In This Issue

Ongoing research

Finding a way: Researchers explore new technologies to help the blind navigate

While the seeing eye dog and long white cane are likely to endure as trusted wayfinding aids for the blind, a new generation of digital aids is emerging...

In the News

Providence VA dedicates new research facility

The Providence VA Medical Center held a dedication ceremony and open house on Nov. 12 for the new home of its Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine...

VA, DoD join forces to study military suicide

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System is part of a new consortium set up by the Army to mesh military and civilian research efforts on suicide prevention...

Alzheimer's brain-imaging effort expands

The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), led by a VA researcher, aims to enroll 1,000 older volunteers at 55 sites in the U.S. and Canada over the next five years...

Journal Scan

New training method for clinicians enhances prostate cancer screening

B. Price Kerfoot, MD, EdM, a urology surgeon at the VA Boston Healthcare System and an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, has pioneered an approach to continuing medical education called "spaced education"...

Virtual reality for PTSD: What do therapists think?

A team at VA's Little Rock-based Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research held focus groups with 18 VA mental health providers—psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and others—to learn which factors they believe support or hinder the use of virtual reality for assessing and treating Veterans with PTSD...

Lab study sheds light on growth hormone effects

Nobel laureate Dr. Andrew V. Schally at the Miami VA Medical Center, still active in research at age 85, was senior author on a study that found that slowing the release of growth hormone yields an array of health benefits...

Smoking cessation and PTSD

Integrating smoking cessation treatment into mental health care is more effective than standard smoking cessation clinics for Veterans with PTSD, says a VA study...

DHA supplement fails to slow Alzheimer's

A clinical trial led by Joseph Quinn, MD, of the Portland VA Medical Center and Oregon Health and Sciences University compared DHA supplements against placebo in 402 older people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease...

'MOVE!' program helps Veterans shed pounds

A team at the Miami VA Medical Center evaluated the effects of VA's "MOVE!" program...

Career Milestones

Psychologist cited for efforts to extend PTSD treatment, via videoconference, to rural Veterans

Peter Tuerk, PhD, a clinical and research psychologist at the Charleston VA Medical Center, received the 2010 Olin Teague Award from VA for his groundbreaking achievements treating posttraumatic stress disorder in combat Veterans...

White House honor for VA researchers

President Obama will honor two VA investigators, along with researchers from other federal agencies, with Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers...

David Woods, PhD; Stephen Fausti, PhD; Theodore Goodfriend, MD; Charles Chalfant, PhD; and Rudy Moos, PhD.