Asymptomatic Leishmaniasis Infected Nearly 20% of Soldiers in Iraq BETHESDA, MD—New research has identified three chemokines as potential biomarkers for asymptomatic visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a chronic infection caused by Leishmania (L.) donovani or L. infantum....
By their nature, VA healthcare facilities are meant to be easily accessible, but open-campus layouts also make them difficult to secure.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable of cancers, despite being one of the most prevalent, ranking as the second-leading cause of cancer death in adults.
VA has had more than a half-million claims filed under the new PACT Act legislation, which expands care and benefits for former servicemembers exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances during their service.
A new VA study may be the first to examine moral injury and distress at the intersection of these populations—that is, military healthcare professionals, specifically surgeons
The Senate VA Committee has advanced sweeping bipartisan legislation that would allow VA to raise the salary cap for physicians to above $400,000.
A group of Republican lawmakers has introduced legislation that would end VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Program. The bill is a response to the frequently delayed and problem-ridden rollout of the department’s new EHR, which the bill’s authors say is fundamentally broken and doing more harm than good to veterans.
Why do some military servicemembers with traumatic brain injury (TBI) develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, while others do not?
Now that the Food and Drug Administration has granted Fast Track approval for the new Alzheimer’s disease medication Leqembi, the issue of who will pay for it looms large.
While the pandemic has resulted in an explosion in the use of telehealth among federal health agencies, it also has created opportunities for fraud and waste, according to a recent joint report from six Offices of the Inspector General (OIGs).
In late September, Hurricane Ian, a deadly Category 4 storm, caused widespread damage, flooding, loss of power and evacuations from hospitals and nursing homes across Cuba and the U.S. Southeast, especially Florida and South Carolina.
When the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency on July 23, there were more than 4,000 reported cases in the United States. By mid-September, the number of reported U.S. cases had surpassed 24,000.
VA claims processors have consistently failed to understand the department’s own regulations when it comes to Vietnam veterans presenting with certain Agent Orange-related conditions, prematurely denying benefits for thousands, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Several new partnerships are positioning the VA to offer more extensive services, educational material and testing for the one in six veterans estimated to have chronic kidney disease.
This is just the latest finding by the OIG that places blame for a recent criminal case on lack of VA oversight.
Pharmacogenomic testing can help clinicians avoid prescribing antidepressant medications that might have undesirable outcomes.
Each report the Government Accountability Office (GAO) submits to VA detailing weaknesses in the department comes attached with recommendations for solving the problems.
When Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act passed the House in March, it was expected to be a very hard sell in the Senate.
The VA has paused any further expansion of its new electronic health record (EHR) in reaction to an early draft of a VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report.
Prompt access to specialized care is critical to limiting the damage caused by a stroke.
Nine new rare respiratory cancers are now on the VA’s list of presumed service-connected disabilities for certain veterans exposed to fine particulate matter during military service.
The VA healthcare system currently is grappling with about 50,000 vacancies, mostly among doctors, nurses, social workers and physician aides. In addition, the turnover rate among nurses is the highest the department has experienced since 2005.
During the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden shined a light, as he has many times in the past, on the effects of toxic exposure, declaring that he would continue to make it a priority of his administration.
Part of VA’s mission is to care for the widows and orphans of servicemembers and veterans, but some legislators have expressed concern that survivors are getting short shrift, especially when the veteran dies long after their initial service rather than in combat.
VA recently unveiled a 10-step human infrastructure plan designed to strengthen the department’s ability to recruit and retain staff.
As emergency departments around the country struggled to get through the day during the recurrent surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency medicine team at the LTC Charles S. Kettles VAMC here did something extraordinary—they sought out more patients to treat.
The surge in COVID-19 cases created by the omicron variant has caused no small amount of chaos for federal healthcare agencies, resulting in the postponement of major projects, deployment of emergency medical staff and even the infection and subsequent quarantining of agency leaders.
DoD officials have been called to defend the military’s ongoing clean-up and exposure tracing efforts related to its use of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are contained in, among other things, fire-retardant foam.
Most active-duty U.S. servicemembers had been vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-December, when the Army set its deadline.
In recent years, both VA and DoD have worked to create transition services designed specifically for women servicemembers with the goal of providing information about VA care and closing the gap between when a servicemember is discharged and when they enroll for VA healthcare and benefits.