Editor's Note: Faculty and administrators of Texas Tech University facilities in Amarillo rotate subject matter for their weekly columns. Today's column is authored by Catherine A. Phillips, research and development coordinator at the Amarillo Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System and professor of internal medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Women's Health and Research Institute.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called on Congress and the American people "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." This has become the motto of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
These words have renewed meaning today as our brave military men and women liberate the Iraqi people and enable them to exercise their right to self government.
In order to support this goal, the Department of Veterans Affairs conducts state-of-the-art research on some of the most difficult challenges facing the medical practice and science today.
The national Veterans Affairs research program has become a leader in prosthetics, aging, AIDS, women's health issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health, cancer treatment and health care delivery.
VA scientists and clinicians have made monumental contributions in the development of the cardiac pacemaker, computerized axial tomography, treatment of high blood pressure and schizophrenia, kidney dialysis, home dialysis, hepatitis vaccine and liver transplants.
The quality of these scientific contributions have been recognized during the last two and half decades by VA scientists being awarded the most prestigious scientific recognition, the Nobel Prize.
Because 75 percent of VA scientists are physicians, VA research is designed to move from the laboratory bench to the bedside, like the "Seattle Foot" allowed people with amputations to run and jump.
Technology is also being developed by VA researchers that allow a paralyzed person to activate paralyzed muscles with electrical stimulation so they can grasp objects, stand and walk short distances.
Most recently, Christopher Reeve wrote in an editorial letter to the New York Times that the diaphragm pacing system that allows him to breathe without a ventilator is the result "from the often overlooked VA rehabilitation research program collaborating with academic partners."
Locally, the Amarillo VA Health Care System, in collaboration, with academic partner, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, explores many of these pressing health care issues.
VA scientists and physicians, and university and Harrington Cancer Center colleagues are actively pursuing cancer treatment and diagnostic methods for cancer that use the body's own white blood cells to find, attack and destroy cancer cells throughout the body.
In addition, the pursuit of vaccine for parasitic diseases is ongoing. Clinical trials are in progress to determine the best management for prostate cancer and blood pressure. Preclinical trials are in progress that use bone marrow stem cells to repair organs, such as kidneys, heart, lungs and liver.
VA research has improved medical care for veterans and the nation. To celebrate the achievements of VA scientists and physicians and the high quality care they provide to veterans, last week was VA Research Week.
VA research is good medicine for all of us.
For more information about VA research, see www.va.gov/resdev.
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