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.

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  Crisis Standards of Care: Summary of a Workshop Series Released: November 17, 2009

  Public health emergencies underscore the critical need to prepare for a crisis in which many thousands of people suddenly require and seek medical care. Without careful advance planning and coordination, there is enormous potential for confusion, chaos, and flawed decision-making. To address these concerns, the Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events hosted a series of regional workshops, summarized in this report.
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  Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence Released: October 15, 2009

  Evidence suggests that exposure to secondhand smoke also can result in adverse health effects. In its 2009 report, Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence, an IOM committee concluded that data consistently demonstrates that secondhand-smoke exposure increases the risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks and that smoking bans reduce heart attacks.
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  Accelerating the Development of Biomarkers for Drug Safety. Workshop Summary Released: June 19, 2009

  Biomarkers can be defined as indicators of any biologic state, and they are central to the future of medicine. As the cost of developing drugs has risen in recent years, reducing the number of new drugs approved for use, biomarker development may be a way to cut costs, enhance safety, and provide a more focused and rational pathway to drug development. On October 24, 2008, the IOM’s Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation held “Assessing and Accelerating Development of Biomarkers for Drug Safety,” a one-day workshop on the value of biomarkers in helping to determine drug safety during development.
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  Effectiveness of National Biosurveillance Systems: BioWatch and the Public Health System. Interim Report Released: February 6, 2009

  For many years, concerns about bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases have drawn attention to the need for strong surveillance systems. Experts are working to develop new and better ways to detect these biological threats as quickly as possible. One effort in this area is the Department of Homeland Security’s BioWatch program. To evaluate the effectiveness of the BioWatch program, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) convened the Committee on Effectiveness of National Biosurveillance Systems: BioWatch and the Public Health System. This interim report contains no findings and recommendations, but outlines the committee’s initial progress.
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  State of the USA Health Indicators. Letter Report Released: December 9, 2008

  In 2008, SUSA asked the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the State of the USA Health Indicators to provide guidance on 20 key indicators to be used on the organization’s website that would be valuable in assessing health. Taken together, the selected indicators reflect the overall health of the nation and the efficiency and efficacy of U.S. health systems. The complete list of 20 can be found in the report brief and report.
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  HHS in the 21st Century: Charting a New Course for a Healthier America Released: December 9, 2008

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—which boasts the largest budget of any federal department, spending approximately 2 billion dollars a day—profoundly affects the lives of all Americans. At the request of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the IOM’s December 2008 report HHS in the 21st Century assesses whether HHS is “ideally organized” to meet the enduring and emerging health challenges facing our nation.
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  Military Medical Ethics: Issues Regarding Dual Loyalties. Workshop Summary Released: November 20, 2008

  Military health professionals, as all health professionals, are ethically responsible for their patients’ well-being. In some situations, however, military health professionals can face unique ethical tensions between responsibilities to individual patients and responsibilities to military operations. This report summarizes the one-day workshop, Military and Medical Ethics: Issues Regarding Dual Loyalties, which brought together academic, military, human rights, and health professionals to discuss these ethical challenges.
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  From Molecules to Minds: Challenges for the 21st Century. Workshop Summary Released: September 29, 2008

  On June 25, 2008, the IOM Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders hosted more than 70 of the leading neuroscientists in the world, for a workshop titled From Molecules to Minds: Challenges for the 21st Century. The objective of the workshop was to explore a set of common goals or “Grand Challenges” posed by participants that could inspire and rally both the scientific community and the public to consider the possibilities for neuroscience in the 21st century.
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  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.
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  Review of ATSDR's Great Lakes Report Drafts. Letter Report Released: September 5, 2008

  The Institute of Medicine (IOM) letter report Review Of ATSDR’s Great Lakes Report Drafts presents the details of an IOM committee’s evaluation of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) unofficial report drafts looking at health and pollution data from the Great Lakes region, of ATSDR’s response to review, as well as of the concerns of the Office of the Director of ATSDR and the Office of the Director of the Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention (CCEHIP).