VHA Timeline 1865-2021

VHA TIMELINE

1865-2021

1865

• President Abraham Lincoln authorizes the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) in March 1865 to provide medical and convalescent care for discharged members of the Union Army and Navy volunteer forces one month before the Civil War ends

National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS), Dayon, Ohio.

1866

• The Eastern Branch at Togus, Maine, is the first NHDVS campus to open in November 1866

Eastern Branch, NHDVS, Togue, Maine.

1867

• Emma Miller becomes the first woman employee in VA’s history, serving as the matron for the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio

1870

• The NHDVS opens its first permanent hospital building at the Central Branch in Dayton, Ohio

1919

• Lucy Minnigerode becomes the first Superintendent of Nursing and oversees care for those afflicted by the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic and returning World War I Veterans

• The Public Health Service builds the first modern-era Veterans’ hospitals for the Bureau of War Risk Insurance and provides health care to World War I Veterans

1921

• Native Americans become eligible for full Veteran benefits including medical care

• Veterans Bureau is established by merging the three World War I Veterans programs

Native American Soldier, 1919.

1923

• The first African American Veterans’ hospital is dedicated in Tuskegee, Alabama

• The NHDVS accepts women Veterans for medical care and hospitalization for the first time

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1924

• Lt. Col. Joseph Henry Ward, MD, becomes the first African American hospital director

1925

• The first research program is established and the Veterans Bureau begins conducting the first hospital-based medical studies

1930

• President Herbert Hoover consolidates the Veterans Bureau with the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Pension Bureau, re-designating it as the Veterans Administration (VA)

1932

• The Tumor Research Laboratory at the Hines Hospital in Chicago is the first hospital to receive funds from the VA Central Office specifically for research

1944

• Veterans’ benefits are greatly expanded through the Montgomery “G.I.” Bill

Armistice Day parade, 1945. The Veteran population increased by 16 million at the end of World War II.

1945

• Veteran population increases by 16 million with the end of World War II

• Gen. Omar Bradley is sworn in as Administrator of the Veterans Administration in August

• Gen. Paul R. Hawley becomes the Chief Medical Director of the Veterans Administration in September

• The Prosthetic Appliance Service is established within VA

• George A. Kelly is appointed as the first psychology consultant to help design the new VA psychology program

• The first Mental Hygiene Clinic for outpatient mental health services opens in Los Angeles

• Rev. Crawford W. Brown is appointed as the first Chief of Chaplaincy Service with the establishment of a National Chaplaincy Service

Gen. Omar Bradley, Gen. Paul Hawley, and Dr. Paul Magnuson, 1946.

1946

• The Department of Medicine and Surgery is created by Public Law 79-293 on Jan. 3

• Within the first six months of 1946, VA’s full-time physician staff increases from 600 to 4,000

• VA Memorandum No. 2 establishes affiliations with medical schools to help train physicians and other medical personnel needed to work in VA hospitals. Affiliations with 63 of the nation’s 77 medical schools are developed by 1948

• Hines Hospital in Chicago becomes the first VA facility to affiliate with a medical school, teaming with Northwestern and the University of Illinois

• Dr. Margaret D. Craighill becomes the VA’s first Chief Medical Consultant on women Veterans’ medical care and appoints the first 10 women doctors at VA to treat women Veterans

• Veterans Administration Voluntary Services (VAVS) is created on April 18

• Public Law 79-636 establishes the Veterans Canteen Service (VCS) “for the primary purpose of making, to Veterans hospitalized or domiciled in the hospitals and homes, for purchase at reasonable prices, articles of merchandise and services essential to their comfort and well-being”

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• VA develops and tests effective therapies for tuberculosis using the multicenter clinical trials approach. This approach leads to development of the Cooperative Studies Program, which has since produced effective treatments for diseases and conditions including schizophrenia, diabetes, depression, heart disease, and stroke

• Gen. Bradley announces that VA will build 183 new hospitals – 105 general, 49 neuropsychiatric, and 29 tuberculosis, providing an additional 151,500 beds – in 39 states. It is the largest proposed federal Veteran hospital construction program in history

1947

• VA establishes the standard for developing better-fitting, lighter artificial limbs through studies of human locomotion, enhanced surgical techniques, and modernized design and manufacturing methods

• Gen. Bradley and Gen. Hawley leave the VA

1948

• First facilities for women Veterans are constructed in the Bedford, Massachusetts, and American Lake, Washington, hospitals

• Public Law 792 authorizes a program of research in prosthetics, orthotics, and sensory devices

1952

• 1952 Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (Korean War G.I. Bill) provides benefits to Korean War Veterans

Air Force Sikorsky H-5 helicopter evacuating wounded during the Korean War. 7. Dr. Oscar Auerbach.

