Head Injury Leading Killer Among All-Americans
Concerns about the long-term effects of repeated head trauma go far beyond military personnel injured in battlefield blasts. More than 50,000 Americans, most of them civilians, die each year from TBI, according to experts speaking at a recent symposium.

WASHINGTON — Unemployment among veterans is higher than the civilian sector, as servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have a difficult time finding a place in the work force. This has legislators attempting to understand the root causes of the problem and VA putting resources behind innovative ideas on how to solve it.

WASHINGTON — TRICARE is reviewing its current data protection security policies and procedures in response to a data breach that involved personal information on an estimated 4.9 million military clinic and hospital patients.

WASHINGTON — Gulf War veterans continue to demonstrate blood brain flow abnormalities even 20 years after the war and, in some cases, have gotten worse, according to researchers at the University of Texas. This comes when funding for Gulf War illnesses is in danger of shrinking, as Congress looks to cut the federal budget.

WASHINGTON — Government employees are under strict rules about accepting outside gifts and outside payments. A reminder of that came last month with news that an Army doctor was ordered by a U.S. District Court last month to pay nearly $13,000 after accepting illegal payments from a medical device company.

WASHINGTON — Poor synchronization between DoD and VA may be leading to a worsening of patient-care coordination. If the two departments do not start working together quickly to solve the issue, it could adversely affect the health of the veterans they are meant to be serving, government investigators warned. 

WASHINGTON — As troops are being drawn down, even while the demand on the force continues, a growing percentage of Army troops are medically unfit for duty, Army officials said at the recent Association of the U.S. Army 2011 Annual Meeting and Exposition.

OLYMPIA, WA — As the tepid economy puts a vise on spending nationwide, state governments are searching for ways to take the pressure off their treasuries.

WASHINGTON — Military veterans injured between 2001 and 2005 are now retroactively eligible for traumatic injury benefits, even if they never deployed overseas to battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON — Diet impacts far more than waistlines and the risk of obesity. In fact, the military has been paying close attention to not only the role of nutrition in maintaining physical health, but also how it relates to psychological health issues such as suicide and even TBI.