Numerous studies have investigated the health problems reported by veterans of the Persian Gulf War, but important questions remain. Epidemiologic studies have consistently indicated that Gulf War veterans report unexplained symptoms at significantly higher rates than veteran comparison groups but that they have not experienced excess rates of disease-related mortality. Addressing unanswered qu...

Voice-mail communication is often used to convey information between the registered nurse (RN) and the Veteran. Using a pretest-posttest design, this study examined whether implementation of a standardized voice-mail greeting had an impact on Veteran satisfaction and the number of messages left on the RN voice-mail. Veterans were more satisfied and there was a significant decrease in RN voice-m...

E-government service delivery performance has been discussed in literature as a way governments use information technologies (IT) to deliver valuable services to their citizens at a lower cost. This article examines the effectiveness of Web site-supported Balanced Scorecard’s four dimensions (innovation and learning, internal process, veteran value proposition, and financial) in improving e-gov...

Purpose of the Work. A robotic exercise device has been developed (MIT-Manus) and shown in a research setting to be capable of providing therapy to the arm of patients with weakness due to stroke, which simulates a conventional therapy known as skateboard therapy. We evaluated whether this robot-assisted task-specific therapy could also improve motor function in stroke patients with continuous,...

Clinical registries have systematically shown that routine clinical practice deals with sicker patients and faces higher morbidity and mortality than the artificial environment of strictly defined randomized-controlled trials might otherwise suggest. The series of Terkelsen et al., in the present issue of the European Heart Journal, focuses on a cohort of 654 patients, representing all patients...

Of the 23.8 million military veterans living in the United States, approximately 3 million have served in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. The injuries and illnesses that affect veterans returning from combat are predictable. Blast injuries are common and most often present as mild traumatic brain injury, which is synonymous with concussion. Family physicians caring for re...

Purpose of the Work . Low back pain is a costly and often seriously disabling condition that affects people of all ages . Lumbar supports are frequently used in the management of low back pain. However, the mechanisms by which lumbar supports influence low back problems remain a subject of debate . To determine the degree of changes in the lumbar region, our purpose was to quantify three-dimens...

With the return of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, increasing numbers of civilian behavioral health providers are treating veterans and their families for service-related conditions. However, little is known about civilian providers' capacity to meet the needs of this population. A statewide needs assessment of 1,665 clinicians examined their screening/referral practices, knowledge and confid...