October 11, 2007
Betsy Sleath, PhD, an associate professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received a three-year appointment to the Food and Drug Administration Risk Communication Advisory Committee.
The committee was formed in June 2007 to advise the agency on ways to improve communication with the public about the risks and benefits of FDA-regulated products. The establishment of the advisory committee was one of the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine’s 2006 report, “The Future of Drug Safety: Promoting and Protecting the Health of the Public.”
The committee’s responsibilities include
- helping the FDA better understand the public’s communication needs and priorities,
- advising the agency on the development of strategic plans to communicate product risks and benefits, and
- making recommendations, based on current research, on how to craft and deliver risk-and-benefit messages to audiences.
The committee has fifteen voting members, who are either experts or public members. The experts include authorities who are knowledgeable in risk communication, social marketing, health literacy, cultural competency, journalism, bioethics, and other relevant behavioral and social sciences. Public members, meanwhile, provide the perspectives of consumers, patients, caregivers, and health professionals. Industry representatives may be invited to some meetings as nonvoting participants. The committee’s first meeting is expected to be held in the first quarter of 2008.
Sleath, who was nominated for the committee by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, studies communication between health-care providers and patients and how that impacts adherence to medication, mental health, and quality of life.
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