Spread the Word

The FDA has taken what I believe to be an important step to increase public awareness of what exactly the agency does by creating a section of their website called "FDA Basics."  The idea behind this website is that most people don't really know what all the FDA does and how the FDA does its job.  It looks like a work in progress, but it does have a section on "drugs," which contains some information about the drug approval process as well as enrolling in clinical trials. 

Research sites should take advantage of this resource and use it to not only inform site staff of the FDA's functions, but also present it to potential trial participants as a free educational public outreach tool.  Clinical trial sites are always struggling to find better ways to inform the public on research studies.  Often the problem is not getting word out via advertising, but rather actually educating people on how and why clinical trials work.  It's important to remember that a critical part of informed consent is the actual "informed" part, which may be detailed in descriptions about a study but could be lacking on a description of the "big picture" of clinical research.  That's where this new website from the FDA can help: it has the potential to offer information direct to participants straight from the top regulatory authority in this country.  I think that the site could stand to have more detailed clinical trial background information, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Feel free to share the site on your websites or in your conversations with staff and potential participants:

http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Basics