Gulf War Illnesses: Research, Clinical Monitoring, and Medical Surveillance

GAO discussed two of its recent reports on health care issues of military personnel deployed for military operations overseas, focusing on the: (1) adequacy of the mechanisms used by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to monitor the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of Gulf War veterans' care and to follow up on their clinical progress over time; (2) government's research strategy for studying Gulf War veterans' illnesses and the methodological problems posed in its studies; (3) consistency of key officials conclusions with available data on the causes of the Gulf War veterans' illnesses; and (4) extent to which DOD's efforts for Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia were successful in overcoming the medical surveillance problems encountered during the Gulf War.