ANN ARBOR, MI—The VA continues to lag behind community hospitals in mandating annual influenza vaccine for all healthcare personal, a new study suggested. The report in JAMA Network Open said requiring HCP vaccination against the flu helps limit disease spread to...
Executive Order Enlists DoD Help in Modernizing Flu Vaccine
WASHINGTON—A new executive order is aimed at increasing the manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness of flu vaccines. The DoD and Department of Health and Human Services are co-chairing a task force in the process of implementing the order signed in September by...
Respirators No More Effective Than Masks in Flu Prevention
PITTSBURGH—How effective are N95 respirators and medical masks in preventing healthcare personnel from acquiring workplace viral respiratory infections? A study in JAMA sought to answer that question. Researchers from the National Personal Protective Technology...
New Delay in VA’s On-Again, Off-Again Plans for Medical Scheduling System
WASHINGTON—The rollout of VA’s new medical scheduling system has been delayed an additional two years, with the end date being pushed from 2023 to 2025, VA officials announced last month. VA had separated implementation of the new system from its larger...
For Custodian-Turned-PR Professional, Promoting Good at VA Is a Passion
WASHINGTON—It’s a constant refrain from VA leaders and staff that despite the continual spotlight that VA finds itself in, the public, legislators and even veterans themselves are unaware of just how much good work happens at VA facilities on a daily basis. As...
Intensifying Diabetes Treatment Increases Short-Term Mortality for Veterans
NASHVILLE, TN—Adding insulin or sulphonylurea to metformin increased the risk of death among veterans with diabetes in the initial six- and 12-month period, according to a recent study. Insulin increased the risk of death 66% more than sulfonylurea at six months, but...
Metformin Linked to Reduced Cardiovascular Events in Certain Veterans
Compared to Sulfonylureas in Patients with Impaired Kidney Function NASHVILLE, TN—It wasn’t that many years ago that prescribing metformin for Type 2 diabetes patients with impaired kidney function was discouraged for safety reasons. Now, in an about-face, a new VA...
Successful PTSD Treatment Halves Diabetes Risk for Veterans
LOUIS—Improving post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, a laudable goal itself, has the added benefit of lowering patients’ risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a new report. A cohort study by Jeffrey Scherrer, PhD, professor of family and community...
Testosterone Therapy Increases PSA in 5% of Older Users
HOUSTON – How does testosterone treatment of older hypogonadal men affect prostate specific antigen (PSA) changes? That is the question raised by a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Baylor College of Medicine researchers and...
PSA Bounce Affects Races Differently in Prostate Cancer
RICHMOND, VA -- African American men have historically had poorer prostate cancer biochemical and survival outcomes than Caucasians. The question is why? So asked a new study suggesting that emerging data point to nononcologic factors for much of this disparity. The...
Current, But Not Past, Smoking Increases Prostate Cancer Death Risk
SAN DIEGO – While cigarette smoking is a risk factor for mortality in other genitourinary cancers, which appears to be linked to the accumulation of carcinogens in urine, the link has been less clear with prostate cancer, according to a new study. Researchers from the...
VA: MISSION Act Rollout Appears to Have Gone Well in First Three Months
WASHINGTON—Three months following the implementation of the MISSION Act, VA leaders testified before Congress that the sweeping changes to the agency’s community care standards are rolling out smoothly. Concerns remain, however, about veterans’ lack of understanding...
Former VA Secretary Shulkin: ‘Toxic’ DC Atmosphere Led to His Departure
WASHINGTON—In January 2017, President Donald Trump announced he was selecting David Shulkin, MD, then-VA undersecretary for health, as his new VA secretary. In March 2018, just more than a year later, Shulkin was fired by the president over Twitter, although the White...
Resting, Resuming Specific Activities Enhance Servicemembers’ mTBI Recovery
Acute Period Expanded from 48 to 72 Hours After Injury SILVER SPRING, MD—Successful and speedy recovery from mild traumatic brain injury or concussion is more complex than previously thought. A pair of studies by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center determined...
Embrace the suck
As I write this editorial, I am fully engaged in the Uniformed Services University’s Operation Bushmaster1 as a platoon team leader instructor. I have mentioned this activity numerous times on this editorial forum. The Bushmaster experience is perhaps the best example of why USU is clearly a unique medical university producing medical leaders for our military and our country. For the USU School of Medicine, Bushmaster is the culminating final exam where students exercise four years of military-specific training in leadership and battlefield trauma management provided through the USU Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, where I currently serve as a professor of anesthesiology.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy As Cost-Effective As Medications After Five Years
VA Study: More Depression Patients Should Get Access to Talk Therapy BOSTON – Nationwide, about a fourth of patients diagnosed with major depression are treated with talk therapy by a trained counselor. Many more might prefer that approach to taking medication, but...
When Is Surgery the Best Option for GERD Unresponsive to PPIs?
VA Study Offers Guidance, Decries Limited Treatment Alternatives DALLAS—At the VA, proton pump inhibitor prescriptions are first-line treatment for veterans who complain of heartburn and other gastrointestinal reflux issues. The real challenge comes, however, in the...
Legislators, OIG Challenge VA Contention That Care Problems Are ‘Isolated’
WASHINGTON—Disturbing incidents involving VA facilities have been in the headlines recently.
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