Strides in Medical Research

Kristina Derro

Veteran Advocate

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dragged on for over a decade now. Since 2001, the U.S. has sent more than 2.2 million troops to battle, more than 6,600 were killed, and 50,000 were injured. This is a dismal reality of war.

However, the strides that have been made in medicine as a result of the war are astounding. The signature wounds of both conflicts, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), have led the Department of Defense to apportion hundreds of millions of dollars for research studies and treatment.

In the past six years, the Department of Defense has invested a minimum of $2.7 billion in understanding psychological and neurological injuries. $700 million has been apportioned for TBI research which has included an effort to develop a portable diagnostic tool for TBIs. Additional funding has gone towards researching combat wounds that failed to heal, partly attributable to unique bacteria present in Afghanistan.

The VA has its own set of priorities when it comes to researching. The VA is currently faced with rehabilitating veterans who have suffered complex wounds and are considered “polytrauma”, those who have sustained injuries to more than one organ system, or have severe brain injuries, or are amputees, or were severely burned. VA has worked on improving how it coordinates care to this group of veterans. It’s also worked on developing hearing and vision implants as well as robotic prosthetic devices. It even has pioneered its own TBI program which explores different treatment modalities like personalized medicine and nerve regeneration.

There are challenges in coordinating massive research programs and implementing them for our troops and veterans. A January 2012 report by the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Defense’s mental health and TBI research needed better quality control mechanisms to report financial data. However, despite these limitations, some of the world’s best researchers and massive amounts of money are being utilized in an attempt to assist our nation’s troops and veterans.

The VA should be for Veterans

Jim Fausone
Veterans Disability Lawyer

When you are really frustrated with the system, you think the VA hates veterans. Ok, not every employee at VA has such hate, but it sure feels that way to the veterans who get the runaround. We see it in the disability arena, but it is not exclusive as evidenced by an article about veteran business owners trying to get work from VA.

It is reported by some veterans the VA continues adversarial treatment of veterans instead of one of advocacy. This is baffling to many Veteran business owners who are trying to do business with the Department. "The VA, whose sole purpose for existence is to promote the welfare of Veterans, has flatly refused to honor a law known as Vets First which gives priority to Veteran owned business when the VA makes purchases. Even in the face of multiple rulings from the Government Accountability Office telling the VA its interpretation of the law is wrong the VA continues to subject Veterans to the humiliation of being placed behind non Veterans by the organization they rely on for support. What makes this issue such a flash point is the upcoming Veteran Owned Business Conference to be held in Detroit June 25th- 29th, 2012 by the VA. Many Veteran Business leaders call this the height of hypocrisy for the VA to promote this conference as the premiere event for the Veteran businesses when it disregards the very law meant to provide opportunities for Veterans to participate in the contracting process."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-va-tells-veterans-to-get-in-the-back-of-the-line-when-it-comes-to-contracting-according-to-the-michigan-service-disabled-veteran-owned-business-roundtable-2012-03-01