ASCO congratulates Chief Medical Officer Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FASCO, on his recent election to the Board of Directors of the Reagan-Udall Foundation (RUF) for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). RUF is an independent not-for-profit organization created by Congress for the purpose of advancing regulatory science—the science of developing the tools and methods that the agency uses to evaluate whether the products it regulates are effective and safe for consumers—to provide critical support to the mission of the FDA.

Dr. Schilsky is an ASCO Past President (2008-9) and has served on the Society’s Board of Directors, Government Relations Committee, and Cancer Research Committee, among numerous other volunteer activities.

“I am honored and excited to be elected to the RUF Board and to have an opportunity to serve with a distinguished group of colleagues,” Dr. Schilsky said. “The FDA is one of our most important public health agencies and the primary mechanism through which new treatments are delivered to patients. The RUF supports the mission of the FDA and seeks to strengthen the agency by helping to establish the scientific underpinning for creation and revision of regulatory policy. Serving on the RUF Board brings together my interests in drug development, clinical trials, and health policy and gives me the opportunity to apply my experience to support the critical work of the FDA.”

In order to accomplish its mission, RUF’s primary functions include:

• fostering research collaborations involving public and private partners;
• ensuring broad-based participation (including consumer perspectives), and that new knowledge gained from the collaboration is in the public domain;
• helping to train a new generation of regulatory scientists; and
• leveraging resources for these activities.

Of the many initiatives undertaken by the RUF, Dr. Schilsky is particularly interested in having an impact on the development of the Innovation in Medical Evidence and Surveillance (IMEDS) Program during his term on the Board of Directors.

“IMEDS seeks to use observational clinical data to detect and understand drug adverse events. This program shares some goals with ASCO’s CancerLinQ^TM [a rapid learning system for oncology] currently in development. My hope is that these two projects can be mutually reinforcing to bring the power of ‘big data’ to improve public health,” Dr. Schilsky said.