NIH: Office of Disease Prevention

The Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)—established at NIH in 1986—works to increase the scope, quality, dissemination, and impact of prevention research by means of a comprehensive approach outlined in the 2014–2018 Strategic Plan.

Tobacco Regulatory Science Program

Located within the ODP, the Tobacco Regulatory Science Program (TRSP) is a trans-NIH collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). TRSP facilitates NIH research to provide the scientific evidence the FDA needs for the development and evaluation of its tobacco regulatory activities. TRSP issues funding opportunities in tobacco regulatory science on behalf of the FDA and participating NIH Institutes.

On May 5, 2016, the FDA issued its final deeming rule to extend its authorities to all categories of products that meet the statutory definition of "tobacco product" in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, except accessories of such newly deemed tobacco products. In addition to products already regulated by the FDA (i.e., cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco), newly deemed products subject to regulation include cigars, pipe tobacco, hookah (waterpipe) tobacco, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems or ENDS (e.g., e-cigarettes, vape pens), gels, and certain dissolvable tobacco products. This final "deeming" rule also prohibits the sale of "covered tobacco products" to individuals under the age of 18 and requires the display of health warnings on cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and covered tobacco product packages and in advertisements. The FDA is taking this action to reduce death and disease from tobacco products, and the NIH TRSP will continue to support the research base needed to meet this goal.

Portfolio Analysis

The ODP has made progress toward achieving its strategic plan's goals by charting research directions at the NIH. One example is the development of new portfolio analysis tools. At the heart of this effort is a new taxonomy—or way of categorizing prevention research—and an accompanying protocol to enable an accurate, standardized classification of grant abstracts. This taxonomy is being manually applied to thousands of research grant abstracts and validated by custom software called the Prevention Abstract Classification Tool (PACT).

Resources for Researchers

The ODP recently launched the Resources for Researchers web portal to connect investigators with helpful tools at the NIH. Researchers who access these pages will find information about the following topics: Finding NIH-Funded Research, Applying for NIH Funding, Methods-Related Funding Opportunity Announcements, Prevention-Related Programs, Offices, and Divisions, Prevention-Related Study Sections, Prevention Research Articles, Prevention Research Needs and Gaps, NIH Training Opportunities in Prevention Research Methods, and Dissemination and Implementation.

Programs and Events

Medicine: Mind the Gap is a seminar series that explores research design, measurement, intervention, data analysis, and other methods of interest to prevention science. As part of a 3-part series on disease prevention screening, Dr. Ruth B. Etzioni will present Topic #3, “Overdiagnosis in Cancer Screening: Overcoming Challenges, Avoiding Mistakes,” on November 18, 2016. Dr. David C. Grossman presented Topic #2, “Guidelines for Screening in Children,” and an NIH VideoCast of this presentation is now available. Dr. David F. Ransohoff presented Topic #1, “Making Guidelines for Colon Cancer Screening: Evidence, Policy, and Politics”, and an NIH VideoCast of this presentation is now available.

The Pathways to Prevention (P2P) workshops identify research gaps and develop recommendations to move fields of research forward. The Panel's final report from the P2P Workshop, Advancing Research To Prevent Youth Suicide is now available.

The Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Lecture in Epidemiology is an award given annually to a scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of epidemiology or clinical trials research. The 2017 Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Lecture in Epidemiology has been awarded to Mark Schiffman, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Investigator in the Clinical Genetics Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). Dr. Schiffman will present “The Changing Epidemiology of HPV and Cervical Cancer: From Etiology, to Validation of Prevention Methods, to Dissemination,” on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at the NIH.

Prevention Research Highlights

Research Highlights provide information about funded research, current funding opportunities, and recent advances in the science of prevention. Learn more about how the NIH and its federal partners are addressing such topics as Obesity, Physical Activity, and Tobacco Use.

Stay Connected

Join our mailing list and follow us on Twitter for regular updates about the office and prevention-related activities at the NIH and across the federal government.