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Research

VA Boston Healthcare System conducts research to discover knowledge, develop VA scientists and health care leaders, and create innovations that advance health care for Veterans and the nation.

VA Boston Healthcare System is host to the largest research program in the Veterans Health Administration by dollar value, at more than $130 million annually by the end of Fiscal Year 2022. We are also home to 10 national centers of excellence, including the Million Veteran Program and the VA Biorepository Brain Bank, and two divisions of the National Center for PTSD: the Behavioral Science Division and Women’s Health Sciences Division.

Our research programs

We offer Veterans the opportunity to participate in and benefit from our work. Our goal is to use research to promote better health and health care for all. The VA Boston Healthcare System is a member of the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals and is recognized as one of the largest contributors of research to its portfolio. 

Major research areas at the Brockton campus

  • Addictions and alcoholism 

  • Behavioral research 

  • Neurotherapy of mental illness 

  • Schizophrenia 

  • Sleep disorders 

Major research areas at the Jamaica Plain campus

  • Aging 

  • Alcoholism 

  • Aphasia 

  • Blast exposure and traumatic brain injury (TBI) 

  • Cardiovascular disease 

  • Diabetes 

  • Hemostasis 

  • Hypertension 

  • Infectious disease 

  • Language and memory disorders 

  • Neuroscience 

  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)  

  • Retinal prosthesis 

  • Tissue engineering 

Major research areas at the West Roxbury campus

  • Cardiology and cardiovascular diseases 

  • Cardiothoracic surgery 

  • Endocrinology 

  • Gastrointestinal motility disorders 

  • Gastrointestinal surgery 

  • Genetics 

  • Hematology 

  • Multiple myeloma 

  • Neurology and neuroscience 

  • Orthopedic surgery 

  • Rehabilitation 

  • Spinal cord injuries

Clinical trials

You can find projects that are currently seeking volunteers, as well as contact information, at the clinical trials site.

Other program pages