1954

• Segregation based on race ends in VA hospitals

1956

• Drs. Norman Farberow, PhD, and Edwin Shneidman, PhD, launch a three-year study at VA on suicide. Their work forms the nucleus of VA’s Central Research unit for the Study of Unpredicted Death, and brings the study of suicide to academia

1958

• The first definitive proof of the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is made by Dr. Oscar Auerbach, MD, a pathologist at the East Orange VA Hospital

Dr. Oscar Auerbach.

1959

• VA’s first atomic reactor is installed at Omaha VA Hospital, ushering in era of “atomic medicine”

1960

• William Chardack, MD, and Wilson Greatbatch, MS, of the Buffalo VA Hospital, and Andrew Gage, MD, invent the first clinically successful cardiac pacemaker

William Chardack, MD, Wilson Greatbatch, MS, and Andrew Gage, MD, invent first successful cardiac pacemaker.

1961

• Researchers pioneer the concepts that lead to development of computerized axial tomography (CAT scan)

1962

• Dr. Howard W. Kenney, MD, is appointed as the first African American Hospital Director in a formerly all-white hospital, at the East Orange VA Hospital

1963

• The first successful liver transplant is performed at the Denver VA Hospital by Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD

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1966

• Public Law 89-785 makes medical educational training a part of the VA’s mission along with patient care and research, including a mandate to train health professionals for the nation in addition to its own staffing needs

1969

• The first heart transplant operation in a VA hospital takes place in the Palo Alto Medical Center by Dr. William W. Angell, MD

1970

• Research begins on planning and developing the Electronic Health Record (EHR)

1972

• Dr. Valerija B. Raulinaitis, MD, becomes the first woman to lead a VA hospital when she becomes Director at the Leech Farm Road Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr. Valerija B. Raulinaitis, MD, becomes first woman to lead a VA hospital.

1975

• The number of medical schools affiliated with VA reaches 100 when the North Carolina School of Medicine affiliates with the Fayetteville, North Carolina VA Hospital

1977

• Nobel Prizes are awarded to VA researchers Dr. Andrew Schally, PhD, for his research on peptide hormone production in the brain; and Dr. Rosalyn Yalow, PhD, for her development of radioimmunoassay to detect and measure various substances in the blood 10

Dr. Andrew Schally, PhD, and Dr. Rosalyn Yalow, PhD, 1977 Nobel Prize winners.

1978

• VA begins offering special access to medical care, including physical exams, to Vietnam Veterans with Agent Orange health concerns 11

• The first VA hospital named after a woman is dedicated in Bedford, Massachusetts, as the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital by Congress

A helicopter sprays Agent Orange over forest during Vietnam War.

1979

• Congress passes the Veterans Health Care Amendments Act of 1979. VA sets up a network of Vet Centers across the country, separate from other VA facilities providing various counseling services and treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

1982

• VA given fourth mission by Congress in PL 97-174 to improve the nation’s preparedness for response to war, terrorism, national emergencies, and natural disasters by developing plans and taking actions to ensure continued service to Veterans

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1983

• The Rev. Meredith Hunt becomes the first female full-time Chaplain at VA

1984

• The nicotine patch and other therapies to help smokers quit are developed by VA researchers

• Viola Johnson becomes the first African American woman to lead a VA Hospital when she becomes Director of the Battle Creek, Michigan Medical Center

Viola Johnson becomes first African American woman to lead a VA hospital.

1985

• The Seattle Foot is developed by Dr. Ernest M. Burgess, MD, PhD, at the VA hospital in Seattle. The foot uses a patented spring to aid patients’ push off when taking a step

1988

• The Women Veterans Health Program is established

1990

• VistA, VA’s first image management system, provides VA physicians with immediate access to patient medical images, regardless of location. The system manages radiologic, pathology, gastroenterology, and laparoscopic images, as well as electrocardiograms

• The VA Medical Center in Saginaw, Michigan, is renamed after Aleda Lutz, becoming the second VA facility named after a woman and the first named after a female Veteran

1st Lt. Aleda Lutz, namesake of the first VA hospital named for the first American woman to die in combat in World War II.

