I think in a sense the discussion we are going to have today, people all over this country. In a sense that many of us included myself, have seen folks go into a hospital for one problem or another and end coming out different than it went in and sometimes dying as a result. What is widely known is the major cause of death in the United States today is the heart disease, a serious problem. The second leading cause of death is cancer. According to the 2010 cdc report, 597,000 people died of heart disease, 574,000 died of cancer. What is not widely known and in fact what the function of this hearing is about and i hope to do my best with the help of my fellow senators and members of the panel is to start focusing attention on the third leading cause of death in the United States of america and that will come as the great surprise and the third leading cause of death in this country has to do with preventable medical errors in hospitals. Recent article published in the journal of Patient
I want to start by noting that the committee has been particularly supportive as the staff and the oversight investigation subcommittee for their work on this issue and their work with our agency we consider it to be a Real Partnership and we are very grateful for this committees support. We have received a number of referrals from this committee and we appreciate your confidence and ability to work with the employees that your office refers. So thats one thing. Its already happening. We are doing everything that we possibly can. Weve set up a priority system and we free allocated staff to handle the va employee claims. But as the numbers increase its a very hard to keep up. We were at capacity before. In the retaliation cases now it exceeds 130, and the number as i mentioned continues to increase pretty much daily. We are an agency that has 120 employees more or less. We have jurisdiction for the statute for the reemployment rights act and we are working now on a demonstration for the
I appreciate what the secretary is doing with the restructuring and coming up with a strong internal audit system. However i must express that i am skeptical about how that is going to work. We have the whistleblower protection act but its not enforced. My concern burst of office we have heard so much testimony in thandthe committee about a cultf secrecy and culture of retaliation, and retaliation is a huge deterrent to hearing the complaints. So my first question is to you we heard theres been retaliation against employees. I encountered there is retaliation against patients who might feel they have a complaint against a facility. Are you aware of any retaliation against patients or veterans . I think thats a really important question. Im not aware of any retaliation in part because my Agency Jurisdiction is for employees to come forward with retaliation complaints or disclosures of waste, fraud, abuse or Health Safety problems. Someone could come to us if they thought that a patient
That specifically treats my cancer mutation. Im sure there are many other victims who would benefit from this innovation, but they must be made aware. For some reason, that knowledge is not being disseminated the patient. I do not know why. It could be regulatory. It could be insurance. It could be government obstacles. I do not know. But, i do know it could save lives. I can only adjust my treatment. Genomic testing work for me, it may not work for all. It is time to invest, and educate with these new innovations in mind. Science is moving rapidly. Traditional medicine in the past currently followed me to change. They need to change now. Back that can be up to you. I strongly believe that with science and funding, all patients will be treated with genomic testing. Though, the cure for cancer may remain elusive, the ability to live and thrive with cancer is well within our reach. Thank you for this opportunity. You have heard from the experts. What i would like to do now is introduce y
The dots of innovation to patients. Its an exciting time because we have the opportunity to make the most advanced clinical decisions available to every cancer patient regardless of where they live and what their socioeconomic background is. And regardless of what practical resources they may have available to them. Expectation. N all things are taking place right now. , and imng, Research Going to go someplace thats going to be innovative. Overall, one of the goals of Cancer Innovation is to improve the outcome. Personalized medicine, advanced diagnostics. Cancer. S can we afford innovations . We cant afford not to innovate. The status quo gets more expensive year after year. Think we are on the cusp of an information revolution. It is a few months, a year of survival. It has been amazing. We continue with the research to e cancer a disease it is on the edge of revolution. We will feature and target treatment for problems that cause cancer. Therapyres the targeted and the development