WASHINGTON - The DoD plans to cut its civilian workforce by 5% to 6% by the end of fiscal year 2018, including more than 5,000 from the Military Health System.

WASHINGTON - The president’s proposed fiscal year 2014 budget is "a strong budget" that will allow VA to continue to make progress in some key longterm goals, Secretary Eric Shinseki told lawmakers last month.

Survey Finds 'Information Overload'
HOUSTON - Almost a third of primary care providers missed test results received through VA's electronic health record (EHR) notification system, possibly because of "information overload," according to a survey conducted by researchers from the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston.

Opinion poll: Is VA’s electronic health record notification system an effective way to get test result information to healthcare providers? Please click here to participate in this month's U.S. Medicine readership poll.

BALTIMORE, MD - Part of the challenge for healthcare providers trying to prevent military suicide is the difficulty of identifying servicemembers at the highest risk. Now, a newly-published study from the Army National Guard provides some information on characteristics shared by soldiers who take their own lives.

WASHINGTON - Sustaining patient care functions in the Military Health System in the wake of sequestration "comes at a cost," Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson, MD, warned Congress.

WASHINGTON - Assurance that VA is on track to eliminate its backlog on reviewing disability claims is being meet with skepticism by lawmakers as well as military and veteran service organizations.

WASHINGTON - A new Army report suggests that doctors made changes to PTSD diagnoses during the Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) process at similar rates to other behavioral health diagnoses, “suggesting that PTSD is not handled differently than other diagnoses.”

WAYNE, NJ - Tthe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Bayer's Stivarga (regorafenib) tablets to treat patients with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who have been previously treated with imatinib mesylate and sunitinib malate, according to Bayer HealthCare and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO - The FDA has approved Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine or T-DM1) for the treatment of people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) who have received prior treatment with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and a taxane chemotherapy.

TEMPLE, TX - Retired Brig. Gen. James T. Turlington, MD, may no longer be an active duty general officer in the Air Force, but he’s still practicing medicine — and still making a difference.