US FDA chief looks back on 2008

In his weekly "My Take" blog on the US Food and Drug Administration's web site, Andrew von Eschenbach, who will soon be relinquishing his post  as Commissioner in the incoming Barack Obama administration, gave his  annual self-appraisal of what had been achieved during the past year,  which he says is a useful exercise for government entities such as the  FDA.

He said: "when I arrived at FDA more than three years ago, I set five  priorities or resolutions. They were to prepare the agency for strong  performance in the case of a public health emergency; improve the FDA's  internal and external communications; maximize the use of electronic  data and insights provided by projects in personalized medicine, like  the Human Genome Project; continue the implementation of modern  scientific tools for regulation in medical products through our agencies  our agency's Critical Path Initiative; and advance the FDA's outreach  globally to ensure that imported food and drugs measure up to the United  States' standards."

In his January 2 message, he claims that "the progress that we've made  toward all of these goals now serves as a New Year's resolution to do  even more."