WASHINGTON — Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi today approved the selection and funding of two new centers that will specialize in studying the treatment of war-related illnesses among military patients and veterans.
Called Centers for the Study of War-Related Illnesses, the first sites will be located at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers in Washington, D.C., and East Orange, N.J. A competitive, scientific, peer-review process was used to select the sites.
“We’ve learned that combat casualties do not always result in visible wounds,” Principi said. “Inevitably, some veterans return with health problems that, while difficult to diagnose, are no less debilitating.”
Traditional medical care for service members and veterans tries to prevent and treat casualties caused directly by combat. However, experience from the Gulf and Vietnam wars has shown this approach does not address all the health care needs of combat veterans.
The centers will develop ways to minimize illness and injury that can be implemented before, during and after future conflicts and peacekeeping missions. Additionally, the centers will explore ways to improve care for active-duty patients and veterans.
“Modern medicine cannot fully explain the causes of some of the illnesses suffered by returning veterans. Therefore, finding curative therapies is difficult,” said Dr. Frances M. Murphy, VA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Health. “Finding effective prevention and treatment will be the primary purpose of these two new centers.”
Murphy noted the centers will also focus on medical care, research, risk communication and education for military personnel.
Risk communication is considered essential for communicating deployment health risks to veterans and their families, while the educational component will train VA’s health care providers to deliver high-quality care to veterans.
The centers have academic affiliations with medical schools and other health professional schools. Additionally, they will collaborate with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, including DoD’s Centers for Deployment Health, to ensure lessons learned are applied to the active-duty military as well as to veterans.
Initially, the cost for each center will be about $2 million, plus up to $250,000 for as many as five research projects. Annual operating budgets for each center are estimated to be $1.5 million.
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