Author: National Institutes of Health

Publisher:

Published: 2002-07-17

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 9781469971025

NIH Consensus Development and State-of-the-Science Conferences are convened to evaluate the available scientific evidence on a given biomedical or public health topic, often with the purpose of resolving a particular controversial issue in clinical or public health practice. The resulting NIH Consensus and State-of the-Science Statements are intended to advance understanding of the issue in question and to be useful to health professionals and the public for informed decision-making. Each NIH Consensus or State-of-the Science Statement is prepared by a nonadvocate, non-Federal panel of experts, based on (1) presentations by investigators working in areas relevant to the consensus questions during a 2-day public session; (2) questions and statements from conference attendees during open discussion periods that are part of the public session; and (3) closed deliberations by the panel during the remainder of the second day and morning of the third. This statement is an independent report of the panel and is not a policy statement of the NIH or the Federal Government. The statement reflects the panel's assessment of medical knowledge available at the time the statement was written. Thus, it provides a "snapshot in time" of the state of knowledge on the conference topic. When reading the statement, keep in mind that new knowledge is inevitably accumulating through medical research.