About Walter Reed Army Medical Center - DCMilitary.com

acquired throughout the region and overseas. The American
Board of Radiology certifies all faculty members, and fellowship-trained
physicians with particular interest and expertise in
those areas represent all major subspecialties of radiology. In
addition, the department is a major training site for radiology
physicians and technologists for the Army and Navy.
Department staff members perform and interprets approximately
130,000 studies annually.
The department also offers an electron-beam heart-view
coronary artery screening program and is now opening a virtual-colonoscopy
colon-screening program. These are the only
programs of their kind in the Department of Defense.
Diagnostic Radiology Service provides MRI and MRI spectroscopy,
MRI of the breast, multi detector computed tomography,
ultrasonography as well as vascular and interventional
radiology procedures.
The evaluation and treatment of disease of women takes
place in our modern Women’s Imaging Center.
The Nuclear Medicine Service offers all standard nuclear
medicine studies and many unique procedures and therapies
not offered at other military facilities.
The Radiation Therapy Service offers external beam radiation
treatments for benign and malignant tumors in adults and
children in all body sites. The service is the only one in the
Army that offers stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy
treatments for central nervous system lesions.
Department of Surgery
Army Audiology and Speech Center
The Army Audiology and Speech Center, established in
1947, is the Department of Defense’s largest and most diverse
center for evaluation, rehabilitation and research in disorders
of speech-language, hearing and balance. The center provides
a wide range of clinical diagnostic and rehabilitative services
for more than 20,000 patients a year with communication and
balance disorders.
The AASC dispenses hearing aids for active-duty and
retired patients with hearing problems, and provides minor
hearing aid repairs. The pediatric audiology program identifies
hearing loss in pediatric patients, and provides services to parents,
educators and health professionals necessary to foster
normal speech and language development. The AASC has a
comprehensive balance lab for evaluating dizziness and balance
disorders. It is a cochlear implant center, providing services
for identifying, implanting, and rehabilitating patients who
need a cochlear implant. AASC is also a leader in force health
protection, managing the Army Hearing Conservation Program
for National Capital Region and providing consultative services
for the Army’s North Atlantic Region.
AASC speech-language pathologists evaluate and treat
patients with swallowing, neurological, fluency, and voice disorders.
The center has one of the most extensive swallowing
and voice labs available and provides the only services of its
kind in the Department of Defense. Speech-language pathologists
assist teams throughout Walter Reed in managing patients
with swallowing disorders, craniofacial anomalies, tracheotomy
and head injury.
AASC is also the only Department of Defense facility that
conducts clinical research for communication disorders. Areas
of research include hearing aid benefit and clinical trials, auditory
perception and processing, and speech perception and processing.
The clinical impact of this research program has
improved assessment of speech and voice disorders, documented
the efficacy of current hearing aid technology, and
developed tools to assess fitness for duty.
Cardiothoracic Surgery Service
This National Capital Region Specialized Treatment Service
provides comprehensive surgical services to patients who need
heart or lung surgery. It does more than 250 cardiac operations
per year and an equal number of general thoracic surgical procedures.
They include coronary artery bypass surgery, both
with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass and beating heart; all
arterial revascularizations with the use of internal mammary
artery, radial artery and gastroepiploic artery; valvular repair
and replacement; aortic reconstruction; complex congenital
repairs; minimally invasive vein harvesting; and video-assisted
thoracic surgical procedures including sympathectomy for
hyperhidrosis palmaris bilateralis, VATS lobectomy and minimally
invasive treatment of a host of pleural diseases, both
benign and malignant. Newer technologies include the use of a
fully robotic surgical system to perform telepresence robotic
cardiothoracic surgery.
Ophthalmology Service
The Ophthalmology Service at Walter Reed is a modern,
well-equipped unit that features a full range of general and specialty
services. The Eye Clinic treats patients with a wide range
of disease processes, ranging from strabismus in children to
cataracts and macular diseases in adults. The service uses the
latest surgical techniques to rehabilitate vision for patients
from all over the world.
World-renowned consultants support a strong and experienced
staff in corneal and external disease, pediatric ophthalmology,
oculoplastic surgery, orbital disease and surgery,
neuro-ophthalmology, vitreo-retinal diseases, glaucoma,
cataract surgery and laser refractive surgery. Future military
ophthalmologists are trained through the nationally accredited
Walter Reed residency program.
20 “Home of Warior Care and So Much More”