Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

See the following -

Fighting A War Against An Invisible Enemy, Soldiers Battle PTSD

Julie Gerstein | The Frisky | August 24, 2012

Desperation, depression — and an overwhelming feeling of desertion — are the dangerous components that have contributed to the rising tide of suicide and mental health problems in the military. Just this week it was announced that for the sixth year in a row, suicide among members of the armed forces is on the rise... Read More »

Finally Home, Traumatically Injured Vets Face New Lives As VA Faces Costs

Jessica Wilde | Kaiser Health News | October 17, 2013

Jerral Hancock wakes up every night in Lancaster, Calif., around 1 a.m. dreaming he is trapped in a burning tank. He opens his eyes, but he can't move, he can't get out of bed and he can't get a drink of water. Read More »

First Teach No Harm

Phillip Longman | Washington Monthly | June 21, 2013

The U.S. spends $13 billion a year subsidizing graduate medical education. Yet almost all of this money winds up producing the wrong kinds of doctors in the wrong places, with America’s most elite teaching hospitals being the worst offenders. Read More »

Five Facts About Veterans’ Health Care

Sarah Kliff | Washington Post | November 12, 2012

With more than 1,400 hospitals, nursing homes and clinics nationwide, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates the country’s largest health care system. On Veterans Day, here’s a look at how it operates, who it covers and what role it plays in the larger American health care system. Read More »

Five Major Drug Chains To Adopt Blue Button Prescription Standards

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | February 10, 2014

Five major national pharmacy chains with a total of more than 20,000 stores throughout the country have signed on to the Blue Button health information sharing initiative pioneered by the Veterans Affairs Department in 2010, the White House said in a blog post. Read More »

Fixing The VA-DOD Health System Fiasco

Peter Levin | Politico | May 14, 2013

As health care plans nationwide enter the home stretch of implementing electronic records under the framework of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, and military service disability claims backlogs grow in size and attention, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon need a much more coherent approach to modernize and deploy their electronic health record systems. Read More »

For Ailing Vets In Rural Areas, Telemedicine Can Be The Cure

Quil Lawrence | KQED | May 29, 2013

Howard Lincoln of White Mountain, Alaska, doesn't always hear it when people knock on his door. He's 82 and he still has a little shrapnel in his jaw from a mortar shell that nearly killed him in the Korean War 60 years ago. "We heard it whistling, but I was the third one in line running toward the bunker," he recalls... Read More »

Foreign Countries Hack VA System And Expose Vulnerabilities

Patrick Ouellette | HealthITSecurity.com | June 5, 2013

The Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health care system in the U.S., has reportedly been hacked numerous times by foreign countries such as China and Russia since 2010... Read More »

Former VA Official: Obamacare Puts Vets At Risk

Bryant Jordan | Military.com | May 3, 2013

The Affordable Care Act -- generally known as “Obamacare” -- could lead to increased health complications, emergency room visits and even shorter life spans for some veterans, according to a former under secretary of Health for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Read More »

Furloughed VA Closes Benefits Offices, Stops Health IT Work

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | October 10, 2013

Almost 3000 IT workers and 7000 Veterans Benefits Association employees have been forced to halt work on the enormous backlog of disability claims due to the government shutdown, NextGov reports. [...] Read More »

GAO: DOD, VA Need To Move On Interoperable Health Records

Adam Mazmanian | FCW | March 3, 2014

WHAT: GAO report on progress toward interoperable VA and DoD health records Read More »

GAO: Poor Project Planning, Management Doomed VA-DoD iEHR

Kyle Murphy | EHR Intelligence | February 28, 2013

Historically, efforts to make the EHR systems used by the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense (VA, DoD) have failed as a result of inadequate project planning and poor management... Read More »

Gates Tells Jon Stewart He 'Failed' On Joint Health Record

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | January 16, 2014

Robert Gates failed to overcome the turf wars have prevented development of an integrated electronic health record to serve both the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, the former Defense secretary told comedian Jon Stewart. Read More »

Genetically Modified Crops Resistant to 2,4-D Spur Debate, Calls for Labeling

Ryan Jaslow | CBS News | April 27, 2012

A debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is raging across the country from farms to the federal government. A company called Dow Chemical is on the verge of getting approval for a new genetically engineered corn that's supposed to be immune to the chemical weedkiller "2,4-D" - a primary component of Agent Orange, the New York Times reported. Read More »

Georgia Tech Researcher Flags Flaw In Open-Source Vets Health System

Jon Gold | Network World | December 4, 2013

What began as a master's thesis wound up revealing a potentially severe flaw in VA's open healthcare project. Read More »