NIH Office of Dietary Supplements Announces the Availability of the CARDS Database

The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is pleased to announce the availability of the Computer Access to Research on Dietary Supplements (CARDS) database.

CARDS is a database of federally funded research projects pertaining to dietary supplements. It is available free of charge from the ODS website. CARDS will be useful for the U.S. Congress, agencies of the Federal government, and the NIH Institutes for budgetary considerations. In addition, CARDS will provide helpful information for researchers, health care providers, industry and the general public.

The development of CARDS was one of the specific mandates for the ODS as part of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1994. Currently, CARDS contains projects funded by the Institutes and Centers (ICs) of the NIH during fiscal year 1999, the first year that NIH ICs began reporting research related to dietary supplements. As the database expands to include projects from subsequent years and other Federal agencies, the information in CARDS will be useful to identify trends in dietary supplement research.

"We are excited to launch CARDS, the result of an extensive development effort involving many groups in addition to the ODS," said Dr. Paul Coates, Director of the ODS. "CARDS complements other NIH databases by providing specific detail on research projects pertaining to dietary supplements. We hope that CARDS will be a valuable resource and we welcome suggestions to futher increase its utility."

The CARDS database can be accessed from the following link: CARDS Database. For additional information on CARDS, please contact ODS.

10/26/2001