from that, from both cases is that these are two things that we could have prevented a long time ago. Right. And like on the dementia both ends, honestly it's not, we're not saying that, Hey, we could have stopped the dementia tomorrow, or like we could have, stopped the cancer from spreading.

It's just like, you know, these are things we should have. Called a very long time ago and, you know, slowed these processes down, right? Mm-hmm. my mom didn't have to suffer the way she did, you know, her last few months of living. Right. and it was just simple. Like, I found that out and I was like, damn.

Like, you know, why couldn't, like, I have done more when, like, back then, right? I know a lot more now and like, I'm 30 now, so 30-year-old me can 

Dr. Ren: Yeah. 

Nicholas Jackson: Can help. But 24-year-old me, I, I didn't know much. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, that's kind of where the, antithesis of IHOP never comes from is, being a black male for my community, uh, and for other, you know, minority communities that, kind of have these same issues that, you know, I've seen in my community.

I want to be the person I want my company to be. The place. That you get the information that you need so you can learn about all these different disease states. What might be affecting you, what kind of treatments are out there. If it's a medicine, if it's a clinical trial, if it's a mm-hmm.

treatment plan, if it's holistic health. 

Dr. Ren: Mm-hmm. 

Nicholas Jackson: any of that, you can come to us and we can help you get cured. And even to go further on that, there was a study, I forgot which health institution it was. You know, that, black people, and there's other races are combining this too, but black people in particular have a seven year less life expectancy than counterparts.

Dr. Ren: Wow. Isn't that crazy? 

Nicholas Jackson: Right. So these are, we 

Dr. Ren: have to close that gap for sure. Yeah. 

Nicholas Jackson: So when I feel like I won a bio health network, it's when they do the study again and that gap is closed. So that's when I felt like I won. So that's where we're fighting for. So, yeah, that's 

Dr. Ren: exactly, exactly. Okay. So tell us about kind of break down eye health network for us, like, 'cause it's a media company, so exactly How is this going to help close that gap?

Nicholas Jackson: Right. So yeah, iHealth Network is a, parent media company, so it's the parent brand and we do exclusive, healthcare messaging, marketing, X, y, and Z. Everything is healthcare, right? So the reason why we're different compared to most is that when you see, like most, like there are other healthcare media brands.

We know that cool, most healthcare media brands, they have just a website or they just have physical events, or they just have X, Y, z. We have a very different marketing approach where it's called omnichannel marketing. So while everybody else does direct marketing where they just do one or two channels and you just, you know, that's where you do that.

We do six total channels, which is website. Podcast, SMS email Live events. I missed one. But you get the gist Uhhuh that we're doing everything together and how it's also different is that you go to these sites, right? So you may go to, not to talk about the competitors, but lemme talk 

A little bit, right? So not, you know, you may go up to WebMD to go get your information. You may go up to Black health masks, go get your information. Mm-hmm. Where we're giving you the information, we come to you. 

Dr. Ren: Okay. 

Nicholas Jackson: And that's how our marketing strategy is a lot different. And, the thing is with that is that you only kind of go to your, phone when you got the headache, right?

We, came. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah. 

Nicholas Jackson: So we're changing the whole dynamic of that and, we're doing it in so many different ways at once. So, not gonna just get the message from our first podcast series with, called the Black Health Print. you're gonna get it from all these different angles and hopefully sticks, at the end of the day.

So that's the goal and how we do it. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah, 

Nicholas Jackson: because I feel like got to ask something. And then also, because we do have a lot of sub-brands within it, called like Be Healthy, Viva Salu, which are for diverse communities. They have culturally, cultivated content. So if you're on our Be Healthy website.

 you're gonna see like actual articles from black writers that, make sense for black people compared to just a generic article. That's for the whole country, right? 

Dr. Ren: Mm-hmm. 

Nicholas Jackson: So that's also a big emphasis that we want it to be culturally relevant so we can build the trust, right? You want to see health information from your people.

