Group items tagged

A new study shows that while active-duty service members have lower rates of cancer overall than civilians, they have higher rates of breast cancer and double the rates of prostate cancer.

The Army has documented that the survival rate in ongoing conflicts is over 90%, the highest recorded in modern combat. This survival rate is the product of numerous innovations such as improvements in protective equipment, improvements in evacuation, improvements in the training of combat medics, and innovations in the medical equipment and techniques available at all levels of care from self/buddy aid, through field care given by medics and into hospital care delivered in theater and in the U.S.

The pilot for a new, jointly-developed DoD-VA disability evaluation system (DES), set to expand from five to 22 military bases by May, does much of what proponents hoped it would. It allows more injured or ill service members to win higher disability ratings, to see VA payments start faster and, through greater transparency in the process, to feel they have been treated more fairly by government.

Smoking and other tobacco use is common in the military, presenting a major health risk to the men and women in uniform. Indeed, tobacco use rates within the Department of Defense (DoD) exceed those of the general population by two percent. So this November 20, as we observe the Great American Smokeout established by the American Cancer Society, the Military Health System (MHS) encourages service members and their families to make a commitment to quitting smoking.

Suicide rates in the military are at a 10-year high. In 2008, the Marine Corps had 41 confirmed suicides and approximately 150 suicide attempts, according to the Manpower and Reserve Affairs website. Because of these skyrocketing statistics, every noncommissioned officer in the Marine Corps is receiving additional training in suicide prevention, in the form of a course called "Never Leave a Marine Behind."

About three out of every 1,000 doctors were the targets of serious disciplinary actions by state medical boards last year. An annual report out from the watchdog group Public Citizen says the nationwide rate of serious actions, such as license revocations and suspensions, was 2.92 per 1,000 doctors last year. That was unchanged from the prior year - but remains below a peak of 3.72 in 2004.

FORT DRUM, N.Y. - The Army's vice chief of staff is visiting Fort Drum on Tuesday as part of a fact-finding tour looking for ways to reduce an increasing rate of soldier suicides.

More than 44 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought treatment at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility have been diagnosed with one or more possible mental disorders, according to the agency's most recent summary of veteran health care.