While VA’s proposed budget represents a 10% increase from last year, it includes decreases in key areas like hiring and infrastructure. While some of those cuts are offset by other funding, others are the result of hard decisions made to accommodate federal spending caps, department leaders said.
Veterans who experience housing instability have an elevated risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia compared to those with stable housing, according to a recent study.
Screening mammography plays a crucial role in identifying and treating breast cancer at its early stages, yet many women who could benefit from regular mammogram screenings don’t receive them.
The VA is experiencing less of a resource crunch this year due to the PACT Act-related surge than previously expected, according to VA Secretary Denis McDonough. He gave the credit to early planning and increased hiring.
DURHAM, NC -- Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients showed significant benefit from the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in a study...
While disparities in lung cancer mortality among racial and ethnic minorities are well documented, not as much is understood about how racial and ethnic minority patients with lung cancer are treated at the end of life.
Lung cancer survivors have a high risk of developing second primary lung cancer (SPLC); the risk is three to four times higher than the risk of someone in the general population developing initial primary lung cancer (IPLC).
Editor-In-Chief, Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, MD, COL (ret.), MC, USA
My wife, Pam, and I have just completed a 413 nautical-mile sail from Key Biscayne, Florida, to Hilton Head, South Carolina, on our Lagoon 42 – Shavasana. It is our most extended passage so far and the furthest out in the Atlantic Ocean we have ventured. We are headed back north towards the Chesapeake Bay and had a weather window that allowed us to sail into the Gulf Stream and ride that fabled ocean river north. The two to three knots of push make for some incredible boat speed over the ground, and we were often logging 8 to 10 knots with stern winds and following seas. From a sailor’s perspective, that is fast. I imagine the powerboat enthusiasts shaking their heads and smiling at such pitiful velocities.
The risk of an aggressive endometrial cancer diagnosis varies by race, ethnicity and country of origin, and non-Hispanic Black patients had the highest risk, according to a recent study.
Antiobesity medications have tended to be underused in the VHA despite a high prevalence of obesity in the veteran population, according to a new study, which added that real-world outcomes reports on use of drugs in veterans also have been limited.
Even though a previous study found higher papillary thyroid cancer incidence in the U.S. military than the general population—with larger differences among Black than white individuals—it did not provide an explanation for why that might be the case.
What is the relationship between thyroid dysfunction and measures of myocardial disease in older patients?
Red blood cell production is stimulated with the combination of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) and testosterone replacement therapy TRT), based on clinical trial findings.
Conservative lawmakers are seeking to limit VA’s ability to provide family planning care on two very different fronts.
A disorder related to military service in the 1991 Gulf War (GW), Gulf War illness (GWI)/Chronic Multisymptom Illness (CMI) includes symptoms such as fatigue, pain and cognitive dysfunction.
Structural imaging markers hold promise for developing accurate, noninvasive, and accessible solutions to differentiate Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) reversable conditions and those caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Some researchers have postulated for years that systemic infections are associated with development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Recent studies on the relationship between herpes zoster (HZ) and PD have been conflicting, however.
Surgery is a significant healthcare event that necessitates timely planning for goals of care (GOC), involving discussions about one’s current values, aspirations and treatment preferences.
It’s such a common ailment among veterans that it’s almost a given: If you served any time in the military, you’re walking out with some type of hearing problem. That usually presents as hearing loss or tinnitus—a persistent ringing sound in the ears.
Lung cancer screening has the potential to save lives by catching lung cancer at an early stage with definitive treatment. But it also carries potential harms—including overdiagnosis, distress from false-positive results and complications of further testing. For some people, those downsides can outweigh any benefits.
Only 11% of U.S. military veterans are women, according to recent statistics, and they make up even a smaller percentage of patients using VA healthcare—about 10%.
The Navy has been under public scrutiny in recent years after experiencing a rash of suicides aboard multiple ships, many of them undergoing maintenance at shipyards.
Improved treatment has meant better overall survival for many men diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to a new research letter. For older patients, however, the benefits of the new therapies weren’t as effective, the authors pointed out.
How often does local recurrence occur in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who undergo selective transarterial radioembolisation (TARE) or transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) and achieve a complete response (CR) radiologically?
