In December 2014, President Obama announced that "our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion." Coupled with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011, the president's statement means there are now fewer than 15,000 American troops remaining in the two countries, and 90 percent of the troops that were in harm's way in 2009 are now home. Now that our combat mission is over, America will increasingly turn to VA to care for these returning Veterans...Read more

The proportion of women in the military, their roles, and their exposure to combat changed dramatically during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. VA researchers are studying the impact of these changes on women's health outcomes, their health care needs, and the utilization of the VA health care system...

To better meet the needs of Veterans and others who have suffered mild to moderate concussion associated with traumatic brain injury, VA's National Center for PTSD has developed a mobile app called "Concussion Coach." The app provides portable tools to recognize symptoms and to identify and make use of coping strategies...

"From War to Home: Through the Veteran's Lens" is a VA traveling exhibit that explores the realities of military service through the words and images of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans. VARQU spoke to Dr. Gala True, project director for the exhibit, core investigator at VA's Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), and co-director of the qualitative evaluation core of VISN 4's Center for Evaluation of Patient Aligned Care Teams (CEPACT). We discussed the exhibit, those who participated in it, and how that participation has changed the lives of Veterans...

Researchers with the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, the Defense Health Agency, and Brandeis University looked at the rates of use of the VA health care system and the factors that might predict whether these Veterans use the system in the 365 days following their demobilization from a deployment...

Researchers at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System and the University of Texas found that Veterans with mild TBIs were about 28 percent more likely to have developed epilepsy than those without TBIs...

VA investigators and colleagues with the Marine Resiliency Study tested the DNA of nearly 3,500 Marines, all of whom had already been exposed to combat and some of whom had developed posttraumatic stress disorder, to see if they could link a particular gene or genetic variation to the condition...

• Study reveals reluctance to report military sexual assault
• Analysis finds persistent reintegration difficulties among Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans
• Other Recent Publications of Interest

• Charleston VA Medical Center unveils brand-new mental health research facility
• VA pain research featured in Scientific American
• GRECC to open in new Denver VA Medical Center
• Telemedicine may help rural Veterans with PTSD
• VA physician writes on lowering health-care costs

• Two share Barnwell Award
• Middleton Award to GI researcher
• Gene therapy innovator receives Magnuson Award
• Collins honored for nursing research
• Rheumatoid arthritis trial earns Howley Prize
• Hausmann receives Secretary's Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Award