WASHINGTON, DC—Providers play an important role in HIV prevention and care, and IHS is hoping to help providers carry out that role through online training that was developed last year.

WASHINGTON, DC—VA not only has the largest HIV care program in the country, but the largest HIV geriatric care program in the country. VA cares for over 24,000 HIV-positive patients, 120 of whom are older than 80. This gives VA physicians and researchers a front-row seat to the newest discoveries on how the physical effects of aging impact HIV symptoms and how they present.

WASHINGTON, DC—Veterans and servicemembers may be able to help each other overcome stigma in seeking psychological help, officials said during a webinar on combating stigma in the military hosted by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE).

BETHESDA, MD—At the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program (IDCRP), headquartered at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, researchers are in the business of asking tough questions and then going after the answers. “We are not a funding agency. We are not a granting agency, where people bring ideas and we fund them. We are a research organization that works in collaboration with others to conduct investigations,” Brian Agan, MD, director of IDCRP’s HIV/STI Working Group (WG), said of IDCRP.

WASHINGTON, DC—Many who smoke are also using smokeless tobacco. New data compiled by CDC that covers use of smokeless tobacco in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam found that the rates of smokers who also use smokeless tobacco, including chew tobacco and snuff, range from 0.9% in Puerto Rico to 13.7% in Wyoming.

WASHINGTON, DC—Servicemembers, veterans, and their families will need to look no further than their smart phone for help in monitoring their emotional health.

WASHINGTON, DC—The Navy is seeking to help prepare its hospital corpsmen to deal with the psychological stresses of war through a new novel.

WASHINGTON, DC—DoD is in the midst of deploying a tool that will automate recordkeeping for anesthesiologists.

WASHINGTON, DC—The hepatitis C (HCV) treatment program in VA marks its 10-year anniversary this year on a note of hopeful expectation. For years the only treatment for HCV has been combination pegylated interferon and ribavirin—a treatment with harsh side effects and a cure rate between 20% and 25% among VA patients. But several new drugs currently in development promise to almost double that success rate, which is good news for VA’s 150,000 HCV patients.

WASHINGTON, DC—A report released last month by a nonprofit organization calls for increased education efforts to encourage flu vaccination, especially among minority groups.