It can be difficult to determine which patients with cirrhosis will go on to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Veterans who received intravenous ketamine treatments had improved symptoms of depression within the first 6 weeks, and these improvements were sustained over at least 6 months with decreasing infusion frequency, according to a recent study.
Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a cardiac disorder that predisposes patients to malignant arrhythmias, particularly Torsades de Pointes ventricular tachycardia, which can degenerate to cardiac arrest.
Is misclassification of people who inject drugs (PWID) and are hospitalized because of infections affecting the analysis of outcomes from medications for opioid-use disorder (MOUD?
While VA’s proposed budget represents a 10% increase from last year, it includes decreases in key areas like hiring and infrastructure. While some of those cuts are offset by other funding, others are the result of hard decisions made to accommodate federal spending caps, department leaders said.
Veterans who experience housing instability have an elevated risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia compared to those with stable housing, according to a recent study.
Recent data from DoD seems to confirm what researchers and physicians have been saying for years—that individuals who receive the COVID-19 vaccine are less likely to experience long-term health effects than those who do not.
A longitudinal cohort study, published in the Annals of Epidemiology, determined if risk for accidental death overall, or the most common types of accidental deaths, varied over time in relation to when a soldier returned from a combat deployment.
Since the 1980s, when seasonal affective disorder was first identified, one of the first-line treatments has been Bright Light Therapy.
As chemical agent exposure remains a threat to military servicemembers, it’s important to consider that each chemical agent affects the eye differently and requires appropriate treatment, according to a recent review article.
Outcomes were better for some common conditions among veterans treated in VA hospitals compared to community care, but the tradeoff often was higher resource use.
All World War II veterans now are eligible for no-cost VA healthcare, medical services and nursing home care, the VA announced shortly before Veterans Day.
In an effort to improve healthcare access for veterans in rural, trial and underserved areas across the United States, the VA is creating a new pilot program for graduate medical education.
In the first phase of a broader realignment, the Defense Health Agency has created nine Defense Health Networks (DHN) to take the place of what had been 20 direct-reporting medical markets, each a grouping of military hospitals and clinics with varying leadership rank structures.
My wife, Pam, and I have just completed a 413 nautical-mile sail from Key Biscayne, Florida, to Hilton Head, South Carolina, on our Lagoon 42 – Shavasana. It is our most extended passage so far and the furthest out in the Atlantic Ocean we have ventured. We are headed back north towards the Chesapeake Bay and had a weather window that allowed us to sail into the Gulf Stream and ride that fabled ocean river north. The two to three knots of push make for some incredible boat speed over the ground, and we were often logging 8 to 10 knots with stern winds and following seas. From a sailor’s perspective, that is fast. I imagine the powerboat enthusiasts shaking their heads and smiling at such pitiful velocities.
The risk of an aggressive endometrial cancer diagnosis varies by race, ethnicity and country of origin, and non-Hispanic Black patients had the highest risk, according to a recent study.
Antiobesity medications have tended to be underused in the VHA despite a high prevalence of obesity in the veteran population, according to a new study, which added that real-world outcomes reports on use of drugs in veterans also have been limited.
Even though a previous study found higher papillary thyroid cancer incidence in the U.S. military than the general population—with larger differences among Black than white individuals—it did not provide an explanation for why that might be the case.
What is the relationship between thyroid dysfunction and measures of myocardial disease in older patients?
Red blood cell production is stimulated with the combination of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) and testosterone replacement therapy TRT), based on clinical trial findings.
Conservative lawmakers are seeking to limit VA’s ability to provide family planning care on two very different fronts.
A disorder related to military service in the 1991 Gulf War (GW), Gulf War illness (GWI)/Chronic Multisymptom Illness (CMI) includes symptoms such as fatigue, pain and cognitive dysfunction.
Structural imaging markers hold promise for developing accurate, noninvasive, and accessible solutions to differentiate Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) reversable conditions and those caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Some researchers have postulated for years that systemic infections are associated with development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Recent studies on the relationship between herpes zoster (HZ) and PD have been conflicting, however.
Surgery is a significant healthcare event that necessitates timely planning for goals of care (GOC), involving discussions about one’s current values, aspirations and treatment preferences.
