Conflict of interest issues pertinent to Veterans Affairs Medical Centers

Major lower extremity amputation in Veterans Affairs medical centers.

Our objective was to assess outcomes for 8696 patients who underwent 9236 above- (AKA) and/or below-knee (BKA) amputations during a 4-year period for disorders of the circulatory system. Veterans Affairs (VA) Patient Treatment File (PTF) data were acquired for all patients in Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) 113 and 114 hospitalized in VA medical centers (VAMCs) during fiscal years 1991-1994. Da...

Incidence and prevalence of uveitis in Veterans Affairs Medical Centers of the Pacific Northwest.

PURPOSE To ascertain the frequency of uveitis in Veterans Affairs (VA) patients in the Pacific Northwest and to compare disease rates with those in previously published epidemiologic studies. DESIGN Cross-sectional, population based-study. METHODS The medical records of 152,267 patients seen at six VA Medical Centers in Oregon and Washington during fiscal year 2004 were searched for uveitis...

Extraction of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Data from the Nation’s Veterans Affairs Medical Centers

A new survey to evaluate conflict of interest policies at academic medical centers

BACKGROUND A majority of academic medical centers (AMCs) have now adopted conflict of interest policies (COI) to address relationships with pharmaceutical and device industries that can increase the risk of bias in patient care, education and research. However, AMCs may have little information on the impact of their policies. This paper provides a new method, which is a free, publicly-available...

Sevoflurane use in Veterans Affairs medical centers: utility, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

It has long been realized that the Veterans Affairs (VA) patient has a high incidence of multiorgan system diseases, especially diseases of the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems. The typical Birmingham VA Medical Center patient presenting for surgery is male, with a national mean age of 60 years. More than one half of these patients have a significant history of current or prior tobacco abus...