WASHINGTON - Since 1982, the VA has had a fourth mission that reaches beyond providing healthcare, benefits, and burial of veterans to providing emergency support to the nation’s healthcare system. That mission has come to the fore with novel coronavirus stressing a...
VA Addresses the Emotional Toll of Coronavirus
WASHINGTON - While VAMCs undertook a number of steps to respond to the increase in COVID-19 cases coming through their doors, the VA recognized the need to reach vulnerable and anxious veterans in their communities. To expand outreach to these veterans during the...
Growing Number of Veterans Battling Coronavirus
WASHINGTON - In light of a growing COVID-19 crisis, the VA announced it has successfully increased its intensive care unit and medical/surgical bed capacity by more than 4,000 across the nation. Those beds are likely to be needed, as the novel coronavirus has ambushed...
Facing a COVID-19 Outbreak, Navy Evacuates Crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt
WASHINGTON—In response to an urgent and widely publicized plea from the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which has suffered a significant outbreak of COVID-19, the Navy began evacuating sailors off the aircraft carrier earlier this week. The Theodore Roosevelt...
Agent Orange Exposure Appears to Worsen MGUS Progression
DETROIT - Agent Orange exposure by military personnel has been linked with multiple malignant and nonmalignant conditions, including monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. MGUS is an indolent, premalignant plasma cell disorder with the potential of...
Lipid Trait Variants Don’t Appear to Be Linked to NHL Subtypes
ROCHESTER, MN – Noting that studies linking lipid traits to risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma have been inconclusive, new research examined the association of genetically predicted lipid traits with risk of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), chronic lymphocytic...
Veteran Study Looks at Thrombotic Events in Polycythemia Vera Patients
SAN ANTONIO - Patients with polycythemia vera face an elevated risk of thromboembolic events and cardiovascular disease, compared to patients with other myeloproliferative disorders. A German-led study last year in Annals of Hematology pointed out that CV conditions...
Retired VA Healthcare Personnel: The VA Wants You Back to Fight COVID-19
WASHINGTON – If you are a retired VA healthcare provider, the agency wants you back – unless until the novel coronavirus pandemic is contained. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) approved a request from the VA in mid-March to waive a section of federal law that...
Veterans with PTSD, mTBI Often Have Rare Thrashing Sleep Disorder
PORTLAND, OR—A thrashing form of sleep behavior is much more common among military veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or concussion, compared to the general population. Now, researchers at the VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health &...
A Third of Women Treated in VA System Perceive Gender-Based Discrimination
PITTSBURGH—Almost 492,000 women veterans used the VA health care system in fiscal year 2017, a nearly 150% increase since fiscal year 2003, according to VA statistics. Those numbers are only expected to increase. While the Veteran Population Projection Model 2016, the...
Using ‘Blue Button’ Decreases Duplicate Lab Tests
IOWA CITY, IA —With patients increasingly seek care across multiple health care settings, partly fueled by implementation of the MISSION Act, a key coordination issue is the unnecessary duplication of laboratory across different healthcare settings. Iowa City VA...
Veteran Study Links DPP-4 Inhibitors to Greater Joint Pain Risk
MORGANTOWN, WV—Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 inhibitors appear to be associated with joint pain in older veterans who receive care at the VHA but also are Medicare beneficiaries, according to a new study. The report in American Health Drug Benefits pointed out that...
With Obesity, Moderate Hyperglycemia Hastens Cognitive Decline
PITTSBURGH —What precisely is the relationship between cognitive decline in patients with both diabetes and obesity? Researchers from the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and the University of Pittsburgh sought to investigate the potential mechanisms leading to those...
VA Mental Healthcare Being Used by Depressed, Pregnant Vets
WORCESTER, MA—While depression screening is recommended for all pregnant veterans, it had remained unknown how often symptomatic women received care, how depression treatment presented in practice, and whether women veterans were utilizing treatment during the...
Hormone Therapy Appears to Affect Heart Fat Deposition
PITTSBURGH—While heart fat deposition has been linked to atherosclerosis—with both accelerating after menopause—hormone therapy might be able to change how that occurs. A study published in the journal Menopause examined how hormone therapy differentially slowed heart...
Survey of VHA Use of Chemoprevention for Breast Cancer
INDIANAPOLIS—Although clinicians now have tools to reduce the risk of breast cancer, most eligible women in the United States aren’t offered either personalized screening or chemoprevention. That is despite breast cancer being the most common cancer diagnosed among...
Processes to Evaluate, Care for Military Sexual Trauma Patients Improve
WASHINGTON—With an increase in the number of servicemembers coming forward to report their experience with sexual assault during active duty, VA is slowly making progress in implementing best practices for how to evaluate and care for survivors of military sexual...
Many Questions Remain Unanswered Nine Months Into VA’s MISSION Act
Agency Not Sure How Many Veterans Are Using the Program WASHINGTON—Nine months after the MISSION Act went live, VA is still unsure how many veterans are taking advantage of the revamped community care system and how much it will cost the department in its first year,...
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