Yep. So that's how we're doing it as well too. yeah. 

Dr. Ren: I love that, you're like gonna shoot it out to like so many different platforms, so many different ways because I feel like. Everyone gets their media from so many different platforms, right? So it'll be nice to get the information from like the same platforms or, know, it's coming from the same people, iHealth network, but it's on all these different platforms.

So I just, I think that makes so much sense. I wanna talk about building trust because I. That's a huge topic when it comes to media and rebuilding that trust between black and brown communities and the healthcare research system, right? trust is all, we continually have to build that.

I mean, of course that's what we do at diverse research now. That's what you're gonna do. it's always gonna be a huge component in our work. So tell me what the role media plays in that. in rebuilding that trust. 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah, I think media crazy enough, I think media plays the biggest role. 

Dr. Ren: Okay.

Nicholas Jackson: In trust. Okay. ' cause now we're in 2026, and I'm not saying that like these people are like the best or anything like that, but there's so many different like. Uh, resources both pharma hospital wide, even like with advocacy programs that are out there that like actual, like free treatments or, clinical trials.

Obviously you're considered free treatments too. There are so many like, free treatments and, say for instance you have like a really, like rare ophthalmology disease, something like that, right? 

Mm-hmm. 

Nicholas Jackson: are so many different treatments out there, but if you just have the treatment as the company and you have no way to tell anybody what the treatment is or X, Y, Z.

It means nothing. It literally means nothing. it's great to have, it's like, oh, we have this, you've done. Oh, true. 

Dr. Ren: Get the message 

Nicholas Jackson: out. 

Dr. Ren: You gotta get the message out. 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah. And obviously media is the only way to do it. 'cause you know, it's natural in marketing. so that's what it is. I think media plays the biggest part of it.

Media can tell you to like something or to not like something, you know, we see it day in the media, right. that is the biggest thing. It's the biggest player. as simple as that. You know, there are so many great things out there. You know, I've been in the industry for years, and also being in the industry as a black man, coming from Inglewood.

 I've always heard big bad pharma, right? Which, you know, it could be true a little bit. Yep. But I'm also shame 

Dr. Ren: the devil. No. 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah. But I've also have been on the other end to see where you could leverage these pharma connections to get, you treatments and X, Y, z, what it could be.

I know that with media you can actually, change their whole perception about certain things and, even like talk about early, detection, like I know we're all scared to go get a blood test or something like that, right? But we have this conversation and talk about it.

 so yeah, media can make you hate 'em or media can make you love them, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's the biggest, I think, factor into all of this. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah, I agree with you. I guess the next question is, where is the breakdown? Because like what's going on now? 

 where is the breakdown in communication? where are the gaps? and we're talking about clinical research and the public health messaging, right? So like. There's gaps there. and I think that's where your media company is gonna come in and fit in there.

Right? I guess, yeah, go ahead and explain like how the communication gaps will be addressed. 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah. So there's a few different ways. So I think like with current day media, it's just like, you know, a one size fits all approach. We have one commercial, we're gonna just broadcast it everywhere in the commercial.

Yeah. Works. It works. It doesn't, it doesn't. And a lot of marketing people do a lot of just check marking compared to like, actually, like let's see if we can get the right amount of precious and conversions rate. Right. the reason why we are so different is that while we are a media, you know, engagement platform.

Cool, cool. we're also a consulting platform too, where any client that does work with us, you're gonna get a full consulting measure with us. So, you know, say for instance, like a certain hospital, they're gonna work with us. Just say, Hey, we want X, Y, and Z. We're gonna sit in a room or virtual room together, most likely, obviously, but we're gonna talk about how we're gonna do this, right?

Okay. Don't want to just give me your immediate assets, and I just slap them on a page. That usually doesn't work. We want to get high conversions. Well, high impressions of high conversions, right? that's a big part of, it's just that, you know, a lot of people have done like a one size fits all thing and they check the box off.

