In This Issue

Technology horizons

Handling data from the Million Veteran Program is the health informatics challenge of an era

Underpinning VA's landmark genomic research program is an equally impressive informatics effort called GenISIS...

Ongoing research

Brain studies sort out physical, emotional scars of war

Among the efforts is a study at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center using two types of brain scans to pinpoint the effects of PTSD and TBI...

Lab notes

Of mice and men: Lab scientists pay close attention to biological gaps between the species

A recent VA lab study, presented at the Gerontological Society of America annual meeting in Boston, offers an interesting example of how mouse and human biology can diverge...

Key findings

Shorter drug regimen could help eradicate TB

An international study that included six VA sites found that patients with latent tuberculosis—meaning they are infected with the TB germ but have no symptoms and are not contagious—can keep the disease from developing by taking a combination of drugs once a week for three months...

VA-led study on police points to stress biomarker

Police recruits who showed the greatest rise in the stress hormone cortisol after waking up in the morning were more likely to show acute stress symptoms in response to trauma years later as officers. The finding could help in the effort to combat PTSD...

Loss of sense of smell may warn of Parkinson's

A team at the Honolulu VA Medical Center found that impaired olfaction (sense of smell), along with constipation, slow reaction time, excessive daytime sleepiness, and faulty executive function, could predict up to a tenfold higher risk of Parkinson's disease, well before the emergence of any movement-related symptoms...

Journal scan

Alternative therapies for pain popular among Veterans

Researchers at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System surveyed 401 Veterans with chronic pain to gauge their openness to complementary and alternative treatments such as massage and herbal medicine...

Chiropractic effective for neck pain

In a study at the VA Western New York Healthcare System, 36 of 54 Veterans with neck pain were helped significantly by chiropractic treatments...

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