The FDA and Risk Communication

The FDA This Week: Andy's Take, is written by  Randall Lutter, Ph.D., Deputy Commissioner for Policy of the Food and Drug Administration.  His focus is on the importance of risk communication, and his take is that that activity is as important as any other undertaken by the FDA, but that the FDA can better take advantage of the science of risk communication to promote better decision-making by consumers.  The FDA's recently created Risk Communication Advisory Committee met last Friday for the last time this year.  The Committee made several recommendations that will help enhance FDA's risk communication activities. The recommendations advised the FDA us to treat risk communication as a core activity and to plan and provide resources to support it, as well as to take advantage of outside expertise to obtain the research necessary to ensure that risk communications are grounded in scientific standards. They also advised development of a process to involve both the public and healthcare professionals in deciding how we communicate with the public.  The FDA has created an internal Communications Council to act on the Advisory Committee's advice.

MKS