For Stephan Fihn, the reward is seeing how Veterans Affairs Research has changed the lives of his patients.

He told NPR: "A big thing is the management of prostate dilation.

Then, VA studies show that the drug is as effective as surgery.

"So, I could prescribe a pill instead of sending the patient to the urologist who is the surgeon," Fine said.

Dr. Fihn listed similar examples: nicotine patches, first liver transplants, CT scans, and almost all the quick test strips used to detect pregnancy to Covid, are the results of VA-funded studies. Last year, Congress authorized nearly $1 billion in VA research, but Fihn and several colleagues warned that all of this was at risk.

"Suddenly, arbitrary personnel decided to put thousands of researchers and tens of millions of dollars in ongoing research and threaten the future of a $2 billion research firm that extends its history for more than 80 years," Fihn wrote in a recent article. JAMA Internal Medicine.

Uncertainty and employees' departure

These concerns begin when VA freezes all recruitment and publishes hundreds of lists of VA contracts. After the outcry - VA has been in a brief status in many key areas of health care - VA promises that these cuts won't come from VA's more than 300,000 frontline health work, thus eliminating it from freezing. Medical research was not initially spared. Then on March 7, the VA was extended by 90 days, and the term of all research staff would otherwise result in expiration.

"Our goal is to make it more effective. That's why VA conducts a comprehensive assessment of ongoing research programs to assess its impact on senior health care," said VA spokesman Pete Kasperowicz. He said that as VA completes the review, a 90-day pause will ensure continuity of all research efforts.

However, uncertainty means that the research project has lost key employees, such as data analysts, because of the deferred resignation offer in Virginia, they demanded anonymity because they feared revenge. They say long-term projects could be interrupted, such as VA’s Million Veterans Program, one of the largest genetic research groups in the world.

Timothy O'Leary, former director of R&D in Virginia, said it was as important as what VA Research found. He noted that in the private sector, there is not much interest in funding research that may show new drugs. no Better than the old one.

"VA has a lot of clinical trials, otherwise there wouldn't be a lot of clinical trials because there isn't much motivation for pharmaceutical companies to compare their new drugs to old therapies. I mean, what's their potential?" he said.

As the country’s largest healthcare network, Virginia has shown a sense of commitment to services that has shown a commitment to services that can be conducted more easily than almost any other healthcare system in the country, which has surfaced due to profit motives.

“VA clinical trials have shown many times that new interventions are really nothing better. Pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies may not want to risk this outcome, but VA can risk it because it is not in the business of selling drugs or selling medical devices, whether it is a heart stent or anything else. It is the business that provides the best job for Veterans and Veterans.

Tick ​​clock

Researchers worry that the public doesn't know how much medical innovation in the United States involves VA programs. Rashi Romanoff, CEO of the National Veterans Research and Education Foundation, said the 90-day pause ending in June was an opportunity to make the announcement.

"Investing in VA's biomedical and innovation sector is also good for the global stage in the U.S. I think the suspension gives us a chance to talk about that. It's really a moment when we should double down in our research investments."

Mathematics may hinder it. The Trump administration has pledged to lay off 70,000 to 80,000 jobs in Virginia, with 300,000 frontline health workers exempting those cuts. This means cutting all other positions, including VA medical research efforts.