Lack of treatment adherence is one of the biggest difficulties for health providers trying to manage HIV patients. Now, a new computerized assessment tool being rolled out by the VHA helps identify patients who are not taking their drugs as well as reasons for noncompliance.

Lung cancer kills more Americans than cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and pancreas combined. One explanation, other than high rates of smoking in the population, is the lack of standard screening methods, making lung cancer difficult to diagnosis before it reaches advanced stages. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) is expected soon to produce some valuable new guidelines as researchers explore every avenue to identify the disease earlier and save lives.

Nearly everything about multiple sclerosis remains a mystery—its pathology, its unpredictable severity in some patients and its myriad symptoms. In an effort to provide as much information as possible to sufferers, VA’s MS Centers of Excellence research the best use of current medications while searching for new treatment methods.

Rates of herpes zoster have nearly doubled among veterans seeking care through the VA since 2000. The disease, also known as shingles, creates significant morbidity, especially when herpetic neuralgia, a painful complication, is involved. Yet, use of the vaccine, introduced in 2007, remains low at about 2% in both the VA and general populations.

WASHINGTON, DC—This time last year, a group of VA-funded researchers at MIT announced that they had developed a robot-assisted therapy for stroke patients that greatly improved patient outcome without significantly raising costs. In chronic stroke survivors, robot-assisted therapy led to modest improvements in upper-body motor functioning and in quality of life.

WASHINGTON, DC—Higher risk for post-stroke mortality in the so-called “Stroke Belt” does not seem to apply in VA facilities, according to recent research which cited increased awareness and best practice guidelines as making the difference.

BETHESDA, MD—A new study into the biochemical mechanisms that control memory has added to the hope that someday scientists will be able to strengthen a person’s ability to remember through chemical intervention.

WASHINGTON, DC—A simple $76 toolkit with items typically found at any neighborhood hardware store has shown promise in increasing home safety for Alzheimer’s disease patients and reducing the strain on overburdened caregivers.

WASHINGTON, DC—Risks for dementia are on the rise among American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), but cultural traditions sometimes have led to delayed diagnosis and, therefore, inadequate help for family caregivers, according to Indian Health Service (IHS) experts.

WASHINGTON, DC—Since an Institute of Medicine report in 2008, there has been significant consensus that penetrating and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) increases the risk for dementia later in life. The evidence was not as strong linking mild TBI (mTBI) to dementia. More research was needed.