WASHINGTON — Drawing on well-established resources to provide high-quality care to veterans who have Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic neurological disease, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will establish two Multiple Sclerosis Centers.
The two MS centers will be created at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and jointly at the Portland and Seattle VA medical centers to coordinate the activities of existing programs for MS patients at other VA sites. The centers will also improve care, and promote research and education in MS.
“VA has excellent resources that should be tapped to improve care, find effective treatments and pursue a cure for this chronic disease of the brain and spinal cord,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. “With MS affecting 350,000 Americans, 22,000 of whom are veterans enrolled in VA’s health care system, the department can make a difference by providing $8 million for these centers over the next four years.”
Each MS center will conduct research covering basic biomedicine, rehabilitation, health services delivery and clinical trials. The two centers will facilitate access to care for veterans regardless of their location through advances in telemedicine.
Operating as a national consortium, the new centers will specialize in research, education and clinical care, functioning similarly to VA’s Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Clinical Centers.
MS is a chronic, unpredictable neurological disease that affects the central nervous system. There is no cure for MS yet, although drugs can help slow the course of the disease or ease symptoms in some patients. The symptoms of MS are highly variable, depending on the areas of the central nervous system that have been affected. Initial
symptoms of MS often include difficulty in walking, abnormal sensations such as numbness
“Taking advantage of VA’s strengths as a system of medical facilities linked through technology with superb academic affiliations will result in significant progress toward an understanding of MS,” said Dr. Robert Roswell, VA Under Secretary for Health.
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