Clinical Trials & Research

This year alone, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) will provide health care to approximately 4.6 million veterans at nearly 1,300 health care sites across the country for conditions that range from paralyzing injuries to post-traumatic stress disorder to chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer. Providing the best care possible to our veterans requires the efforts of many health care professionals, including VA investigators conducting research at VA facilities nationwide.

VA researchers work to answer important questions, such as:

• What can you do to help prevent heart disease?
• If you suffered a stroke, what type of rehabilitation would be most effective?
• Does prostate cancer screening improve your chances for survival?

Researchers also work to discover new therapies and to develop new treatments. For example, VA researchers:

• Led a team that developed the first oral drug to treat smallpox — listed as one of the five most promising developments in medical technology for 2002.
• Conducted one of the largest studies of psychological treatment and found that certain behavioral therapies and aerobic exercise improve symptoms of Gulf War Illness.
• Shed light on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by providing the first detailed look at how human antibodies may actually help the virus to mutate and escape detection by the immune system.

High quality health care research in VA is possible because of the cooperation of thousands of veteran patients. Their partnership with VA investigators allows us to do research that contributes to the health of veterans and the community at large. VA researchers are deeply grateful to all veterans who currently or who have in the past participated in our studies.

Current VA-sponsored Clinical Trials (on ClinicalTrials.gov)
Brochure: I'm a veteran. Should I participate in research?

To read about other recent VA research in the news, visit http://www.research.va.gov/news.

For general information about the Office of Research and Development and its many programs, visit the R&D home page at http://www.research.va.gov.