Evidence-Based Care for Women Veterans: A Burgeoning Effort in the Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System

Abstract

Women have served in a range of capacities in the military. Activities date back to the Revolutionary War and in 1901, the Army formally established its Nurse Corps (U.S. Department of the Army, 2019). Although women volunteers continued to serve in other roles during wartime, it was not until 1948 that women were permanently able to serve as full members of the armed forces through the passage of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Pub. Law 80-625, 62 Stat. 356). Women now are the fastest growing segment among veterans, comprising approximately 10% of the veteran population (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). Accompanying the increasing numbers of women servicemembers, research pertaining to this group has also burgeoned.Health research within the organization that is now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dates to the 1920s. Within the VA, the Office of Research and Development is primarily responsible for fulfilling the mission to improve the health of veterans and the nation through research. The Office of Research and Development supports a broad portfolio of activities, spanning from basic to clinical to health services research. Since its origins, VA research has produced landmark findings that continue to shape the practice of medicine within the country and internationally (e.g., Dell'Italia, 2017;Henrie et al., 2018;Lee et al., 2019). By serving as the evidence-generation engine of the largest integrated health care system in the nation, VA research not only contributes to the scientific literature, but also has the ability to connect its diverse stakeholders through a learning health care system that seeks continuous improvement.

Accelerating the Growth of Evidence-Based Care for Women and Men Veterans

“…Together, this work demonstrates that the veteran research community is well-suited to contribute to our understanding of gender and sex differences. The VA's commitment to this pursuit is emphasized by the commentary by Huang and Ramoni (2019).…”