Tag Archives: Veterans Administration

The Origin, Public Health Significance, and Meaning of Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a day to recognize and honor those who served in the Armed Forces. Retired Sergeant First Class Allen Barton spends each Veterans Day thinking about his time in service and remembering those he served with. Allen was enlisted in the U.S. Army on active duty and in the Army Reserve for 23… Read More »

May 2022 Podcast

By | May 13, 2022

In this episode of our podcast series, Jess Williams discusses COVID-19 case and hospitalizations with Tami Gurley, an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Jess also recaps the blog posts published in April and previews some articles published in the May issue of Medical Care. Listen here or wherever you get your fine audio content.… Read More »

Veterans Affairs Community Care

By | July 24, 2021

Until a few years ago Veterans generally had to visit a Veterans Affairs (VA) facility to receive care. Long wait times and long travel times caused problems for Veterans who needed healthcare. In response, the VA MISSION Act (2018) expanded access to community providers and increased benefits for caregivers. A recent supplement in Medical Care explores some… Read More »

Evidence Synthesis in a Learning Health Care System

By | January 31, 2020

An October 2019 Medical Care supplement describes a learning health care system: the VA Evidence Synthesis Program (ESP). The ESP is dedicated to making high-quality evidence accessible to improve health and healthcare for veterans. The articles in the issue describe the outcomes from integrating research synthesis with qualitative and quantitative data from health systems. These… Read More »

Veteran Access to Hepatitis C Treatment

By | May 10, 2019

Hepatitis C treatment has gone through a revolution in the last 5 years. Treatment durations have dropped from 48 to 12 weeks, and success rates have improved dramatically. However, treatment costs have sky-rocketed accordingly, and access to care has become a significant issue, particularly for lower socioeconomic individuals and groups. Eligible veterans should have access… Read More »

Tailoring VA primary care to address the social determinants of health

By | March 14, 2019

Tailoring the primary care medical home model improves the care experience for US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with homelessness experience, according to a recent study by Dr. Audrey Jones and colleagues in the journal Medical Care. Researchers from the VA’s Informatics, Decision-Enhancement, and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) Center and Center for Health Equity Research… Read More »

Seeking Clarity on Opioid Prescribing

By | May 1, 2017

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), more than 18,000 people died from overdoses of prescription opioids in 2014. This is more than the number of overdose deaths attributed to heroin (10,854) and cocaine (5,415) combined. Opioids are pain relievers that are chemically similar to morphine. Existing clinical guidelines recommend against exceeding a threshold… Read More »