Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 2-3-09

1. Concern Expressed About Future Of VistA.  
2. Official Says Obama Will Nominate Duckworth For Assistant VA Secretary.  
3. VA Funding TBI Study.  
4. Lawmaker Says Many Vets Unaware Of TSGLI Expansion.  
5. VA Hospital Co-Sponsors Outreach Effort.  
6. Haley, Other VA Hospitals Using Nintendo Wii For Patient Rehab.  
7. Program At Erie VAMC Helps Veteran Lose Weight.  
8. Tempers Said To Be Flaring Between LSU, Preservationists.  
9. VA Clinic In Montana To Celebrate Its Opening.  
10. VA To Relocate Clinic In Indiana.

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HAVE YOU HEARD?
When Stan Johnson, VA Puget Sound Health Care System Director, and Dr. Gordon Starkebaum, Chief of Staff, learned that federal employees could be tissue-typed and registered as bone marrow donors for free at Seattle-area Federal Occupational Health sites, they asked the VA’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit to share the opportunity with employees. The Seattle area was selected to benefit from a contract between the National Marrow Donor Program and the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services. With enthusiastic endorsement, Nurse Manager Janet Leahy, R.N., contacted HRSA and organized two bone marrow registration drives in August during VA employee picnics. A total of 80 new donors were registered at bone marrow drives in Seattle and at the American Lake campus. Leahy and her volunteers strongly encouraged minorities to become registered donors whenever possible since they make up only one percent of the donor pool. For more info about the National Marrow Donor Program visit http://www.marrow.org.

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1.      Concern Expressed About Future Of VistA.   Modern Healthcare (2/2, Conn) reported Monday that the question of "whether the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, or VistA — the clinical information system that powers the VA health" system — will "wither or bloom in the months and years ahead" has "implications not only for millions of veterans but also millions of other potential users of open-source and proprietary versions of VistA." Last "month, retired four-star Army Gen. Eric Shinseki was confirmed as the new VA secretary in the Obama administration," which has called for a "21st century VA." But a "decentralized, collaborative and iterative software development process…was key to the creation and improvement of VistA," and this "process…has nearly vanished within the VA over the past decade, according to current and former VA programmers." Some "VistA community members" have expressed particular frustration with a 2006 decision "to replace the VistA laboratory information systems module with proprietary software purchased from a commercial vendor." Cerner Corp. won that contract but according "to VistA pioneer Gordon Moreshead," the VA "could…upgrade VistA labs for a lot less money than it will spend contracting with Cerner or any other vendor of off-the-shelf lab software."
      IT Said To Be Key To Shinseki’s Agenda.   The last story in Dan Howser’s Olney (IL) Daily Mail (2/3) column notes that when Shinseki commented on his plans for the VA, he stated, "The overriding challenge I am addressing from my first day in office is to make" the VA "a 21st-century organization focused on the nation’s veterans as its clients." According to Howser, key issues on Shinseki’s "agenda include…leveraging information technology to accelerate and modernize services." 2.      Official Says Obama Will Nominate Duckworth For Assistant VA Secretary.   The Chicago Tribune (2/3, McCormick) reports Duckworth "will be nominated by President Barack Obama" to be the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, "a White House official said late Monday." Duckworth, a disabled Iraq veteran "who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006," will "be yet another Illinois resident expected to move to Washington to join Obama’s administration."
      Blimes Said To Be In Line For VBA Chief.   In a related story, the Air Force Times (2/3, Maze) reports Linda Blimes, a "Harvard University researcher with some radical ideas about how to reduce the backlog" of veterans disability claims, "appears to be in line to head" the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). Blimes, who "wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to operate…on an honor system that trusts veterans claiming service-connected" disabilities, "has not been formally announced as a nominee, but her name is being circulated among lawmakers and congressional staff in what has become a standard procedure to determine whether there is any strong opposition to her taking the key post." Another "name being circulated is that of" Illinois VA Director Tammy Duckworth, "who could become VA’s chief of intergovernmental affairs." Meanwhile, on Friday, the "White House announced its intention to nominate W. Scott Gould, a former Navy Reserve intelligence officer, to be VA deputy secretary under" Eric Shinseki. 

3.      VA Funding TBI Study.   Medical News Today (2/3) reports, "Traumatic brain injury (TBI)," which "often occurs in conjunction with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse," has "been identified as the ‘signature injury’ of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." So, to "be prepared to meet the needs of these veterans over time," the Department of Veterans Affairs’ "Health Services Research & Development Unit is funding a $1.4 million, four-year prospective cohort study of Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, headed by University at Buffalo researchers at the Buffalo VA Medical Center. The results will be used nationwide." Researchers working on the study will also conduct the "first large-scale examination of the reliability and validity of the VA TBI screening tool."

