Academic affiliations key to Veteran care

This year, VA and medical schools around the country commemorate 70 years of partnerships in training medical professionals in the care of our Veterans. Last month, , we shared a video highlighting achievements, as well as testimonials from leading doctors of medical and osteopathy colleges and their VA colleagues, discussing a strong and growing relationship between VA, medical schools, students and faculties.

More than 7,200 individual affiliation agreements between VA and more than 1,800 educational institutions have made VA the largest provider of health-care training in the United States. In fiscal year 2014 alone, clinical training was provided to more than 120,000 interns, residents, fellows and students in more than 40 professions.

Daniel Hoffmann, network director of VA’s Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network (VISN 6) based in Durham, North Carolina, provides his perspective on these crucial relationships. Hoffman has been one of the primary supporters, facilitators and developers of the outstanding relationships between the Richmond VA Medical Center and Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine, the Durham VA Medical Center and Duke’s School of Medicine and the Salisbury VA Medical Center and Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine, and a number of other medical schools in Virginia and North Carolina.

Look for more of these testimonials until we reach the 70th anniversary on Jan. 30, the day that Policy Memorandum #2was issued, creating the association between VA and medical schools 70 years ago.