FDA guts education, training division as a part of RFK Jr.’s cuts

The Food and Drug Administration has gutted a division chargeable for training agency staff and out of doors health-care professionals on an array of key public health, regulation and safety practices and supporting skilled development for workers, CNBC has learned. 

In an email viewed by CNBC, staff were notified that the Division of Learning and Organizational Development, or DLOD, faces cuts under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s broader plan to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. All the greater than 30 employees within the division were laid off. While it was a small team inside the FDA, it was a key resource for the whole agency and external doctors, nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, amongst other professionals.

Kennedy is slashing 10,000 jobs at HHS, including roughly 3,500 full-time employees on the FDA, to give attention to what HHS called “streamlining operations and centralizing administrative functions.” The FDA is chargeable for regulating and overseeing the security, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, medical devices, food and cosmetics, amongst other items.

HHS has said the cuts on the agency is not going to affect inspectors or reviewers of medication, medical devices or food, and can primarily goal staff deemed as having unnecessary responsibilities. But reports suggest that the Trump administration is eliminating some employees who played a key role in protecting public health, akin to top veterinarians overseeing the FDA’s bird flu response amid outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows, together with several recent human cases.

Kennedy last week said some personnel and programs at federal agencies affected by his sweeping reductions will likely be reinstated, nevertheless it is unclear if that features DLOD employees. The FDA didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. 

The division is canceling all planned activities, including scientific and regulatory education together with leadership and organizational development, in accordance with the e-mail. Additionally it is scrapping the processing and approval of any so-called continuing education activities across the FDA, which refers to formal educational programs that help agency staff and external health-care professionals not sleep thus far on medical science, public health and regulatory practices, the e-mail said.

For instance, some programs trained agency staff and external doctors, nurses and pharmacists about opioid safety, avoiding medication errors, infectious and rare diseases, clinical trials and using artificial intelligence to support regulatory decisions, in accordance with two FDA employees, who requested anonymity to talk freely. The division also held monthly presentations to focus on research across the agency – akin to a recent study on tobacco use –  and its impact on protecting public health, the workers said. 

There are actually no staff available to award credits, or points for completing approved educational activities, akin to lectures, online modules or workshops, in accordance with one FDA worker. Depending on the state, health-care professionals must earn a certain variety of credits every year or licensing cycle to take care of their credentials and not sleep thus far with medical knowledge and standards.

The FDA can also be losing a central resource that employees can go to for skilled development and training. 

“With the removal of DLOD, there’s an important deal of uncertainty about how learners and professionals will adapt,” considered one of the FDA employees said. “They are actually chargeable for independently finding and choosing their very own courses, which can end in confusion or inefficiency.”

One office within the division was fully funded by so-called user fees, not taxpayer dollars, in accordance with the 2 FDA employees. The FDA collects those fees from firms that produce certain products like drugs and medical devices and from other entities, akin to certain certification bodies. 

The Trump administration has cited federal cost savings as a part of its justification for shedding employees at HHS, raising questions on why it targeted that unit.

The office – generally known as the Continuing Education and Consultation Accreditation Team – was the one group inside the FDA authorized to issue credits to each FDA employees and out of doors health-care professionals, the 2 employees said. The office included six staff, all of whom will lose their jobs.

The office was also the one “jointly accredited” unit inside the FDA, which implies it was qualified to supply training across different health-care disciplines, the worker said.