Voices of VA Research Podcast

Voices of VA Research Podcast episodes:

• 10.08.2019

  Studies on VA medical foster homes show good outcomes for Vets

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Cari Levy, chief of palliative care at the Denver VA Medical Center and associate director of the Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Research. Levy talks about the concept of the...

  
• 07.18.2019

  Preventing colon cancer<br>VA initiative forging best practices for screening

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Samir Gupta, chief of gastroenterology at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. He’s leading the VA Colonoscopy Collaborative, which is aiming to provide a framework for maximizing VA’s effectiveness with colonoscopy and...

  
• 06.20.2019

  Researchers explore Vet preferences for receiving results from genetic tests

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Sara Knight of the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System. She’s leading a study that is exploring the return of genetic results to research participants, an area of genomic medicine that’s...

  
• 04.24.2019

  Housing for homeless Veterans

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Ann Elizabeth Montgomery of VA’s National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans. Montgomery recently led a study titled “Veterans’ Assignment to Single-Site Versus Scattered-Site Permanent Supportive Housing.” The conversation focused on the HUD-VASH...

  
• 04.10.2019

  Is alcohol healthy?

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Sarah Hartz, a psychiatrist at the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System. Hartz led a study that found that consuming alcoholic beverages daily—even at low levels that meet U.S. guidelines for safe...

  
• 02.15.2019

  Study: Veterans with multiple brain injuries twice as likely to consider suicide, compared with those with one or none

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Robert Shura, neuropsychologist at the W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center in North Carolina. Shura led a study that found that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans with a history of multiple traumatic brain...

  
• 01.03.2019

  Mindfulness and PTSD: What does the research show?

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communications interviews Drs. Lori Davis and J. Douglas Bremner about their research into mindfulness as a tool to help Veterans with PTSD. Davis is the associate chief of staff for research at the VA Medical...

  
• 09.21.2018

  VA researcher hopes genetic test can help in choosing right drug to reduce high cholesterol

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Jason Vassy, a clinician and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Vassy is leading a study that is focusing on whether a test for a specific gene can help patients and...

  
• 07.26.2018

  VA researcher tests Chinese mind-body exercise as therapy for Gulf War Veterans

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Barbara Niles, a research psychologist in the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Niles is leading a trial that is examining whether tai chi, an ancient Chinese mind-body...

  
• 06.28.2018

  Dual use of VA and Medicare heightens risk for unsafe opioid use

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Walid Gellad, a primary care physician and health services researcher at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. Dr. Gellad's research is broadly focused on improving the delivery of health care services, and...

  
• 04.23.2018

  Challenges in tapering long-term opioid use

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Joseph Frank, a primary care physician at the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System in Denver. He is also a researcher at the Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care....

  
• 04.03.2018

  Researcher examines if religion can cure feelings of guilt in Veterans with PTSD

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Harold Koenig, head of the Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health at Duke University in North Carolina. Koenig is one of the top proponents in the research community for using religion as...

  
• 03.14.2018

  Understanding intimate partner violence in women Veterans

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Katherine Iverson, a clinical psychologist and researcher at the Women's Health Division of the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Dr. Iverson's research is focused on identifying...

  
• 02.27.2018

  VA, CDC collaborate to fight infectious diseases

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Heather Reisinger, an infectious disease specialist at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. She and her colleague, Eli Perencevich, are leading VA’s efforts in a partnership with the U.S. Centers for...

  
• 02.02.2018

  Reaching Veterans with chronic pain

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Steve Martino and Dr. Marc Rosen, both substance use researchers at VA Connecticut Healthcare System in New Haven. They are coinvestigators for a study that uses the VA compensation exam to...

  
• 01.09.2018

  Million Veteran Program

  Listen as Larry Whitler and Robin McBlane, hosts of the radio show AM Ocala on WOCA-AM in Florida, talk with Dr. Sumitra Muralidhar, program director for VA's Million Veteran Program (MVP). The interview took place in August 2016. MVP is...

  
• 11.30.2017

  Mental health care for Veterans with life-limiting illnesses

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Melissa Garrido, who is a health services researcher with the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. Her research...

  
• 10.24.2017

  VA researcher leads landmark study on prostate cancer

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Timothy Wilt, a physician-researcher at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, about his 20-year landmark study on prostate cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among men. The study focuses on the...

  
• 08.30.2017

  Comparing psychotherapies for PTSD

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communications talks with Dr. Paula Schnurr, director of VA's National Center for PTSD, about a major clinical trial now underway in VA called "Comparative Effectiveness Research in Veterans with PTSD (CERV-PTSD)." The trial is a...

  
• 08.29.2017

  Severely limiting opioid prescriptions may harm pain patients

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Stefan Kertesz, an internal medicine physician who works primarily with Veterans experiencing homelessness and substance use disorder. He runs the patient-aligned care team for homelessness at the Birmingham VA Medical Center...

  
• 08.22.2017

  Addressing homelessness in Veteran populations

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Jack Tsai, clinical psychologist and researcher at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and the New England Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) in West Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Tsai's research...

  
• 08.01.2017

  Researcher seeks answers to brain disorder in deceased Veterans, athletes

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the VA Boston Healthcare System, about her research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The degenerative brain disease has been found in people with a history of...

  
• 07.11.2017

  Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI)

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Amy Kilbourne, director of VA's Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), about the program's history and current work and how it is impacting Veterans' care. The goal of QUERI is to support the...

  
• 06.14.2017

  Using mindfulness to combat heart disease in women Veterans

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Karen Saban, a research scientist at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Saban is currently investigating the ways that stress can cause inflammation in the body, which can potentially...

  
• 05.19.2017

  OpenNotes in Mental Health Care

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Steven Dobscha, director of the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, based at the VA Portland Health Care System, about his group's research into OpenNotes, which allows patients to view...

  
• 04.19.2017

  Emotional Effects on Military Personnel, Veterans Bereaved by Suicide

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Peter Gutierrez, a clinical research psychologist with the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, about his study that finds military personnel and Veterans bereaved by suicide may themselves be at elevated suicide...

  
• 04.19.2017

  Brief Interventions for Substance Use Disorders in Veterans with Hep C

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Michael Cucciare, associate director for research training at the south central MIRECC in Little Rock, Arkansas. Dr. Cucciare is the principle investigator for the VA-funded study "Web-based Intervention to Reduce Alcohol...

  
• 03.15.2017

  Long-Term Study of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

  Mitch Mirkin of VA Research Communication interviews Dr. William Walker, of the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium, about a major study that will enroll at least 1,100 service members and Veterans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. The goal is...

  
• 03.02.2017

  Needs of Veterans with Traumatic Upper-Limb Amputations

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Linda Resnik, a research scientist at the VA Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island, about her study on evaluating the needs of Veterans with traumatic upper-limb amputations. She has long been researching...

  
• 02.09.2017

  Substance Use Disorders in the Veteran Population

  Erica Sprey of VA Research Communications speaks with Dr. Keith Humphreys, associate director for the Veterans Health Administration's Center for Innovation to Implementation in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Humphreys is a national expert on substance use disorders. In this...

  
• 01.30.2017

  Biomarkers for Gulf War illness

  Mike Richman of VA Research Communications interviews Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos, head of the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, about his team's work on Gulf War illness. The group has pinpointed genetic variants that appear to...