The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US has announced its strategic plan for 2010-2014. According to the report, Americans spend about $25 billion a year on dietary supplements, an area upon which the ODS is focusing its efforts.
Some highlights of the report are listed below:
_______________________
Our efforts are centered on dietary supplements, products that the majority of Americans take and on which they spend about $25 billion a year. At least 50,000 products are available that contain vitamins and minerals, herbs and botanicals, and other ingredients such as glucosamine, fish oils, and probiotics. Yet for many of these dietary supplements, there are questions about their effectiveness and safety.
For almost 15 years, ODS has worked to answer such questions. The ODS mission is to strengthen the knowledge and understanding of dietary supplements by evaluating scientific information, stimulating and supporting research, disseminating research results, and educating the public to foster an enhanced quality of life and health for the U.S. population. While our mission has remained constant, our goals and objectives, described in this strategic plan, have evolved as new issues of high priority have emerged.
ODS’s priorities will reflect input from Congress, federal partners, the scientific community, industry, and the public.
Vision
The vision of ODS is that consumers, health professionals, government officials, and other policy makers will have ready access to scientific information of the highest quality on the health effects of dietary supplements.
Strategic goals for 2010–2014
The ultimate goal of ODS-sponsored activities and programs is to provide science-based information about dietary supplements that relates to health promotion and disease prevention. ODS will accomplish this by continually evaluating current science, identifying gaps in the knowledge base, seeking relevant research strategies and tools to fill those gaps, and translating research into useful information. ODS will measure the results by the number of grants funded, research tools developed, information pieces written, initiatives and workshops developed by staff, and manuscripts published by staff. ODS will assess the impact of these results over time as they inform policy on dietary supplements and influence health practices.
Based on the input from ODS’s federal partners and other stakeholders, ODS has consolidated its strategic goals to guide the activities of the office over the next five years.
Goal 1: Provide intellectual leadership by fostering research to analyze and evaluate the role of dietary supplements in promoting health and reducing the risk of disease.
Goal 2: Expand the general scientific knowledge base on dietary supplements by funding new research and training.
Goal 3: Support the development of research tools for the study of dietary supplements.
Goal 4: Make the most up-to-date scientific knowledge about dietary supplements publicly available.
SOURCE: ODS NIH Report
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment