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VA Boston health care top stories.

Rainy weather couldn’t dampen the spirit of giving at VA Boston Healthcare System’s annual turkey drive Nov. 23, 2024, at the Jamaica Plain VA campus in Boston, Mass.

Volunteers from VA Boston and Lily Transportation at a truck used to store Thanksgiving meals, Nov. 23, 2024. (VA Boston HCS photo by Deirdre Salvas)

Launched in June 2023, the public-facing website for VA’s Centralized Interactive Phenomics Resource, known as CIPHER, provides an online knowledge-sharing platform designed to improve the use of electronic health records, or EHRs, for research and clinical care.

A visualization created using the Knowledge Extraction via Sparse Embedding Regression Network, or KESER, tool available on CIPHER.

In a touching ceremony held Nov. 7, 2023, at the West Roxbury VA campus in Massachusetts, the collaborative efforts of VA Boston Healthcare System staff and Comcast’s Veteran Network culminated in the ribbon cutting and dedication of Adam's Corner.

VA Boston’s Anita Ranade, assistant director and Elizabeth St. Pierre, Fischer House manager, with Barry Bader, vice president for Comcast Business Greater Boston, and members of Comcast’s Veteran Network during a ribbon cutting for Adam’s Corner at the West Roxbury VA Campus, Mass., Nov. 7, 2023.

My childhood was unique! I had the opportunity to grow up in Alabama and Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, my biological mother walked away from the family, and her family had to raise us.

Army Veteran Patricia Odom, the first Black woman recruiter in Massachusetts. “I get all my health care at VA and I’m very happy with the service,” she said. (VA Boston HCS photo by Winfield Danielson)

Members of the Danish Consulate in Boston and a delegation of Danish health system directors visited the VA Boston Healthcare System's West Roxbury, Mass., campus March 21, 2023.

Dr. Yelena Kamenker-Orlov, medical director of the VA Boston’s West Roxbury Primary Care Clinic gives a tour to visiting Danish healthcare representatives as part of a meeting March 21, 2023, to discuss VA health care and similar challenges facing both healthcare systems. (VA Boston HCS photo)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Legacy have partnered to test and cryopreserve sperm from 1,000 Global War on Terror Veterans across the United States to investigate why Veterans from recent wars are more likely to struggle with infertility than their civilian peers.

Graphic: “This effort is important to further understanding and tackling a challenge so many … Veterans face,” said Dr. Ryan Vega, chief of VA healthcare innovation. VA and Legacy are investigating why recent Veterans are more likely to experience infertility.

Mild traumatic brain injuries are not visible, not readily identified, and often overlooked.

Photo: Students in the Army Combat Medic Specialist Training Program at the Medical Education and Training Campus, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, conduct a concussion evaluation. (Photo by Lisa Braun, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston)

German Shorthaired Pointers typically aren’t the breed you think of when you hear about police dogs.

K9 Belle, VA Boston Healthcare System Police, and Sgt. Sergeant Nathan Dufault, a lead police officer and dog handler for Belle at VA Boston's Brockton campus, Oct. 25, 2022. (VA Boston HCS photo by Deirdre Salvas)

Navy Veteran Kevin Walker served as a surgical technician.

Photo: Navy Veteran Kevin Walker has been working towards a degree in computer science, but is dependent on hemodialysis treatments three times weekly for his survival. His best chance is to find a living kidney donor. (Photo provided courtesy of Kevin Walker)

The 2022 Healthcare for Homeless Veterans, or HCHV, Excellence in Advocacy Award was presented to five members of the Museum of Fine Arts’ Access to Art Program during the VA Boston Healthcare System’s sixth annual Community Partners Appreciation Ceremony, June 23, 2022, at the Brockton VA Campus.

Photo: The reflection of Sixto Escobar, an Air Force Veteran, is seen in a mirror that is part of an art installation at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 24, 2022, in Boston, Mass. The installation is for the Portraits of Leadership Community Project, which will be on display from Sept. 2 through Oct. 30, 2022. (Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.)