JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD — While deployed to Afghanistan, Air Force Capt. Gina Fasciani, RN, BSN, wasn’t afraid to don battle gear and leave her bunker to take care of patients.

WASHINGTON — The VA and IHS need to better coordinate services for American Indian and Alaska Native veterans, federal officials acknowledged at a recent Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing.

WASHINGTON — Female veterans experience more physical and mental health issues than male veterans, yet are 30% less likely to enroll in VA services than men. Part of the problem, according to a recently released report, is that the needs of women veterans differ substantially from those of their male counterparts and, historically, the VA has not offered gender-responsive services to meet those needs.

WASHINGTON — The VA is adding another tool in its arsenal to fight heart disease and strokes. The American Heart Association and the VA recently announced a new collaboration that will bring a heart association initiative known as the ”Go Red for Women” into the VA. Geared toward women, the initiative raises awareness of heart disease risk factors in women and provides additional tools for women already diagnosed with cardiac issues.

WASHINGTON — With more women leaving the military and becoming healthcare-eligible veterans, VA is focusing more energy and funding than ever into women’s health research.. Despite spending more money on women’s healthcare research in the last few years than in the previous three decades combined, however, the agency still has substantial knowledge gaps it is anxious to fill in.

SILVER SPRING, MD — The conflict in Iraq may have recently ended, but it already has a place in military medical history. A piece of concrete floor of an Air Force tent hospital from Balad is on display on the newly-reopened National Museum of Health and Medicine.

BETHESDA, MD — A number of drugs have been shown to have neuroprotective benefits in animal models of TBI. When studies have moved on to human subjects, however, most have had poor results.