Medical Student Research Program (MSRP) students engaged in VA research

M2 students in front of their hallway posters at Ophthalmology Resident Research Day 2024.  From left to right: Tal Redhead, Balie Crim, Nathan Thomas, Anna Robertson, and Anna Clare Colson; Research Fellow Oliver Liu, M.D.  This group of hard-working trainees are pursuing studies ranging from basic to translational research in vision neuroscience relevant to our veterans.

Virtual Reality in Veteran Healthcare

VA is learning more about using virtual reality in Veteran health care and finding it eases pain and anxiety and enhances rehabilitation in ways traditional methods have not. Earlier this year Sierra Barnes, an occupational therapy student at the G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center, began a project to develop and implement a virtual reality protocol tailored for the acute care setting in occupational therapy. During her presentation, Barnes showcased the transformative impact virtual reality technology is having on patient care. Read more here...

MVP Supports Women Veterans

The Million Veteran Program’s goal is to improve the future of health care for all Veterans, across age, race, gender, service branch, and era. Achieving that goal means researching health conditions that affect different Veteran populations — the fastest-growing of which is women. Supporting women’s health research to better understand conditions that uniquely affect women Veterans, like endometriosis, is crucial to MVP’s mission and to the health and well-being of all Veterans. Join MVP Today!

Dr. Ji Li, PhD joins G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VAMC and UMMC

Dr. Li’s research seeks to understand the intrinsic relationship between diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Li’s funding includes two (yes 2!) VA Grants and various NIH awards:

  • VA Merit Award:  “A Stress Inducible Protein Sestrin2 in Heart Failure”

  • VA Merit Award:  “Activated Protein C in Acute Injury”

Dr. Li will collaborate with Dr. Baker (VAMC Chief of Cardiology). Dr. Li is our UMMC Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) liaison.  This meets an important administrative and compliance service for the Jackson VAMC.

Please welcome Dr. Ji Li!

One Million Strong: VA’s Million Veteran Program Makes History

VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) just made history: 1,000,000 Veterans have joined VA’s largest health research effort! As the first VA research program to reach a recruitment milestone this large, MVP is paving the way for improved Veteran health and wellness. Veterans across race, gender, age, and service branch are coming together for one mission: to advance Veteran health care.

MVP’s commitment to changing the future of Veteran health care is rooted in its research. The goal for their research is to help find new ways to detect, prevent, and treat health conditions that matter to Veterans. More participants from all backgrounds means more opportunities to find positive, real-world applications to improve Veteran health care in clinical settings. Since MVP launched in 2011, the program has already made discoveries in health care areas that matter to Veterans, such as:

· Diabetes

· Heart disease

· Cancer

· Osteoarthritis

· Tinnitus

· Mental health, including PTSD and depression

· Suicide risk

· And more.

Thanks to the 1,000,000 Veterans who have joined MVP, we are one step closer to transforming personalized health care for all Veterans and, ultimately, all Americans.

Join today to help MVP continue making a difference in the future of Veteran health care. Sign up at www.mvp.va.gov or call 866-441-6075 to make an appointment at a participating VA facility. You don’t need to receive your care at VA to participate.

Published Papers - listed below are seven recent published papers:

1.   Ullah MI, Tamanna S: Racial disparity in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with obstructive sleep apnea: The sleep heart health study. Sleep Med 2023, 101:528-534.

2.   Ullah MI, Tamanna S, Bhagat R: High nocturnal periodic breathing reported by PAP adherence data predicts decompensation of heart failure. J Clin Sleep Med 2023, 19(3):431-441.

3.   Gomez-Sanchez C, Gomez-Sanchez EP: An Abbreviated History of Aldosterone Metabolism, Current and Future Challenges. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes 2023.

4.   Gomez-Sanchez CE, Gomez-Sanchez EP: 18-Oxocortisol: A Journey. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2023:106291.

5.   Gomez-Sanchez CE, Gomez-Sanchez EP: Aldosterone synthase inhibitors and the treatment of essential hypertension. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2023.

6.   Gonzalez-Fernandez F, DeSa R: Obtaining absorbance spectra from turbid retinal cell and tissue suspensions - Beating the light-scatter problem. Exp Eye Res 2023:109434.

7.   Krenn MJ, White JM, Stokic DS, Tansey KE: Neuromodulation with transcutaneous spinal stimulation reveals different groups of motor profiles during robot-guided stepping in humans with incomplete spinal cord injury. Exp Brain Res 2023, 241(2):365-382

Latest Research Publication

We are so proud to congratulate Dr. Mohammad Ullah, Dr. Sadeka Tamanna, and Dr. Rajesh Bhagat on their publication in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine March 2023 Issue! Their important research has been selected for CME credit and an editorial has been published to recognize their contribution to the field. Their study, High nocturnal periodic breathing reported by PAP adherence data predicts decompensation of heart failure, was conducted to assess whether high Periodic Breathing (PB)% detected by positive airway pressure (PAP) machine could predict impending heart failure (HF) exacerbation and if better PAP adherence is associated with reduced hospitalization and mortality. We look forward to seeing the impact of this important research on clinical practice in the future!

 

Read more about their research by visit: https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/epdf/10.5664/jcsm.10346

Coming Soon...Shared Folder and File Exchange (SFFX)!

