FDA Releases Communication Plan

WASHINGTONThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued its Strategic Plan for Risk Communication, which outlines the agencys efforts to disseminate more meaningful public health information, including food safety.

The plan also lays out a framework for the FDA to provide information about FDA-regulated products to healthcare professionals, patients and consumers in the form they need it and when they need it, and for how the agency oversees industry communications. The plan also focuses on improving two-way communication through enhanced partnerships with government and non-government organizations, and focuses on policies that affect areas of high public health impact.

The plan defines three key areasFDAs science base, its operational capacity and its policy and processesin which strategic actions can help improve the FDAs communication about the risks and benefits of regulated products. The plan also identifies more than 70 specific actions for the FDA to take over the next five years, including 14 that the agency commits to accomplishing over the next year.