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Veterans Affairs & Military Medicine Outlook Fall 2019 Edition

Military Medicine: Imaging Technology

By Scott R. Gourley

Few areas of military medicine are evolving faster and more dramatically than medical imaging. And few locations reflect this evolution …

Emergency department staff and simulation trainers participate in the TeleStroke Program go-live training at the Las Vegas VA Medical Center on Jan. 18, 2018. The TeleStroke program connects veterans with VA stroke neurologists through live bedside telehealth video feeds. The National Evaluation of the VHA TeleStroke Program is currently underway to measure the success of the program's implementation and to identify areas for improvement.

VA Research: Cardiovascular Care

By Craig Collins

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among American men and women, killing about 610,000 people every year. …

Rep. Gss M. Bilirakis, FL-R.

Veterans’ Dental Care in Congressional Spotlight

By Gail Gourley

One aspect of veterans’ health care receiving heightened attention involves dental care. A clear example of expanded congressional focus on …

LaCresha Mitchum, a registered nurse, certified diabetes educator, and diabetic coordinator at the Williams Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina, listens to U.S. Army veteran William Baker, a patient with type 2 diabetes, as he describes some health issues. An investigation launched last year, "Mitigating Racial/ Ethnic and Socio-e3conomic Disparities in VA Care Quality and Patient Experience", aims to understand how better performing VA systems provide diabetes care to racial/ethnic minority veterans, with the hope that systems with better health outcomes can help other facilities or systems improve.

Veterans Affairs Research: Diabetes Care

By Craig Collins

Diabetes Mellitus – A chronic disease in which the body can’t produce or properly use insulin, the hormone that transfers …

U.S. Army soldiers unloaded equipment from a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter in the Bahamas, Sept. 9, 2019, in the wake of Hurricane Durian. In the days following the storm's landfall in the Bahamas, DOD ships and helicopters transported response personnel and tons of supplies between Nassau and storm-affected areas.

Military Disaster Response

By Scott R. Gourley

While some still might debate the existence of cause and effect relationships, by most quantifiable standards, natural disasters – and …

veteran pain management back ache senior man

Veterans Health Administration: Transforming Pain Care for Veterans

By Gail Gourley

Many veterans are in pain. It affects their lives, and their families, every day.

Recognizing the needs of its patients, …

GI Bill Signing President Franklin D. Roosevelt

The G.I. Bill: The Landmark Law at 75

By Scott R. Gourley

Today it’s hard to find anyone willing to speak against a law often described as one of the most important …

Despite great strides in prosthetic technology, especially since the turn of the century, the process of adapting to and property fitting prosthetics can still be challenging.

Veterans Affairs Prosthetics: Status and Advances

ANCIENT TEXTS – POETRY, HEROIC TALES, HISTORIES – make reference to prosthetic limbs dating back as far as 1500 B.C., …

John H. Windom talks to an attendee during an industry day event May 29, 2019, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. The industry day was an opportunity for the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization to provide attendees with an update about VA's effort to replace its current electronic health record systems with the commercial-off-the-self solution - Cerner Millennium - now being deployed by the Department of Defence (DOD). The EHRM initiative will leverage an existing commercial solution to achieve interoperability within VA, with DOD, and with community care providers. A single interoperable solution across VA and DOD will facilitate the secure transfer of active-duty service members' health data as they transition to veteran status.

Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Status and Modernization

Veterans Affairs & Military Medicine Outlook: What is the status of the EHR modernization (EHRM) effort?

John H. Windom: We’re …