The Research Division is excited to partner with the VA Office of Information and Technology (OIT) Roll-out Team and our local IT Specialist to launch Shared Folder and File Exchange (SFFX).   SFFX is being deployed through-out the VA nationwide.  The link below will provide some preliminary information.  More information to follow with updates periodically. Shared Folder and File Exchange (SFFX)

Sek-Jin Chew Travel Grant

One of our student researchers, Chaimae Gouya has been assisting Dr. Federico Gonzalez-Fernandez with a study for the last few months. We were so excited to learn that Chaimae received the “Sek-Jin Chew Travel Grant” for her abstract entitled: “Absence of Interphotoreceptor Retinoid-Binding Protein (IRBP, RBP3) in Transgenic Rats Causes Photoreceptor Degeneration and Myopia”.

“Hello, my name is Chaimae Gouya, a mechanical engineering graduate from Mississippi State University. I am currently working as a research assistant at Research, Mississippi! Inc. I have always been passionate about materials science and finding ways to use my engineering background to solve biomedical/ medical problems. I am looking forward to implementing the knowledge and skills I have accumulated during my research in a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program. It would be a bliss to have a deeper knowledge in ophthalmology and a better understanding of the human body, and share it with a younger audience.”

COVID-19 Research

Dr. Mary J. Burton is heading up a COVID-19 study in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline LLC entitled “A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, study evaluation the efficacy and safety of otilimab IV in patients with severe pulmonary COVID-19 related disease.” Thanks to Dr. Burton for her continued research of Infectious Diseases especially related to the pandemic.

NAVREF Named One of 100 Associations That Will Save the World!

This month Associations Now named NAVREF one of 100 Associations That Will Save the World! (https://associationsnow.com/magazine/100-associations/?show=top-100) . Formed in 1992, the National Association of Veterans' Research and Education Foundations (NAVREF) is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization of research and education foundations affiliated with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers.  NAVREF's mission is to advance the success of the VA-affiliated research and education corporations. In commemoration of the founding of the American  Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the publication identified 100 associations that are advancing healthcare, improving communities, fostering diversity, and fueling businesses.  NAVREF is proud to be recognized for its work to increase veteran participation in clinical trials. https://associationsnow.com/2020/08/national-association-of-veterans-research-and-education-foundations/.

Dr. Keith Tansey, MD, PhD, FASNR - President & Fellow of the American Spinal Injury Association

From 2017-2019, Dr. Keith Tansey, MD, PhD, FASNR served as President of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA).  Over that time period, ASIA made progress in many areas as an organization and on behalf of the field of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Medicine.  With an agenda of “translation and integration”, Dr. Tansey led ASIA to expand at its borders to be more inclusive and work hard within the society to bring the bench and the bedside and various scientific and clinical disciplines closer to each other.  He was fond of saying that ASIA does not just want to practice the best SCI Medicine of today, but it also wants to develop the improved SCI Medicine of tomorrow. 

 Over the past two years, ASIA enjoyed highly successful annual scientific meetings with record numbers of submissions for courses, talks and posters.  ASIA membership also grew, topping 500 members by the end of Dr. Tansey’s administration.  ASIA brought on new board members and continued to benefit from the activities of its vibrant committees.  In 2018, ASIA awarded its first Fellow of ASIA (FASIA) awards, its first Translational Research or Human Neuroscience Studies award (TRoNS), which Dr. Tansey personally sponsors, and the first Mulcahey award, and in 2019 it added the first DiMarco award for physician trainees. 

 During his presidency, Dr. Tansey and ASIA started many new initiatives as well.  Members of the new Americas committee traveled to Uruguay and Ecuador as ASIA ambassadors to support development of improved SCI care in Central and South America.  The new Primary Care committee began to develop ways to reach non-SCI trained primary care providers so they can better understand what constitutes the best in SCI care.  ASIA separated the Research and Awards committee into two independent committees and the Research committee has already held a successful strategic planning session to lay out a roadmap for advancing translational SCI research within ASIA.  ASIA’s Training committee has developed for ASIA a training program product that will allow them to gain revenue by teaching ASIA’s intellectual property and the committee already has secured two significant clients for that program.  Finally, at this year’s scientific meeting, the International Standards committee released the updated 2019 edition of the International Standards for the Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI) booklet. 

 At the conclusion this year’s annual meeting, Dr. Tansey was made a Fellow of ASIA (FASIA) along with a handful of senior peers in the field.  He plans to continue his board work as Past President for 2 more years as well as his work on several ASIA committees, including completing the design of a Research Options ISNCSCI exam (RO-ISNCSCI).  Dr. Tansey is quite confident that his successor, Dr. Andrei Krassioukov, MD, PhD, FRCPC, will continue ASIA along its successful path, leading the field of SCI Medicine. 

Congratulations to Dr. Tansey on a job well done!

TIME Magazine Names VA Researchers as Most Influential People in Healthcare

Dr. Ann McKee studies the effects of traumatic brain injuries as chief of neuropathology at the the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Boston.

Tony Wyss-Coray uses mice to test his theories on aging and memory loss as a VA research scientist in northern California.

The two doctors — one of medicine, the other of philosophy have been named to TIME magazine’s 2018 Health Care 50 list, topping the charts along with 48 other major influential industry leaders.

2018 Fellow of ASNR

Recently, the American Society of Neurorehabilitation Education Foundation selected Keith Tansey, MD, PhD, FASNR as a 2018 Fellow of ASNR.  This is an honorary recognition begun in 2008 to honor individuals annually who have contributed significantly to the field of neurorehabilitation and to the ASNR specifically.

Dr. Tansey will be recognized as a Fellow during the ASNR Business Meeting on Friday, November 2, 2018.  The ceremony will begin at 12:30 pm and will be held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront in San Diego, California. 

Congratulations to Dr. Tansey for his outstanding accomplishments in the field of neurorehabilitation and receiving this high honor!  Well deserved, Dr. Tansey and thank you for your dedication to this important research.

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