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Howard Markel, MD, PhD

JAMA. 2005;294:2489-2491.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In a nation revered for its great social institutions, it might be difficult for many to choose a top 10 list, let alone a top contender, of the greatest American experiments. Some would immediately name the 3 branches of the federal government and its system of checks and balances; others might point to public libraries and schools that, historically, have facilitated education and a better life for all who partake of them; and many would cite the tradition of welcoming newcomers to US shores, making this country, as Walt Whitman once mused, "a nation of nations."¹

Yet one critical American idea that garners too little credit for a century of arduous public health surveillance, regulation, and scientific inquiry is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the federal government’s first regulatory agency dedicated to protecting the health and welfare of the individual citizen.² Given recent events, this . . . [Full Text of this Article]

The FDA Today

Author Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and Center for the History of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor.