Standing Ready

Welcome to Standing Ready Episode 3 “The Academic Advancement” focusing on 75 years of VHA’s affiliation with the nation’s medical schools. Through this historic collaboration, VA has become the largest single provider of medical training in the country and 70 percent of all doctors receive their training from VA hospitals. In this episode, Katie and Shawn meet with Dr. Murray Levin, who was Chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and Chief of Medical Services at the VA Lakeside Hospital in Chicago before joining Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Levin recalls his early days in the 1950s as a medical school resident in a VA hospital and shares his insights about the partnership between Northwestern and the VA during his time there. Northwestern was the first university to partner with a VA hospital in 1946 and we are joined later in the episode by Dr. Andrea Birnbaum, the Associated Chief of Staff for Education at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. As an expert on Northwestern’s current relationship with the VA she shares some insights on innovations in medical teaching and how COVID 19 has impacted academic affiliations. 

Standing Ready, VA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Affairs, Innovation, VHA, Veterans Health Administration, VA Podcast Network, Science, Historical Innovation, Veterans, Veteran, Healthcare, History, Shawn Spitler, Katie Delacenserie Learning, federal workforce, federal employees, federal government, Michael visconage, Michael Gambone, Kutztown University, Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Comes Home, Veteran in American Society, Historian, history, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Medicine and Surgery, Omar Bradley, Paul Hawley, wii, World War II, world war 2

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Katie reveals how the Civil War created an unprecedented number of Veterans with amputated limbs and how a growing number of amputees after WWII lead VHA to create a division in prosthetics. Fred Downs, Jr. discusses his own experiences as Vietnam War amputee and how he helped other Veterans as National Director of the VA’s Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service (PSAS). Dr. Glenn Klute explores the active research he is involved with on lower limb prosthetics for Veterans.

To learn more about Standing Ready Podcast, visit our blog at blogs.va.gov/VAntage.