White House/VA Conference
Emerging Technologies in Support of the New Freedom Initiative:
Promoting Opportunities for People with Disabilities October 13-14, 2004

Insert Speakers Remarks or Address

The Office of Research and Development is thrilled that we’ve been able to bring together so many different viewpoints, all focused on a single critical topic: the potential for technology to improve the mobility, health, and daily lives of our disabled veterans.

The goal of conference is perfectly congruent with the goals of VA research: To translate scientific and technologic advances into better care for veterans.

It is my great honor this morning to present the first speaker of this very distinguished panel, the Honorable Anthony J. Principi, Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Secretary Principi directs the federal government’s second-largest department, responsible for a nationwide system of healthcare services, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for Americans veterans and dependents, with a budget of $64 billion and approximately 230,000 employees.

Dr. Stephan Fihn is the director of the highly successful Northwest VA HSR&D (Health Services Research and Development)Center for Outcomes Research in Older Adults, and he is the head of the University of Washington's Division of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Fihn is also the research coordinator for the Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) QUERI (Quality Enhancement Research Initiative) group that works to improve the care and outcomes of veterans with IHD. In addition, Dr. Fihn leads the Seattle VA's HSR Fellowship Program and has mentored numerous VA fellows and career development awardees, many of whom have developed into prominent VA health services researchers.

A combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Principi served as Deputy Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs and Acting Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs under the first President Bush. He subsequently served as counsel to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican chief counsel, and staff director of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He was chairman of the Commission on Service Members and the Veterans Transitions Assistance established by Congress in 1996.

Mr. Principi is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He first saw active duty aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy, and later commanded a river patrol unit in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

During my brief four months as the Acting Chief Research And Development Officer, I’ve had the pleasure to interact frequently with the Secretary. I have been consistently impressed with his steadfast and unwavering support for research and the potential it holds to improve the lives of veterans, particularly those wounded in combat.

He has been a vocal and enthusiastic proponent for such research, and this conference embodies that commitment. All of us present this morning sincerely appreciate the Secretary’s enthusiastic support, his broad perspective, and his wisdom.

Please help me welcome Secretary Principi.