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

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.

Washington, DC - The military services, especially the Army, are walking a tightrope on how to appropriately treat wounded warriors’ pain without feeding into the growing problem of misuse of pain relievers and other prescription drugs among troops.

Several recent events have thrown a spotlight on the dilemma.

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).

Use short, simple sentences. Summarize key points throughout the appointment.
These are among the tips that a recently released toolkit recommends to providers treating military personnel with mTBI who are also suffering from co-occurring health conditions.

Once called the “disease of kings” because of its association with consumption of rich food and alcohol, gout actually affects far more than royalty. Three million Americans suffer from the painful affliction, and the VHA treats a disproportionate share of those, since gout is more common in older men and post-menopausal women, especially those who use alcohol. Still, quality indicators for treating gout have been available less than 10 years and only more recently has the VA begun looking at how those best practices could be applied in its system.

The use of morphine and other opioid medications represented a major medical breakthrough for combat trauma pain when first used as battlefield anesthesia in the 19th century. Still widely-used today, opioids successfully manage pain but also create significant side-effects that can increase morbidity and mortality, especially in patients recovering from wounds. Now, with an advanced understanding of the mechanisms of pain, novel technologies and a commitment to consistent pain management, military medicine is revolutionizing the way it treats wounded warriors and others in its system.

WASHINGTON, DC—The fastest growing segment of patients treated at the nation’s VA facilities are those with four or more chronic diseases, increasing from 15% to 22% in an eight-year period ending in 2008, according to a recent study.

WASHINGTON, DC—When VA Secretary Eric Shinseki took his post nearly two years ago, he learned that veterans lead the nation in homelessness, depression, substance abuse, and suicide.

Opinion poll:
Should VA direct more resources to prevent homelessness or to care for those already homeless? Please read the article about ending homelessness among Veterans and participate in the online poll.

BETHESDA, MD—Where do you find resiliency as a healer and a soldier? As the role of combat medics becomes more and more important to the increasing survival rate of combat casualties, that is a question that military psychiatrists are asking.