Okay, cool, I spent the money and got it there. Whatever happens, happens. But we're actually gonna be a lot more detailed about how we do our work. And it's culturally, you know, most of our stuff is culturally, tailored too. So, yep. gotta like, kind of be ready for that. So, my message to any client that I work with, pharma hospital wise.

If you're not ready to work with me, don't even waste your time speaking to me. if you actually want to get out to these communities, then we can have a conversation. If not, we're not gonna do it. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah, you wanna work with people who actually do really wanna help these communities, these underserved communities, underrepresented communities.

 definitely something I have to like, keep in mind too, as I do my work and what I hear from when I hear you talking about. The work that Eye Health Network is doing is you are trying to bring intentionality into the conversation. you are going to sit and intentionally say, okay, what are your goals?

How is it gonna be best to reach these communities? I think that it makes so much sense to have a tailored message for each community, because I am learning every day how different our communities are. different groups need different things, and that is, know, of course that's health equity, right?

Like you wanna meet people where they are, give them what they need so everyone can, needs can be met. A 

Nicholas Jackson: hundred percent. And that was the thing too, is that, you know, when I first kind of got into this space, I've done a lot of like health equity work within the black community, but working in that space, and is also part of my brand too, is figuring out that, all these communities is not the same thing.

 in our community, obviously it's more of the trust factor, but you go into like the Polynesian community, it is not even trust. It's just hasn't been any work done simply as that. Like there's just no awareness. 

Dr. Ren: I mean, honestly, Nick, I've found that awareness is really huge in our community too, a lot of times, again, this keeps coming up in my conversations, the whole fact that our community is just not being asked to be involved in clinical trials or, you Honestly that keeps coming up because, and I think it might be a bigger issue than this trust issue. the field has always been kinda leaning toward it being a trust issue.

 but I really think that it's more like awareness and not really knowing how to navigate. To get to a clinical trial. and I feel like your media company could help with that. 'cause you could put together a campaign that where you can lead the community to how to get involved in research and, share why it's valuable and all of that.

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah. And then to kind of speak on that point, 'cause you know, I've been in this space, for a minute already, you know, for different companies before, but the issue like on the clinical trial side, right? when, you know, we hear like, hey, we're not being asked to be in these trials.

Right? What I've noticed is that a lot of companies will come to me and, have, can say, Hey, we wanna broadcast this clinical trial with you, right? And they come in and say, Hey, this trial has enrollment in. March. We're gonna start in February. 

Dr. Ren: Okay. And 

Nicholas Jackson: then once the trial's over, we shake hands, you got your payment.

Cool, cool. we're all like left each other, right? I'm like, that's horrible. I'm like, that's 

Dr. Ren: horrible. That's 

Nicholas Jackson: horrible. Simple as that. If you want to like broadcast a, a trial, right? That starts in, you know, let's say may. You should have been marketing before. Come on, a year before. And I'm not saying like bring it up to but no, let them know you're in the community.

Right? So start with that and just go for a whole year campaign. You don't have to spend a lot of money. I'm not telling you that, but you just show that you just came in to just get some numbers and leave. You need to show that actually here for this community, that's what they're looking for.

That's right. And that's what I've seen has been the biggest issue, on our side, obviously. it's just, you know, they said like, Hey, we just gotta come and go instead of just come and stay. 

Dr. Ren: Wow. So, yes, education. ' cause you can start there so one of the things I continue to say in this field and to the, sponsors that I talked to and the, 

People are interested in working with us is that, yeah, you can't just come into the community and leave and you can't just come when you need to be there or, when you're willing, you wanna ask for something, you know, you have to come early.

And you have to kind of sit and be there and be present, understand the community, find out what they needs, are all that. Share education with them, feed them, serve them in that space. So then act like you care, you know, a little bit, you know, even if it's an act, Hey, let's do better with acting. You know, even if it's an act.

