Since the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health was established in 1961, it has worked with researchers and healthcare providers serving veterans through a partnership with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, or VAGLAHS.
Over the decades, the school’s graduates have helped advance research into veterans’ health, studying conditions including colorectal cancer, diabetes and pulmonary disease.
Among them is Elizabeth Yano, director of the Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation and Policy within VAGLAHS. “Almost all our researchers at the VA in Los Angeles have their academic appointments at UCLA in the schools of medicine, public health, or both,” Yano said. She added that UCLA faculty members and Fielding graduates are leading research in veteran primary and specialty care, mental health and women’s health, while also addressing barriers to care, including homelessness.
The system serves more than 84,000 veterans, nearly half of the 200,000 veterans living in Los Angeles County, according to VA records. State and federal estimates put the veteran population across Southern California at roughly 1.4 million.
Isomi Miake-Lye, who completed her doctorate at UCLA Fielding in 2016, said federal law requires VA research to prioritize work directly relevant to veterans’ medical needs.
Miake-Lye, a VA researcher for more than 15 years, said this focus reflects the system’s mission. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of the top priority areas include military exposures, traumatic brain injury, suicide prevention and chronic pain,” she said.
Research by UCLA Fielding graduates at VAGLAHS spans improvements in healthcare delivery and operations as well as the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. Many of these alumni also have affiliations with UCLA’s schools of public health, medicine, nursing and dentistry.
Physicians say veterans’ willingness to participate in research is another strength of the UCLA–VA partnership.
“Veterans are some of the most engaged patients and research participants I work with,” said Dr. Russell Buhr, a pulmonary and critical care physician at UCLA and the VA. Buhr, who completed his doctorate at Fielding in 2019, said many veterans view participating in research as another way to serve, helping improve care for those who follow. “They’re also refreshingly direct about what is and isn’t working, which makes our research better,” he said.
UCLA gastroenterologist Dr. Fola May, who combines her work with patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Westwood with cancer research as a scientist at UCLA Health’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, agrees.
“They are some of the most grateful patients I have been privileged to provide care for,” said May, who completed her doctorate at Fielding in 2015. “Many recognize that by participating in research, they are helping not only themselves but also fellow veterans and future generations of patients.”
Read more about Bruins involved with veteran research and care at the UCLA Fielding website.
