WASHINGTON — Military medicine may have dodged a bullet this summer when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reconsider a case involving the Feres Doctrine, which, in effect, bars active-duty personnel from filing medical malpractice lawsuits against DoD health care providers. Opponents of the law, however, vow to continue the fight in Congress, the only remaining battleground. Please read this article and participate in this month's online opinion poll about whether the Feres Doctrine should be overturned and active-duty military servicemembers be allowed to sue DoD health care providers for medical malpractice.

Arlington, VA — The Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Thailand ran the world’s largest HIV vaccine trial from 2003-2009. The Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Egypt detected the first human case of Avian influenza in Egypt in 2006.

WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials can prepare for all manner of health threats — biological, radiological, chemical or nuclear — but it is the threat that the country does not see coming that most worries HHS leaders.

WASHINGTON — VA oncology care was found to be some of the best in the nation, according to a new study looking at older men treated for cancer at VA facilities.

WASHINGTON — Last month,  Marine Corps veteran Robert Stahlnecker stood before a District Judge in Plains Township, Pa., and waived his right to a preliminary hearing on charges of harassing female employees at the VA regional office in Philadelphia. That harassment allegedly included threats of violence and references to rape made during dozens of phone calls and e-mails during the course of several months in 2009 and 2010.

WASHINGTON — Does VA need to employ more aggressive tactics when it comes to getting veterans struggling with PTSD, depression and substance abuse into treatment?  Should some of those tactics involve using disability benefits as an incentive to receive treatment instead of as a simple entitlement?

WASHINGTON — With more than half of all pregnancies unintended among female troops, the explosive issue of abortions is again being reviewed by Congress. In the latest salvo in that ongoing battle, New York’s Rep. Louise Slaughter and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats, are proposing legislation to allow female troops to get an abortion at military hospitals at their own expense or have abortion covered in cases of rape or incest. Please read this article and participate in this month's online opinion poll about whether female servicemembers should be allowed to get abortions at military hospitals at their own expense.

WASHINGTON — “Seamless transition” has become a buzzword for change within VA and DoD, referring to the handing over of servicemembers into VA care without an interruption in care. One of the most frustrating barriers to that goal has been the system by which servicemembers are evaluated for disability and veterans benefits.

WASHINGTON—The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs released an investigative report last year that found that an increasingly high number of Equal Employment Opportunity complaints (EEO) had been filed in the Aberdeen Area, which is made up of IHS and tribally-managed units that serve about 100,000 Indians in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.

WASHINGTON—Military personnel and dependents who were in radiation-exposed areas in Japan during the massive earthquake, tsunami and partial nuclear reactor meltdown are being asked to fill out forms available at MTFs to document their presence in those areas.