VETERANS AFFAIRS Daniel Federman, MD Vice Chair, Veterans Affairs
At the VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) in West Haven, Department of Internal Medicine faculty care for patients; train residents and fellows; and perform research across the following subspeciality sections: general medicine, infectious diseases, kidney medicine, pulmonary, cardiology, gastroenterology / liver, allergy and immunology, rheumatology, occupational health, endocrinology, hospital medicine, hematology/oncology, and geriatrics. In addition to the West Haven location, internal medicine faculty care for patients at seven other CommunityBased Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) across Connecticut. Of the 571 total ladder track faculty, 100+ perform patient care fullor part-time at VACHS. christina price, md
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annual report 2021
In January 2021, Daniel Federman, MD, was named chief of medicine at VACHS and vice chair, Veterans Affairs, for the Department of Internal Medicine. In this role, Federman is working toward more widespread adoption of integrative medicine and whole health. In addition, he is collaborating with other VA leaders to increase veteran enrollment in VACHS.
Allergy and Immunology Led by Christina Price, MD, the Allergy and Immunology Section has one faculty member (Price) along with a nurse practitioner, Janina Gilo-Tompkins, APRN, who together support four clinics in West Haven,
including inpatient consultations. The team oversees immunotherapy services at each of the CBOCs via telehealth. This past year, an educational program was developed for immunotherapy to expand service across the region. In the coming year, the Allergy and Immunology section seeks to expand its role nationally to provide telehealth service for areas outside the region, in particular with clinical immunology.
Cardiology The cardiology section has 20 faculty (10 full-time and 10 part-time) serving Connecticut VA patients at two campuses, in West Haven and Newington. In addition to general outpatient cardiology, the section provides subspecialty care in electrophysiology, heart failure, and peripheral vascular disease, for a total of over 16,000 outpatient visits per year. Outpatient general cardiology will expand to the New London location in the spring of 2022. The section has been designated as a VACHS Clinical Resource Hub for the New England Region in cardiology specialty care. This service provides virtual care in cardiology to smaller VA facilities in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Manchester, New Hampshire. Other clinical initiatives include the opening of a structural program for percutaneous valve replacements, and the expansion of cardiac rehabilitation to include cardiac wellness and primary prevention. Recently, West Haven was designated a Cooperative Studies Program Network of Dedicated Enrollment Sites (CSP-NODES). This designation is the culmination of a comprehensive application submitted by Judith Meadows, MD, MPH, from cardiology and Mehmet Sofuoglu, MD, PhD, from psychiatry. West Haven is one of only three VA sites to have the three pillars of the VA CSP program: a CSP NODES site, a CSP Coordinating Center (CSPCC), and a Clinical Epidemiology Research Center (CERC). As a NODES site, cardiology will have expanded resources and opportunity for clinical trials and investigator mentoring. Complementary to clinical research, basic research includes the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Laboratory. This lab, run by Mehran Sadeghi, MD, is funded by four federal grants (two R01, one VA Merit, and one DOD). It consists of 1400 sq. ft. fully equipped wet lab space, as well as a chemistry laboratory for SOP-based synthesis of
