Rural veterans with hepatitis C (HCV) could live hours from a medical center that provides specialty treatment for the disease. Through the VA Connecticut Healthcare System’s telemedicine initiative, however, specialists are training primary-care practitioners to deliver high quality HCV care close to home for patients.

Since its discovery in the early 1980s, hepatitis E has been a potent threat to military forces around the world.

Alarmed by a near tripling of the number of veterans developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during the past five years, VA has strengthened its programs for the prevention, screening and treatment of veterans with hepatitis C (HCV), which is a major risk for developing the cancer. VA also is revamping practice guidelines for the use of promising new drugs.

WEST HAVEN, CONN. — Over the last few years, telemedicine has partially redefined how health care is delivered to patients, especially those who do not live near medical centers. For the most part, it has been a one-to-one exchange. One patient communicates with one physician, or one physician communicates with a specialist at another facility.

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