Wrap-Up and Potential Future Actions Mary J. Bartholomew, Mathematical Statistician Center for Veterinary Medicine Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Symposium on Data Collection and Utilization in Risk Assessments and Management Decisions September 14, 2004

Presenters Bob Buchanan - CFSAN Bob Buchanan - CFSAN v Peg Coleman – Syracuse Research v Martin Cole – IIT v John Luchansky – USDA/ARS/ERRC v Yuhuan Chen, Jenny Scott – National Food Processors Association v Richard Whiting – CFSAN v Perry Chumley – US Army VCS

u In a transition phase u More data being collected specifically to fill gaps in risk assessments u More potential data collectors thinking about how to collect data that will be useful in risk assessment Data Collection

Simultaneously RAC and others strive to define characteristics of good and useful data u OMB – Information Quality Act u Do these definitions apply to data collected and used in RAs? v Quality: utility, objectivity, and integrity v Utility: reproducibility and transparency

Review of Characteristics for Utility for Risk Assessment and Management Decisions u Relevancy – v Dick Whiting: How pertinent is this data to this particular assessment? v Yuhuan Chen, Jenny Scott: For the risk management decision? u Representativeness – v Peg Coleman: Accounting for confounders and in the population of interest

Review of Characteristics for Utility for Risk Assessment and Management Decisions u Robustness – Consistent performance for multiple investigators u Generalizability or external validity – predictions consistent with other data u Internal validity – soundness of conclusions

Review of Characteristics for Utility for Risk Assessment and Management Decisions u Defensibility – use consistent with other scientific evidence u Accounting for data quality, variability, and uncertainty

Potential Future Actions  Continue to hone the list of characteristics and the definitions for each one  Tie in with data quality definitions  Develop a written document  Risk assessors and managers  Peer reviewers

All This in the Context of a Project with Well-defined Goals and a Well-defined Scope