4.      Lawmaker Says Many Vets Unaware Of TSGLI Expansion.   Connecticut’s The Day (2/3, Grogan) reports, "Some service members who were severely injured while serving in the current overseas conflicts are now entitled to thousands of dollars due to a change in their insurance coverage," but "many of them don’t know" this, according to US Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT). Congress "created the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection program (TSGLI) in 2005 to provide severely injured service members with a one-time, tax-free payment to help them and their families." The "Department of Veterans Affairs, in conjunction with the Defense Department, recently reviewed the program and decided this past November to change the eligibility requirements and significantly expand the benefits." But Courtney "met with a group of local veterans’ organizations last month, and none knew about the change to the insurance. ‘There’s clearly a gap in awareness out there,’ he said."

5.      VA Hospital Co-Sponsors Outreach Effort.   The last story in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times Leader’s (2/3) "Veterans’ News" column reports a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center "and the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center will sponsor an outreach program" Saturday in Scranton. The event will offer "flu and pneumonia vaccinations," eligibility "and enrollment information," suicide "prevention information;" and Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom information.

6.      Haley, Other VA Hospitals Using Nintendo Wii For Patient Rehab.   The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (2/2, Levesque) said the James A. Haley Veterans Affairs Medical Center "in Tampa finds itself at the vanguard of a therapeutic revolution" at the VA, using the Nintendo Wii "to bring veterans back from the brink." Therapists "say Wii, a video game system released in November 2006, is a way to engage a new generation of soldiers with rehabilitation therapy that is both enjoyable and useful." Most "of the VA’s hospitals now use the $250 game system as part of their rehabilitation program," although the Wii is "not yet used at Bay Pines in St. Petersburg."

7.      Program At Erie VAMC Helps Veteran Lose Weight.   The Erie (PA) Times-News (2/2, Bruce) profiled 50-year-old veteran Bill Wantz, who has lost over 40 pounds since joining the "Managing Overweight/Obesity in Veterans Everywhere (M.O.V.E.)" program offered at the Erie Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The VA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention designed M.O.V.E "after learning that nearly three-quarters of veterans are either overweight or obese," and in Erie, Wantz attends "M.O.V.E. group meetings, which take place twice a month. About 70 area veterans participate in eight different M.O.V.E. groups" at the Erie VAMC.

8.      Tempers Said To Be Flaring Between LSU, Preservationists.   The New Orleans Times-Picayune (2/3, Barrow) reports, "After months of relatively quiet planning for a new academic medical complex in New Orleans, the temperature is rising between" Louisiana State University (LSU) System "officials and opponents of the school’s proposed site." LSU leaders "say they are reacting to what they characterize as misinformation and cheap shots by preservationists and other opponents of the proposed complex," which calls for new hospitals from LSU and the VA to be built alongside one another on a 70-acre footprint in Mid-City. Historical preservation groups, however, "are pushing the VA to build on the lower nine blocks of the larger footprint, with LSU rebuilding a new hospital from within the shell" of the shuttered Charity Hospital.

9.      VA Clinic In Montana To Celebrate Its Opening.   The Havre (MT) Daily News (2/3, Leeds) says on "Friday, Feb. 13, the new" Veterans Affairs clinic "in Havre will celebrate its January opening with an open house for the north-central Montana community from 1 p.m. to 3 p. m. ‘We invite you to take this opportunity to tour the clinic, meet the new staff and have refreshments,’ said VA Healthcare Montana spokeswoman Teresa Bell in an e-mailed release." The Daily News notes the clinic "opened Jan. 12."

10.    VA To Relocate Clinic In Indiana.   The Muncie (IN) Star Press (2/3, Roysdon) reports, "Muncie’s local" Veterans Affairs clinic "will relocate in the coming weeks to the site of a former westside drug store." The facility, "now located in the Lyndenbrook business plaza on the city’s northwest side, will move to the former Osco drug store near Tillotson Avenue and White River Boulevard." A VA spokesman "said 3,100 patients currently enrolled at the local clinic will enjoy the new facility and expanded services. ‘We’re always hoping to grow it,’ Tim Twiss said. ‘This may give us more of an opportunity.’" Twiss also "said work on the building should be done by March."