It’s such a common ailment among veterans that it’s almost a given: If you served any time in the military, you’re walking out with some type of hearing problem. That usually presents as hearing loss or tinnitus—a persistent ringing sound in the ears.
Lung cancer screening has the potential to save lives by catching lung cancer at an early stage with definitive treatment. But it also carries potential harms—including overdiagnosis, distress from false-positive results and complications of further testing. For some people, those downsides can outweigh any benefits.
Only 11% of U.S. military veterans are women, according to recent statistics, and they make up even a smaller percentage of patients using VA healthcare—about 10%.
The Navy has been under public scrutiny in recent years after experiencing a rash of suicides aboard multiple ships, many of them undergoing maintenance at shipyards.
Improved treatment has meant better overall survival for many men diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to a new research letter. For older patients, however, the benefits of the new therapies weren’t as effective, the authors pointed out.
How often does local recurrence occur in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who undergo selective transarterial radioembolisation (TARE) or transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) and achieve a complete response (CR) radiologically?
It can be difficult to determine which patients with cirrhosis will go on to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Veterans who received intravenous ketamine treatments had improved symptoms of depression within the first 6 weeks, and these improvements were sustained over at least 6 months with decreasing infusion frequency, according to a recent study.
Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a cardiac disorder that predisposes patients to malignant arrhythmias, particularly Torsades de Pointes ventricular tachycardia, which can degenerate to cardiac arrest.
Is misclassification of people who inject drugs (PWID) and are hospitalized because of infections affecting the analysis of outcomes from medications for opioid-use disorder (MOUD?
Rates of prescribing for medication for opioid-use disorder (MOUD) are low in the MHS and show evidence of institutional racism, according to a new study.
An extensive study of VA patients concluded that the best way to manage alcohol withdrawal in hospitalized settings is the use of long-acting benzodiazepines with symptom-triggered therapy, as recommended in American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) guidelines.
Having higher cardiorespiratory fitness scores or being in better physical condition are linked to improved long-term survival in U.S. veterans after coronary artery bypass graft surgery, according to a recent study.
Veterans who served in the Vietnam War era, either in theater or not deployed, are not at increased risk of suicide mortality compared with the U.S. population, although the number of suicides among these veterans is noteworthy and merits the attention of mental health professionals and policymakers, according to a recent study.
For the past several years, VA has been identifying the most underserved facilities in its system and requiring them to create action plans to improve care to their veterans.
Using thiazide diuretics is associated with statistically significant lower odds of developing kidney stones, which supports the use of the products for kidney stone prevention, according to a recent study.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine rates for veterans enrolled in VA healthcare services remained high, accounting for more than half of mental healthcare visits, while telephone-based care has decreased to pre-pandemic levels, according to a recent study.
The signature injury of U.S. veterans from recent military conflicts, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of injury-related disability.
An internal VA investigation has verified many, though not all, of the sexual harassment allegations made public by members of the House VA Committee in January.
The House VA Committee has voted to subpoena VA Secretary Denis McDonough to release documents pursuant to an ongoing sexual harassment investigation involving several supervisors in VA’s Office of Resolution Management, Diversity, and Inclusion.
The idea for VA’s Close To Me Infusion Service has its roots in many places, One of them a veteran that Jenna Shields, PharmD, BCOP, saw weekly at the Pittsburgh VAMC.
Sleep disruptions are common at VHA subacute rehabilitation facilities, according to a new study recommending the examination of environmental factors.
How effective is surgery in restoring upper extremity function in patients with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI)?
Rehabilitation and its possible effects are rarely part of the research that goes into the design or evaluation of prosthetic componentry, according to a prospective new study.
A class of medication used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy, or non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland, shows potential as a treatment to delay the progression of Parkinson’s disease, according to a recent study.
Non-Hispanic American Indian/ Alaskan Native (AI/AN) people have the second-highest rate of melanoma in the United States after non-Hispanic white people.
The administration of iodinated contrast media is not responsible for all changes in creatinine levels in patients undergoing the procedures.
The younger age of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Black patients can help explain some of the differences and disparities compared to white patients with CKD, according to a new study.
A new study that included VA researchers made the case for much more dual testing for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in high-risk patients to improve disease management and patient outcomes.
Republican legislators butted heads with VA officials last month over the question of whether department resources were being spent on immigrants who have been placed in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).