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The Power of New Information in Risk-Based Decision Making

The Power of New Information in Risk-Based Decision Making . Don L. Zink, Ph.D. Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition U.S. Food and Drug Administration College, Park, MD. Some Observations on New Information.

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The Power of New Information in Risk-Based Decision Making

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  1. The Power of New Information in Risk-Based Decision Making Don L. Zink, Ph.D. Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition U.S. Food and Drug Administration College, Park, MD

  2. Some Observations on New Information • “True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.” – Winston Churchill • “Information is not knowledge.” – Albert Einstein • “I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.” – Margaret Mead • Information is new when you find it or figure out how to use it – even if its been right under your nose all along.

  3. Using Old Information in New Ways • Castleberry botulism Outbreak • The first low acid canned food botulism outbreak due to commercially canned foods in more than 30 years • Caused by under-processing on a retort system that is technically sophisticated • The outbreak led FDA to find new ways to use some old databases to identify potentially problem canners

  4. Crateless Retort* * Graphic image from http://www.maloinc.com/photo-retort.htm

  5. Crateless Retort* * Graphic image from http://www.maloinc.com/crateless-process.htm

  6. Awash in Information! • The case of “whole genome sequencing” (WGS) • We can now sequence the bacterial genome quickly and cheaply • Each sequence amounts to 4 – 5 million base pairs • The sequence is the key to all the bacterium can do: its virulence, antibiotic resistance, serotype, phage type and even its family tree

  7. Using Genomics Information • Will WGS ultimately replace strain identification technologies such as serotyping and even PFGE? • Can we use WGS to augment epidemiological investigations? • Can use WGS to tell us where bacterial strains originate? • Can we use WGS data to design molecular probes that will let us more rapidly detect specific pathogens?

  8. Summary • Our world is changing faster than ever before and large databases and powerful software analytical tools will drive this change. • We need to spend more time discussing how we can share and use data • We cannot let technological capability get far ahead of ability to analyze the data

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