"[P]eople acting in a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about." - FDR

News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room

Monday, June 04, 2007

FDA to Establish Panel on Risk Communication

FDA has announced the creation of an advisory panel which will aid agency officials in communicating food and drug safety risks to the public. Last year, the Institute of Medicine recommended Congress pass legislation creating such a panel.

FDA should be applauded being proactive on the recommendation. During recent food and drug safety crises, FDA has seemed unwilling or unable to allay public fears with immediate communications and relevant information. Establishing this panel has the benefit of being both good politics and good policy.

But policy and politics don't always get along so well. Members of this panel will need to be unbiased and apolitical in their assessments of food and drug safety and the need for public outreach. Even so, because political officials will likely be doing most of the actual communicating, the potential for politically-motivated cover-ups remains.

The Institute of Medicine report states:

The expertise needed on the advisory committee may include consumer and patient perspectives…risk communication, health literacy, social marketing expertise, public relations expertise, social sciences expertise with an emphasis on qualitative research and survey science, journalism, and ethics.

Even if FDA improves its regulatory actions and post-market surveillance, drug and food safety problems are inevitable. America needs a trusted voice in these situations. One of the roles of government should be to provide that voice.