WASHINGTON — A new chapter in military medicine is set to begin this month with the opening of the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.

WASHINGTON — Army officials are taking steps to replicate an innovative telehealth project to enhance the Army’s pain-medicine care and treatment.

Research into development of a vaccine for the HIV virus has moved so quickly in the last two years, military researchers predict that a vaccine could be available within the next decade.

WASHINGTON—If there is one fact that Marianne Elliott, chair of the U.S. Military Cancer Institute (USMCI) Institutional Review Board (IRB), wants investigators to know, it is that the USMCI’s new cancer research review board is “open for business.”

WASHINGTON—Despite significant efforts by DoD and VA to revamp the disability evaluation process, the new system remains “complex and adversarial,” the top Army doctor told a congressional subcommittee.

WASHINGTON—The Army’s efforts to improve acute and chronic pain management in injured troops have been recently honored by the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM).

WASHINGTON—Not that long ago, a woman who had been sexually assaulted might have gone to an Army Military Treatment Facility (MTF), had a forensic examination and then would go home without anyone at the MTF knowing what became of her.

Dramatic media coverage has helped raise concerns about pulmonary disease in troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although servicemembers have reported increased symptoms, long-term damage from exposure to particulate matter has not been clinically verified. Now, the United States Army Medical Department and other DoD agencies are embarking on a number of investigations into deployment-related lung disease and exposures.

Working against significant odds to develop a highly-protective vaccine against a parasitic disease, military researchers are seeking to prevent malaria, which kills as many as a million people a year around the world. The Army and Navy combined their malaria programs in 2007 to focus on the task with the goal of finding a vaccine with an 80% or higher protection rate for troops. The military research also benefits the population at large, with one discovery now in Phase III trials for a vaccine to protect infants in Africa.

Menopause once was a barrier to women reaching the top ranks of the military because of concerns it could cause “irrational decisions.” Those attitudes have changed, with more than 200,000 women in active duty and more than 50 of them serving as generals and admirals. To better serve their needs, military medicine and VA are taking a close look at women’s health services, including menopause, as the female cohort grows older.