WASHINGTON — Military medicine may have dodged a bullet this summer when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reconsider a case involving the Feres Doctrine, which, in effect, bars active-duty personnel from filing medical malpractice lawsuits against DoD health care providers. Opponents of the law, however, vow to continue the fight in Congress, the only remaining battleground. Please read this article and participate in this month's online opinion poll about whether the Feres Doctrine should be overturned and active-duty military servicemembers be allowed to sue DoD health care providers for medical malpractice.

Arlington, VA — The Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Thailand ran the world’s largest HIV vaccine trial from 2003-2009. The Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Egypt detected the first human case of Avian influenza in Egypt in 2006.

With an influx of women veterans entering the VA system in higher numbers than ever before, the department has given women’s health care high priority. One step in addressing this growing population is assessing what women are looking for in a VA health-care experience.

An Army private, who recently was sentenced by a military court to 12 ½ years in prison for the murder of an Afghan detainee, walked into a cell at a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan and shot the sleeping prisoner, according to prosecutors. Army doctors later found that the soldier was suffering from schizophrenia and PTSD.

WASHINGTON — Sexual health and intimacy problems are important issues for those who have sustained a brain injury, and providers need to be able to address the topics with TBI patients, researchers said at the Federal Interagency Conference on Traumatic Brain Injury held in Washington.

SAN FRANCISCO — Research into PTSD has accelerated exponentially over the last decade. Where once it was understood as little more than a loose collection of symptoms, now researchers are beginning to define the pathology of the disease as well as what effects it might have on other bodily systems. And, as patients with PTSD age, more is being understood about how PTSD will affect health the rest of their lives.

WASHINGTON — It has become a common complaint among OEF/OIF amputees moving from active-duty to veteran status: VA does not have the same level of technology or expertise as DoD facilities when it comes to prosthetic care.

It may be possible to predict a soldier’s infection risks during and after strenuous physical exercise by pre-exercise immune system status or from a blood sample taken at rest, according to a recent study.¹

WASHINGTON — A pulmonary physician recently testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing about the number of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with moderate to severe respiratory diseases, underscoring the growing debate about whether deployment to those theaters of operations increases the risk of developing lung problems.

At one point, copper was so inexpensive, it was used to make pennies. Now, a form of the metal may save not only money, but also lives, when used on commonly-touched items in hospital patient rooms.