Product Description: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common condition, especially among military members. Twelve to 23 percent of service members returning from Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) experienced a TBI while deployed...read more

Product Description: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the United States, and male Veterans seeking care at VA hospitals have a much higher age-specific incidence of lung cancer than males in the general population...read more

Product Description: Numerous studies have demonstrated racial and ethnic differences in health care in the United States. These studies have collectively demonstrated that both the quantity and quality of health care are lower for minority Americans—African Americans and Hispanics in particular—as compared to the white majority...read more

Product Description: Two federal laws have been signed in the last five years that have expanded the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) authority to provide services to families of Veterans. This expansion allows the VHA to provide a number of clinical and support services, training, and education to families and caregivers of patients with service connected and non-service connected injuries or conditions...read more

Product Description: Although the Surgeon General’s recent report on osteoporosis stated that, “Strong bones (are) essential to overall health and quality of life,” it warned that, “The bone health status of Americans… is in jeopardy.” Traditionally, osteoporosis was viewed as a disease of women, but it has become clear that osteoporotic fractures result in substantial morbidity, mortality, and costs in men...read more

Product Description: Poor pain management in surgical settings is known to be associated with slower recovery, greater morbidity, longer lengths of stay, lower patient satisfaction, and higher costs of care, suggesting that optimal pain care in these settings is of utmost importance in promoting acute illness management, recovery, and adaptation...read more

Product Description: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) causes urinary hesitancy and intermittency, weak urine stream, nocturia, frequency, urgency, and the sensation of incomplete bladder emptying. These symptoms, collectively called “lower urinary tract symptoms,” or LUTS, can significantly reduce quality of life...read more

Product Description: Access to healthcare has been identified as a critical issue, both by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the larger medical community. Access has been broadly defined as “the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes” and has been hypothesized to have three discrete steps: 1) gaining entry into the system, 2) getting access to sites of care where patients can receive needed services, and 3) finding providers who meet the needs of the patient and with whom a productive working relationship can form...read more

Product Description: Non-professional caregivers are an important source of physical, emotional and other support to ill or injured Veterans. With an increasing number of Veterans who require care and assistance for traumatic brain injuries (TBI), physical impairments, or other debilitating disorders such as posttraumatic stress (PTSD) and dementia, there is a greater growing demand for spouses, parents or other family members and friends to assume the role of caregiver...read more

Product Description: Hyperglycemia is a common finding among medical and surgical inpatients with and without known diabetes, and is associated with poor outcomes across a variety of inpatient subpopulations. The relationship between hyperglycemia and inpatient outcomes may be weaker in patients with diabetes than in patients without diabetes...read more

Product Description: Ethical integrity in the conduct of health care research is essential for maintaining the public trust and support of such activities. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) play a critical role in maintaining the ethical integrity of research by reviewing research protocols to ensure, among other things, that research participants receive safe and ethical treatment and provide informed consent, and that the potential for a conflict of interest is minimized...read more

Product Description: Anxiety disorders are a major public health concern associated with functional impairment and increased use of the health care system. Two of the more common anxiety disorders are generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD), which if identified, can be treated successfully with medications or psychotherapy...read more

Product Description: Racial and ethnic disparities are widespread in the US health care system. A 2007 report from the Portland Evidence-based Synthesis Program (ESP) similarly found disparities were prevalent in a variety of clinical arenas within Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)...read more

Product Description: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the developed world. In 2004, AMD affected 1.75 million persons in the United States, a number which is expected to rise to nearly 3 million by 2020 due to the aging of the population...read more

Product Description: Polytrauma is defined in the VHA Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers Directive as: “injury to the brain in addition to other body parts or systems resulting in physical, cognitive, psychological, or psychosocial impairments and functional disability...read more

Product Description: Women Veterans are among the fastest growing groups of new VA health care users of the VA healthcare system, and currently reflect approximately eight percent of all U.S. Veterans. With Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF), women comprise a larger percentage of the military (11...read more

Product Description: It remains unclear where the Veterans Health Administration (VA) finds itself in the spectrum of care currently available in the United States. The quality of care provided by the VA has been subject to debate since, and well before, the VA’s system transformation starting in the mid-90s...read more

Product Description: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. The lifetime prevalence of MDD in the general population is estimated at 13%2, of which approximately 20% will experience chronic depression and 60-85% will experience recurrence and relapse...read more

Product Description: According to projections from the World Health Organization, depression will be the second leading cause of disability in the developed world by 2020. Primary care clinicians (PCCs) care for approximately two thirds of depressed individuals...read more

Product Description: This review was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of screening for delirium in adult inpatients, the effectiveness of strategies employed to prevent delirium in acute elderly inpatients, and the comparative diagnostic accuracy of tools used to detect delirium in elderly medical, surgical, and ICU patients...read more

Product Description: Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) have shortened life expectancies relative to the general population to an extent that is not explained by unnatural causes such as suicide or accidents. Epidemiological studies have estimated the life expectancy of individuals with schizophrenia to be 10 to 25 years less than the general population...read more

Product Description: Regular physical activity has many positive health benefits, including protection against chronic disease, improved physical and mental health and cognitive function, and better health-related related quality of life. Moreover, lack of physical activity is associated with higher health care costs and utilization...read more

Product Description: Since 2008, the President has signed two new laws expanding VA authority to provide family services for Veterans’ mental health care and creating a need to identify efficacious and promising family involved interventions for improving Veterans’ mental health outcomes...read more