VA brings medical, genetic testing program to five area counties
Evan Sanders
Ernie Cox, of North Huntingdon, who was drafted by the Army and served from 1970-1972, exits the mobile VA Million Veteran Program bus, parked outside of the VA Primary Care Center in Greensburg on Monday.
Evan Sanders
Ernie Cox gets blood drawn by phlebotomist Cathy Boarts in the mobile VA Million Veteran Program bus.
Evan Sanders
Phlebotomist Cathy Boarts (right), speaks with John Panichella, of Jeannette, after drawing blood from Panichella’s arm in the mobile VA Million Veteran Program bus, parked outside of the VA Primary Care Center in Greensburg on Monday, November 28, 2016. Panichella, a veteran of the Vietnam War served in the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam from 1967-1968.
A drive by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to sign up 1 million veterans to a database of health and genomic information literally has taken to the road, with stops this week in five communities around the region.
“It sounded like something I would enjoy participating in,” said Ernie Cox of North Huntingdon Township, one of the first to sign up — and give a blood sample — to a mobile van making stops this week throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“It should help some people out,” said Robert L. Porter, 54, a Belle Vernon native now living in Glassport who drove the van to the Greensburg area center — then was willing to volunteer for the study.
“It is a (Federal Emergency Management Agency)-certified emergency preparedness dual-use vehicle,” said Beatrice Chakraborty of Murrysville, coordinator for the department’s Million Veteran Program or MVP at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.
“It is a convenience to veterans,” said VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System spokeswoman Sheila Tunney. “This is the first time we’ve gone out in the van.”
MVP, which links genetic, clinical, lifestyle and military exposure information, is tied in to the White House Precision Medicine Initiative, which aims to improve health care by individualizing treatment.
“It sounded like something that would be necessary to help other veterans,” said Cox, who turns 66 in December, after his encounter Monday outside the Westmoreland County Community-Based Outpatient Clinic or CBOC along Route 30 in Hempfield Township.
“Sometimes they’re exposed to chemicals and don’t know it,” Porter said.
Cox thinks it possibly happened to him after he was drafted into the Army in 1970 and served during a two-year tenure in Germany as well as a base near Anniston, Alabama, that was closed in 1999.
“I was stationed at Fort McClellan and that was the chemical warfare school,” Cox recalled. “It is closed because it is polluted.”
Porter felt comfortable filling out the needed forms and allowing the draw of two tablespoons of his blood.
“I think it is a good program,” said Porter, who remains in the Army Reserve but has served for the past 10 years in pre-op work at the Same-Day Surgery unit at the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System facility in Oakland.
“Everything has been fine,” Cox said. “It saved me having to drive in to Oakland.”
Cox talked about it with other veterans after getting a letter inviting him to be part of the study — but didn’t expect much participation from them.
“The military experience can be a negative experience for a lot of them and they wanted no part of it,” Cox said.
The van will go Wednesday to the Washington County CBOC, 1500 W. Chestnut St., Washington, Pennsylvania; Thursday to the Fayette County CBOC, adjacent to Fayette Plaza at 635 Pittsburgh Road in North Union Township; and Friday to the Beaver County CBOC, 90 Wagner Road, Monaca.
In all cases the van will be open between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. for any veteran regardless of their hometown. So far MVP has signed up 500,000 veterans nationwide.
“I have met a lot of nice veterans,” said Cathy S. Boarts of Kittanning, a research assistant with six years of VA experience including five with MVP. “We have over 8,500 signed up in the Pittsburgh area.”
In the first couple of hours Monday about one dozen veterans dropped by, some taking brochures with them, others deciding to be tested.
“To anyone who walks on the bus, we would ask them if they’ve heard of the program,” Tunney said.
“The initial DNA collection and survey take about 20 minutes,” Chakraborty said. “It’s completely voluntary and your information is coded for protection.”
Personnel on hand at the Westmoreland County location stressed how voluntary it is.
“We explain the program to them,” Chakraborty said. “We get informed consent. And then we’ll ask permission to check their VA medical records.”
The program is aimed at those who are signed up for VA benefits.
“They need to be part of the VA medical system,” Chakraborty said. “They get their care at the VA or they register with the VA. Some use their own private insurance so they don’t need to use the VA, but they are eligible (for MVP) if they register with the VA.”
Some findings have already resulted from those who signed up for MVP, including research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and what genes may influence the condition in some veterans, but not others.
VA spokespersons said researchers in San Diego and West Haven, Connecticut, believe this may lead to better PTSD treatments, and even preventive steps.
They also said researchers in Atlanta and Boston are using MVP data to study genes that determine how obesity and lipid levels affect risk of heart disease, as well as whether these genetic factors differ among African Americans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said MVP has the world’s largest representation of minorities in a genetic and health database with more than 13 percent African American and nearly 7 percent Hispanic enrollees.
Further details about MVP can be obtained by calling 1-866-441-6075 or visiting www.research.va.gov/mvp/.