The current status and future of VA research

The VA Advisory Committee for Health Research Policy concluded that the health research aspect of departmental operations is vital to the VA's continued ability to provide high-quality health and medical care. The quality of VA-sponsored research in all areas remains high and on a par with that supported by the NIH and other governmental agencies sponsoring health research. Recent decreases in the financial support of VA research, however, have led to the unwise curtailment of VACO research staff support for this program, have reduced the number of approved projects that can be funded (though there has been a fourfold increase in the number of approved but unfunded projects), and are likely to reduce the attractiveness of VA employment for highly qualified physicians. In view of these findings, the committee recommended several steps that, if found feasible and taken soon, would both restore the long-standing stature of VA research and assure the attractiveness of VA careers for the many clinician-investigators upon whom the VA's quality of patient care necessarily depends.