White House honor for VA researchers

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

Pamela J. VandeVord, PhD, and Rachel M Werner, MD, PhD, are slated to receive the prestigious award for their "pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and a commitment to community service."

Established in 1996 as America's highest honor for early-career researchers, the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) are given every year in a ceremony at the White House. The date for the upcoming ceremony has not yet been announced.

VandeVord works as a rehabilitation investigator at the John J. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit and is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Wayne State University. Her work has focused on how traumatic brain injury damages neurons and other cells and tissues in the human brain. Her team has also studied the natural repair processes of peripheral nerves. The work may potentially help injured troops recover sensation in their hands and feet. In addition to her TBI research, VandeVord has published several articles on biomarkers for breast cancer and other tumors.

Werner, based in Philadelphia, is an investigator with VA's Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a physician and health economist who mixes her clinical and economic knowledge to promote health care quality. She has developed a program that evaluates how tracking the performance of health care providers improves the quality and equity of medical care. Her work has also examined the effects of quality-improvement incentives at hospitals and nursing homes nationwide. Partly as a result of Werner's work, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now includes information about patient outcomes in its quality reports.

Both researchers are active in serving their communities and peers. Werner regularly mentors research fellows at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and organizes and chairs sessions at national scientific meetings. VandeVord volunteers as a science mentor and instructor for the Detroit public school system.

This article originally appeared in the December 2010 issue of VA Research Currents.