While we may not think of the Food & Drug Administration as having a significant impact on nursing and direct patient care, the FDA recently announced several “regulatory science” initiatives designed to employ technology to achieve major improvements in patient therapy and protection of the public health. These also touch on several issues of particular interest to the ANA, including improved patient outcomes, informatics, nanotechnology, stem cell research, tobacco regulation, food safety, and increased partnerships in research and academia.

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With recent news of excessive, harmful radiation from medical imaging procedures, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration announced on February 9, 2010 an initiative to decrease unnecessary exposure from computed tomography (CT) scans, nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopy. These contribute substantially to total radiation exposure, with much higher radiation than standard and dental X-rays, and mammography.

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