WSU to Study Iraq Toxins' Effect
Spokesman-Review
by Bert Caldwell
Research to examine how exposure might damage offspring of soldiers
Washington State University scientists will use a $1.7 million grant to study what multi-generation genetic damage might be done by toxins U.S. troops could encounter in Iraq.
The research using laboratory rats, not humans, will be the first for the military to examine the epigenetic effects of pesticides, herbicides and other compounds, said lead scientist Michael Skinner, director of the university's Center for Reproductive Biology.
Previous studies have looked at the health effects of other substances, notably the Agent Orange used to defoliate jungles in Vietnam, on the soldiers directly exposed, he said, not on their children or grandchildren.
"The science really had not caught up with the trans-generational stuff," said Skinner, one of several WSU pioneers in the field of epigenetic, or multi-generational, inheritance.
Besides herbicides and pesticides – which and in what combinations has not been determined – the study also will look at the effects of explosives residues, he said.
The four-year study will allow researchers to see how any changes in genetic chemistry that develop are passed along through two subsequent generations of rats, he said, noting that only the first two years of research have been funded.
Among the problems that might develop are kidney disease, or changes in the male and female reproductive organs, he said.
If any genetic markers are identified in rats, Skinner said, follow-up research could look at whether they might show up among members of the military as well.
That would be of particular interest to Dave Holmes, interim chief operating officer of the Institute for Systems Medicine, which was awarded the U.S. Department of Defense grant passed through to Skinner.
Holmes' son, Tim Hammond, did two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps.
"They sprayed all kinds of stuff on them," Holmes said.
Although the grant money, the first awarded ISM, will fund work in Pullman, he said the organization's supporters hope any subsequent clinical studies will be done in Spokane.
"There's a lot of excitement about making it happen," he said.
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Researchers: VA Electronic Health Records System Worth The Cost
08 Apr 2010
News outlets report on the electronic health records system at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A new study in the journal Health Affairs finds that while the system, "collectively called Vista, for Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture" was expensive, it has paid off, The Wall Street Journal reports. "'We conservatively estimate that the VA's investments in the four health IT systems studied yielded $3.09 billion in cumulative benefits net of investment costs by 2007,' say the authors, a team from Center for IT Leadership at Partners Healthcare in Charlestown, Mass. The results looks at measures such as reduced workloads, freed workspace and savings from items such as unneeded medical tests and avoided hospital admissions. The biggest VA outlay - and its biggest savings generator - was the Vista's Computerized Patient Record System, the home-grown system for electronic health records that was found by the study to cost $3.6 billion."
The study also found that the VA "had spent proportionally more on IT than the private sector but could claim better performance in such areas as cancer screening and better glucose measures for diabetics" (White, 4/6).
Federal Computer Week adds that "[t]he Veterans Affairs and Defense departments intend to expand their Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) pilot program, officials said today. ... The next series of demonstrations will involve exchange of additional types of data, including lab data" (Lipowicz, 4/6).
Meanwhile, the VA "believes it has figured out the fix to turn the bi-directional electronic health records system back on," which had created a security issue in February, Federal News Radio reports. The VA discovered in February that the bi-directional system merged two patients' data unexpectedly. "The discovery and closing of this cybersecurity vulnerability comes as VA and DoD are making significant progress in exchanging electronic health records and testing the sharing of data with private sector health care providers" (Miller, 4/7).
This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.
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