Nicholas Jackson: I don't need a, I don't need a lie for me, trust me, I don't. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah. even if it's a act. Do better with the acting because it's like. you have to come early. You have to act like you care for us. and the thing about it is our communities have been through so much. There's been so much injustices, so many things that have happened to us that are, we're sensitive.

Okay? and it's okay that we sensitive, but we're sensitive for a reason. we're sensitive because of those injustices. And now, hey, we can spot a fake. Real easy. We know when you doing something that you really wanna do and when you're just doing it to check a box. 

Nicholas Jackson: Right. 

Dr. Ren: and that's what I'm trying to get across to, um.

 the field and the people working in the field is that, hey, these are human beings. You know what I mean? We have to do what is going to be best for them and serve them, and yes, get the information out to them just because. And so then when you do have an ask. You've already built that trust. You've already been there.

And then they won't, look at you sideways when you come through the door. 

Nicholas Jackson: Hundred percent. 

Dr. Ren: You know? I mean, that's just what it's like, okay. I know we just talked about what kind of the experiences you've had with researchers. I think you explained kind of what experience you wanna have with these companies, right?

Like, you wanna be able to come in and kind of break down things. to help them with their media and reaching their communities. Give me an example, or like kinda walk through exactly what your ideal type of partnership, with a research company or a sponsor.

 what does that look like ideally for you? 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah, ideally like a great sponsor is, first we talk about like the empathy side. Right. You know, make sure that you're doing this for the right reasons, that you're empathetic with the community, X, Y, and Z. and then I'm gonna go into the consulting piece, know that we're partners together, right?

you may be my client, but you know, it's not as simple like, you tell me what to do when I do it. You know, we're working together to get this done. 

Dr. Ren: Yep. 

Nicholas Jackson: and then three, I'm not saying like, you know, I don't want somebody that's like cheap or anything, but like I want, you know, a client that actually understands that, we need to do all these things together, not just one or two of these things.

That way that this works is that you need to do everything all in one. Right? that's the way this thing works out, right? So, as a client that can understand that, we need to, like, this is not a easy job to do. You need to work with us. it is gonna work out for you at end and day, but, you know, this is not like a, working with I Health Network's, not a checkbox.

Dr. Ren: yeah, you 

Nicholas Jackson: want a check box, go somewhere else, but Yeah. Um, you know, if you actually want to work, you need to roll your sleeves. Let's work with us. And that's, that's the, you know, that's what we're looking for. People that can like, work hard with us. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah. And so how long would you suggest a company working with iHealth Network in that space?

Is it something where they bring you on as like their media platform, period, like this is who we come to for media, for the life of our organization, or can you do it as a project based type thing? Where you coming to just for a certain project? And working with us and if it is project based, what ideally how long to make an impact, how long should that project be that you're working with me?

Nicholas Jackson: that's so many different ways that you could work with us, know, if it's the clinical trial side, if it's the, product on the market side, if it's a advocacy kind of project or something like that. Right. I would say that. It is really possible to work with us and do mostly all your marketing with us because we have so many different channels that you can market with, okay.

Except 

Dr. Ren: tv. 

Nicholas Jackson: So realistically, you can honestly give us a, portion of your budget and then give the rest of TV or whatever the case printed billboards or something like that, right? 

Dr. Ren: Mm-hmm. 

Nicholas Jackson: But I would not suggest using us for everything. I would not suggest that at all.

Okay. I think the best way is always to be diverse within you know, your budgeting and all that. Okay. but realistically, because we do monopolize a lot of current day. media, if you really wanted to, you, you could. I would always suggest, you know, work with other people too.

 what if we don't work with Right. still, work with the tv, still try, other. Media outlets. That's cool. but really you could, but I would never say anybody works just with us, honestly. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah. I guess I was one more so thinking like, one of the challenges that we have is that, we have projects that come to us and we have six months to work on it.

