An unusual internal meeting scheduled for Wednesday at the Food and Drug Administration may signal how agency officials intend to handle the many controversies swirling around its embattled device division.

Dr. Donna-Bea Tillman, director of the agency’s office of device evaluation, sent an e-mail message on April 10 announcing an “all-hands meeting” to discuss the strategic direction of the device center. Such a broad-based meeting that includes all scientists within the device evaluation office has not been held for years, two agency officials said.

Nine dissident scientists signed letters to President Obama and others in the administration charging that agency officials had acted illegally and that patients were routinely put at risk by medical devices approved for sale despite significant and often unanimous objections from scientific reviewers.

The scientists have sent numerous e-mail messages to Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the agency’s principal deputy commissioner, pleading for his intervention.