The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering a 4-day Dietary Supplements Research Practicum to provide an intensive examination of dietary supplements used by millions of Americans. This practicum will provide fundamental knowledge of dietary supplements to faculty, students, and practitioners with a serious interest in this subject. It will present a thorough overview and grounding about issues, concepts, unknowns, and controversies about dietary supplements and supplement ingredients. This practicum will also emphasize the importance of scientific investigations to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and value of these products for health promotion and disease prevention, as well as how to carry out this type of research.

This practicum is open primarily to full-time academic faculty and doctoral-level students in all health-related disciplines such as nutrition, food science, pharmacology and pharmacognosy, exercise/kinetics, medicine, dentistry, nursing, and complementary and alternative medicine. Applications will also be accepted from health care providers and scientists with a master’s degree or higher whose work involves dietary supplements, master’s-level students in health-related disciplines, and students in schools of medicine and dentistry and nursing.

The practicum will be held June 4–7 (Monday through Thursday), 2012, at the Lister Hill Center Auditorium on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Sessions will be held all day Monday through Wednesday, Monday evening, and Thursday morning. An optional session on Thursday afternoon will consist of a tour of NIH and a presentation on dietary supplement databases.

There is no cost to attend the practicum itself. However, room, board, and transportation expenses are the responsibility of each participant. A Metro (subway) stop is conveniently located on the NIH campus. Limited parking for personal autos is available.

Full details are available at http://odspracticum.od.nih.gov.