About Reports

IOM reports provide objective and straightforward advice to decision makers and the public. This site includes IOM reports published after 1998. All reports from the IOM and the National Academies, including those published before 1998, are available from the National Academies Press.

• 
  Focusing on Children’s Health: Community Approaches to Addressing Health Disparities. Workshop Summary Released: September 2, 2009

  Socioeconomic conditions are known to have profound and long-term effects on health at all stages of life, from pregnancy through childhood and adulthood. Sensitive and critical periods of development, such as the prenatal period and early childhood, present significant opportunities to influence lifelong health. Yet simply intervening in the health care system is insufficient to influence health outcomes early in life. On January 24, 2008, the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Disparities and Board on Children, Youth, and Families cohosted a public workshop to discuss the important foundations of adult health that are laid prenatally and in early childhood.
• 
  Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data: Standardization for Health Care Quality Improvement Released: August 31, 2009

  The quality of health care in the United States is not optimal, and the pace of improvement is slow. In addition, disparities persist for specific population groups. A fundamental step in identifying which populations are most at risk is to col¬lect data on race, ethnicity, and English-language proficiency. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) formed the Subcommittee on Standardized Col¬lection of Race/Ethnicity Data for Healthcare Quality Improvement to examine ap¬proaches to standardization. In its 2009 report, Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data: Standardization for Health Care Quality Improvement, the subcommittee recommends collection of more granular ethnicity and language need according to national standards in addition to OMB race and Hispanic ethnicity categories.
• 
  Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations Released: June 26, 2009

  The health and economic costs of tobacco use in military and veteran populations are high. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) make recommendations on how to reduce tobacco initiation and encourage cessation in both military and veteran populations. In its 2009 report Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations, the authoring committee concludes that to prevent tobacco initiation and encourage cessa¬tion, both DoD and VA should implement comprehensive tobacco-control programs.
• 
  The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts. Workshop Summary Released: June 25, 2009

  In the United States, people living in low-income neighborhoods frequently do not have access to affordable healthy food venues, such as supermarkets. Instead, those living in “food deserts” must rely on convenience stores and small neighborhood stores that offer few, if any, healthy food choices, such as fruits and vegetables. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) convened a two-day workshop on January 26-27, 2009, to provide input into a Congressionally-mandated food deserts study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. The workshop provided a forum in which to discuss the public health effects of food deserts.
• 
  Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First. Workshop Summary Released: March 24, 2009

  There is great enthusiasm over the use of emerging interactive health information technologies—often referred to as eHealth—and the potential these technologies have to improve the quality, capacity, and efficiency of the health care system. However, many doctors, advocacy groups, policy makers and consumers are concerned that electronic health systems might help individuals and communities with greater resources while leaving behind those with limited access to technology. In order to address this problem, the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy held a workshop.
• 
  Toward Health Equity and Patient-Centeredness: Integrating Health Literacy, Disparities Reduction, and Quality Improvement. Workshop Summary Released: February 23, 2009

  During a time of economic uncertainty, the national discussion of health reform understandably focuses on insurance coverage and cost. To receive the greatest value for health care, it is important to focus on issues of quality and disparity, and the ability of individuals to make appropriate decisions based on basic health knowledge and services, or health literacy. Three IOM bodies (the Forum on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation, the Roundtable on Health Disparities, and the Roundtable on Health Literacy) jointly convened a workshop to discuss these concerns.
• 
  Adolescent Health Services: Missing Opportunities Released: December 9, 2008

  Adolescence is a time when youth establish health habits, both good and bad, that often last a lifetime. Yet the U.S. health care system today is not designed to help young people develop healthy routines, behaviors, and relationships to prepare them for adulthood. Adolescent Health Services examines the health status of adolescents and reviews the separate and uncoordinated programs and services that currently exist in multiple public and private health care settings.
• 
  The National Children's Study Research Plan: A Review Released: September 12, 2008

  The National Children s Study (NCS) is planned to be the largest long-term study of environmental and genetic effects on children s health ever conducted in the United States. By archiving all of the data collected, the NCS is intended to provide a valuable resource for analyses conducted many years into the future. This report evaluates the research plan for the NCS, by assessing the scientific rigor of the study and the extent to which it is being carried out with methods, measures, and collection of data and specimens to maximize the scientific yield of the study.
• 
  Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How Released: August 8, 2008

  Growing interest in publicly funded programs for young children has drawn attention to whether and how Head Start and other early childhood programs should be asked to prove their worth. Congress asked the National Research Council for guidance on how to identify important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and how best to assess them in preschools, child care, and other early childhood programs. The Research Council's new report concludes that well-planned assessments can inform teaching and efforts to improve programs and can contribute to better outcomes for children, but poor assessments or misuse of the results can harm both children and programs. The report offers principles to guide the design, implementation, and use of assessments in early childhood settings.
• 
  Assessment of the Role of Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Malaria in Infants. Letter Report Released: July 10, 2008

  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) conduct an independent assessment of the IPTi efficacy studies using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTi-SP) that have been previously conducted by the IPTi Consortium. The IOM convened a committee to evaluate the evidence concerning IPTi-SP, which included addressing issues related to its utility and safety, as well as program management aspects of IPTi. The resulting letter report contains the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the IOM committee.