1991

• The Department of Medicine and Surgery is re-designated as the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration and called the Veterans Health Administration

1993

• Congress authorizes medical care for Gulf War Veterans for conditions possibly related to exposure to toxic substances or environmental hazards 14

• The VA-Indian Health Service partnership is established

Soldiers during the Gulf War, 1991.

1994

• The Center for Minority Veterans (CMV) is established

• The Center for Women Veterans is established

1995

• VA Medical Centers become grouped into 22 Veterans Integrated Service Networks

1996

• VA researchers identify the gene that causes Werner’s syndrome, a disease marked by premature aging

1997

• VA establishes eight Comprehensive Women’s Health Centers and four Stress Disorder Treatment Centers

• The first three Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (MIRECCs) are funded by the VA

• VA researchers identify a gene associated with a major risk for schizophrenia

1998

• VA researchers identify a gene that causes a rare form of dementia, providing a potential target for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

• VA researcher Dr. Ferid Murad, MD, PhD, is awarded a Nobel Prize for his discoveries relating to nitric oxide, a body chemical that helps maintain healthy blood vessels

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1999

• VA launches the first treatment trials for Gulf War Veterans’ illnesses, focusing on antibiotics and exercise

2000

• VA researchers show that the colonoscopy is superior as a primary screening mechanism for colon cancer

2001

• The first clinical trial under the Tri-National Research Initiative begins on an antiretroviral therapy for HIV

2003

• VA launches My HealtheVet nationwide. Today, the personal health record portal has more than 2.5 million registered users

2004

• Establishes a major center of excellence, in partnership with Brown University and MIT, to develop state-of-the-art prosthetics for Veteran amputees

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2005

• VA announces major funding initiatives for research on neurotrauma, chronic pain, and other health problems prevalent in combat-wounded Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan

2006

• The Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma, becomes the first VA Medical Center to be named after a Native American

2007

• VA’s National Suicide Prevention Hotline becomes operational

• VA unveils the first powered ankle-foot prosthesis, developed in collaboration with researchers at MIT and Brown University

First powered ankle-foot prosthesis developed by VA, MIT, and Brown University researchers.

2008

• VA launches a nationwide expansion of Alzheimer’s-caregiver program

• VA publishes results of one of the first randomized clinical trials comparing different treatment approaches for those with traumatic brain injury

• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and VA sign MOA under which DARPA will fund DEKA Research and Development Corp. to produce prototype arms and VA will fund researchers in VA to conduct clinical testing of the arms

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2009

• VA initiates the largest health study ever of Vietnam-era women Veterans

• VA begins first-of-its-kind study at VA Medical Centers to optimize the design of an advanced prosthetic arm

2010

• VA combines efforts with U.S. Army and U.S. Marines to study ways to prevent suicide among active-duty service members and to determine why certain service members develop PTSD while others do not

2011

• VA launches the Million Veteran Program (MVP), which establishes one of the world’s largest databases of health and genetic information for use in future research aimed at preventing and treating illness among Veterans and all Americans

Million Veteran Program launched in 2011.

2012

• VA finds that therapy combining stem cells and growth factors may help heal spinal cord injury

• VistA Evolution launches with a goal of providing essential health information technology to Veterans and clinicians and allows Veterans to have seamless access to their health record

2013

• VA collaborates with researchers in Europe and Israel to develop and test a new type of artificial pancreas that could lead to major improvements in care for diabetes

• VA announces the formation of new research consortia to study PTSD and traumatic brain injury

2014

• The DEKA Arm (now LUKE Arm) is approved after a 2014 study led by researchers from the Providence VA Medical Center and Brown University

• VA launches phase 2 of the Women Veterans Cohort Study, examining data on more than 900,000 Veterans to better understand women’s health needs, health care use, and outcomes

2015

• VA launches a study of light therapy to improve brain function in Veterans with Gulf War illness

• VA awards major contracts to help develop natural touch sensation for prosthetics users

2017

DEKA arm is approved after Providence VAMC and Brown University study.

• VA contributes to advances in a braincomputer technology that now allows fast, accurate typing by people with paralysis

2018

• VA launches a telehealth program to serve Veterans living in rural areas who have PTSD

2019

• VA joins the PREVENTS initiative to prevent Veteran suicides, in part through the development and implementation of a national research strategy

2020

• VA begins a national four-year study on the impact of COVID-19 on Veterans

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