WASHINGTON—The health of Native American veterans recently took center stage at congressional hearings—a rarity—as VA and the Indian Health Service prepare to update their memorandum of understanding on how the agencies share responsibility in caring for Native...
PITTSBURGH—It’s long been understood that social stress factors such as violence, homelessness, unemployment, relationship problems and other factors can all contribute to veterans’ suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. For the first time, that link can be...
WASHINGTON—While anyone can be the target of online scams, veterans might be especially vulnerable to internet fraud and social media identity theft, according to veterans’ advocates. Making the situation even worse, they testified before the House Veterans Affairs...
WASHINGTON—While VA is moving swiftly forward with a number of major technology projects, including a new electronic health records system, the agency’s advancements in cybersecurity are progressing at a glacial rate, according to reports from VA watchdogs. This has...
PALO ALTO, CA—The journey of Thomas Osborne, MD, into medicine was not a straight line, but it was a path that seems strangely appropriate considering his role now as Director of VA’s brand new National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation. An art student at...
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...
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...
WASHINGTON — As VA moves forward with the comprehensive overhaul of its electronic health records system, the department will still need to keep its legacy EHR system functioning well into the next decade. A recent Government Accountability Office report suggests, however, that the costs to do that—already totaling in the billions—may have been underestimated.
WASHINGTON — If stacked, VA’s backlog of paper medical documents that are waiting to be digitalized—most generated by veterans’ visits to non-VA providers—would be over 5 miles high, according to a report from the VA inspector general.
ATLANTA—The VA has rolled out a number of telehealth initiatives over the last years, with remote visits to dermatologists being offered to more and more veterans. But how well is the program working? A new study maintained that teledermatology is comparable to...
WASHINGTON—High turnover among leadership, gaps in accountability, and long-standing problems in cybersecurity represent significant challenges for VA in its ongoing efforts to improve its IT infrastructure, oversight officials told legislators last month. These...
3D Printing Already Personalizes Care in Other Ways ANN ARBOR, MI—VA scientists in Michigan recently announced they are working to create a three-dimensional-printed artificial lung. The lab-created lung could transform treatment for some of the approximately one...
Calling it one of the largest IT contracts in the federal government, with a ceiling of $10 billion over a decade, then-VA Acting Secretary Robert Wilkie announced that the agency signed a contract with Cerner for its new electronic health record (EHR).
While implantable devices have shown promise in reducing rehospitalization for heart failure (HF), VA researchers sought to determine if options that are less expensive and non-invasive would have comparable results.
About 5% of the United States population has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and the great majority are diagnosed before age 25. Since a diabetes diagnosis prevents enlistment in the military, relatively few veterans have the condition compared to type 2 diabetes, which affects about a fourth of VHA patients.
Most research suggests that hospitals with intensivists, board-certified physician who provides specialized care for critically ill patients save more lives.
President Donald Trump and VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, announced three initiatives that will expand access to health care for Veterans across the country.
Veterans living in rural areas face a lot of challenges, the most common of which is having to travel long distances to access VA medical care.
