Earlier this month the Food and Drug Administration unveiled the first phase of its Transparency Initiative, a new program designed to help explain how the agency operates, makes decisions, and approves drugs. This marks the first phase of FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s plan enhance the transparency of the FDA’s operations and decision-making processes. “This initiative will make information about the FDA more user-friendly and accessible to the public,” said Dr. Hamburg. “It fosters a better understanding about what we do.”

The initiative includes the launch of FDA Basics, a new website created to help the public better understand what the agency does. In the future the Commissioner’s Transparency Initiative task force will make recommendations on how to make information about agency activities more transparent, useful, and understandable to the public and how to improve the FDA’s transparency to regulated industries.

Find out more on the FDA website.