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As far as I know, this USA Today article - "VA doctor says Gulf War vets not getting effective treatments" (7 January 2013) - hasn't been shared elsewhere on PR...
It features Dr. Nancy Klimas, and while there aren't many comments (12 perhaps), a few of them do criticize IOM, even linking the problem IOM-Gulf-War reports to the unwanted IOM- ME project. I'm posting the info/link here as another opportunity to share our voices:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ulf-war-vets-not-available-elsewhere/4357309/
A few lines from the article:
"As Department of Veterans Affairs physician Nancy Klimas told an agency panel Tuesday about the many successful ways her clinic has been treating Gulf War illness, veterans have responded with a combination of hope and anger. The hope came because her clinic appears to be making headway in using research-based methods to treat veterans with the disease...
The anger came because, although Klimas had been using at least some of her methods for a decade, none of them have been disseminated throughout the VA system for use in other clinics. Her testimony was part of the ongoing fight between Gulf War veterans, who believe the government is ignoring physical causes for their ailments, and the VA, which has been reluctant to support the veterans' claims.
...She said she has asked her patients to be their own advocates because many physicians don't believe the illness is anything but psychiatric.
'That was a great presentation, but I can't resist adding that this information has been in the hands of Dr. Klimas for 12 years,' said Jim Binns, chairman of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, which met with VA officials Tuesday.
But until 1997, the VA focused on psychological disorders and not research to determine physical causes for the ailments.
In 1997, Congress mandated Binns' committee after a congressional report found that the efforts to find causes and treatments for Gulf War illness by government agencies were "irreparably flawed."
Binns said Klimas' use of research to create a plan to treat veterans is what should have happened at the top level.
Relations between the VA and Binns' committee have long been contentious and worsened last year when VA Secretary Eric Shinseki signed a directive ending the panel's independence and ruling that Binns' term would end this year. The board's budget was also reduced, and new members were appointed.
Binns said a House hearing last March in which a former VA epidemiologist* claimed officials purposely hid or manipulated data to avoid paying Gulf War illness claims changed relations with the department."
(*Edit: The epidemiologist is Dr. Steven S. Coughlin: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rebecca...cted-suicidal-vets-suppressed-study-findings/. Though I don't have a link handy, his testimony is available on youtube; bless him and wish there were more like him.)
It features Dr. Nancy Klimas, and while there aren't many comments (12 perhaps), a few of them do criticize IOM, even linking the problem IOM-Gulf-War reports to the unwanted IOM- ME project. I'm posting the info/link here as another opportunity to share our voices:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ulf-war-vets-not-available-elsewhere/4357309/
A few lines from the article:
"As Department of Veterans Affairs physician Nancy Klimas told an agency panel Tuesday about the many successful ways her clinic has been treating Gulf War illness, veterans have responded with a combination of hope and anger. The hope came because her clinic appears to be making headway in using research-based methods to treat veterans with the disease...
The anger came because, although Klimas had been using at least some of her methods for a decade, none of them have been disseminated throughout the VA system for use in other clinics. Her testimony was part of the ongoing fight between Gulf War veterans, who believe the government is ignoring physical causes for their ailments, and the VA, which has been reluctant to support the veterans' claims.
...She said she has asked her patients to be their own advocates because many physicians don't believe the illness is anything but psychiatric.
'That was a great presentation, but I can't resist adding that this information has been in the hands of Dr. Klimas for 12 years,' said Jim Binns, chairman of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, which met with VA officials Tuesday.
But until 1997, the VA focused on psychological disorders and not research to determine physical causes for the ailments.
In 1997, Congress mandated Binns' committee after a congressional report found that the efforts to find causes and treatments for Gulf War illness by government agencies were "irreparably flawed."
Binns said Klimas' use of research to create a plan to treat veterans is what should have happened at the top level.
Relations between the VA and Binns' committee have long been contentious and worsened last year when VA Secretary Eric Shinseki signed a directive ending the panel's independence and ruling that Binns' term would end this year. The board's budget was also reduced, and new members were appointed.
Binns said a House hearing last March in which a former VA epidemiologist* claimed officials purposely hid or manipulated data to avoid paying Gulf War illness claims changed relations with the department."
(*Edit: The epidemiologist is Dr. Steven S. Coughlin: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rebecca...cted-suicidal-vets-suppressed-study-findings/. Though I don't have a link handy, his testimony is available on youtube; bless him and wish there were more like him.)
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