Like we have a six month project where we are coming, we have events in the community. we have our safe space is available and our study buddies available while we are in that six month period. But then after that six month period, it goes away because now the project is done. We don't have funding anymore.

 is that kind of how it could be for the media work? I mean, where you have a six month project and you push out this media, but then it goes away. that, is very challenging for me because I always say like, wow, how am I gonna keep building trust in the community if it goes away?

 if after six months it goes away. 

Nicholas Jackson: Right. So, and And that part is really challenging because you can do the six more project, imagine your next project's not till like a year from now, right? Yeah. Just like gone stagnant. there's certain things that we can work with to just, you know, still keep the name going, obviously, at very minimum.

that's the thing too, like. any client I work with, I don't wanna just say like, alright, you need to do amillion marketing points every month with me. Ah, no, I'm saying like, okay, when you're in a serious time, we could do a lot more. But when there's nothing really going on, just right, we can of, just let's just hear your name a little bit.

That's what we want. Take 

Dr. Ren: it down Uhhuh. Okay. 

Nicholas Jackson: And we can take it down a lot, honestly. Mm-hmm. but we just need to hear your name a few times, throughout the week. That's cool. But we don't have to do as much, honestly. 

Dr. Ren: Yeah, I like that. I like that. I like that because that's something that. in those times for diverse research.

Now what we do is even if we're not working with the partner anymore more now, we actually have a whole community of people that say if it was a lupus. project. Now we have a whole community of people that have lupus that still need us, right? And so what we have done is they actually come into our family and we actually still engage with them.

Even if we don't have a project, we are still telling them about, the things that we are doing and we're still inviting them to certain things we're still offering, to find them a study if they need it, you know? Right. So. I agree with the, it's something has to be set up in a way.

Well, the work has to be set up in a way where you are not just leaving the community after these projects are over. Right. I mean, yeah, that's gonna be a part of the trust building. 

Nicholas Jackson: Right. And that's beautiful. Yeah. You know, maybe help them find other trials. Something, 

Dr. Ren: yeah, 

Nicholas Jackson: But yeah, that's, even that is just like beautiful in itself, honestly. So, yeah. 

Dr. Ren: Okay. So tell me, in five to 10 years, Nick, what does the impact look like for your brand? Like, what do you wanna see? Like five to 10 years, what are you seeing the goal? 

Nicholas Jackson: Yeah. more people of color in hospitals, in clinical trials.

 well in hospitalizing, like getting early access to treatments and all that. Mm-hmm. Uh, but outside of like hospital beds, right. and then there, I will quit as soon as this happens, but once I find out that life medicine gap closes 

Dr. Ren: Yes.

Nicholas Jackson: For the next day. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take over and then day we're gonna take over all of healthcare marketing, I believe. You know, I think it's, we have the strongest platform, to date. and yeah, that's the other side of it. But, you know, my real currency for me is, 

 the work done, the impact. I've been asked this obviously, 'cause you know, we're an investor, you know, I think you and I are both an investor runs obviously, but, um mm-hmm. they asked me, you know, what's your currency? business model?

I say, if somebody comes up to me and tells me that I have network saved their life, I'm good to go. Just 

Dr. Ren: come on. I just need 

Nicholas Jackson: one of those. I just need one of those and I'll be good to go. 

Dr. Ren: I love it. Excellent. Yes. Yes. agree with you. We connect because of that. 'cause we both just wanna bring better health to our community.

 that's what it's all about for me. It's what it's all about for you. so, yeah. thank you so much Nick. I appreciate you being here. If you all want to work with Nick, we will have his information. in the notes of this episode and yeah, we so appreciate you and we can't wait to see Eye Health Network out there blasted out.

Nicholas Jackson: Thank you, Dr. Rain. Yeah, I'm excited. My, it's been a lot of work, but I'm excited myself, thank you for, showcasing us, you know? This is awesome. 

Dr. Ren: Of course. All right. Take care.