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On Memorial Day: Some notable Veterans Affairs accomplishments

On Memorial Day, take a look at some of the many notable innovations that the Department of Veterans Affairs has accomplished throughout the years.

By Nicole Oran on May 25, 2015

All last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs celebrated 90 years of improving the lives of Veterans and other Americans through medical and prosthetics research during National VA Research Week at different medical facilities across the United States.

Unfortunately, many lives are lost serving our country in the armed forces, and today the nation honors them. For veterans who survive, improvements and innovations in healthcare are of the utmost importance – particularly with  mental health.

Beyond continued innovation, through the years since the VA’s formation, there have been many notable program initiatives, reforms and accomplishments by researchers.

Here are just a few that stand out:

  • Some of the most well-known and widespread accomplishments from research include:  Therapies for tuberculosis following World War II; the implantable cardiac pacemaker; computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans; functional electrical stimulation systems that allow patients to move paralyzed limbs; the nicotine patch; the first successful liver transplants; the first powered ankle-foot prosthesis; and a vaccine for shingles.
  • The 1994 VA Primary Care Directive all VA facilities to have primary care teams by year 1996. The percentage of patients receiving primary care at the VA increased from 38 percent to 45 percent to 95 percent, during 1993, 1996, and 1999.
  • The development of Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) is and information system built around EHRs that has had a significant effect on the level of care for veterans. The VA and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) were named the recipient of the Innovations in American Government Award in 2006 by the Ash Institute of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
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  • Three VA researchers have received Nobel Prizes: Dr. Andrew Schally for his research on peptide hormone production in the brain; Dr. Rosalyn Yalow for her development of radioimmunoassay to detect and measure various substances in the bloodstream; and Dr. Ferid Murad for his discoveries relating to nitric oxide, a body chemical that helps maintain healthy blood vessels.
  • The Million Veteran Program (MVP) is a completely volunteer based program funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research & Development in an effort to have a database that will help understand how genes affect health. The data gathered is said to be anonymous and will help researchers better understand diseases like diabetes, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Here’s to ongoing progress and innovation in healthcare, not only for veterans, but for everyone as a whole.

Photo: Flickr user Bill Dickinson