News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Joins Internet2

VA to Utilize Internet2’s High Performance Network and Collaboration  
Community to Enhance Healthcare Resources

Ann Arbor, Mich. – September 25, 2008 - Internet2 today announced that  
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has joined Internet2 as  
an affiliate member and has connected to its nationwide network.  
Through its membership, VA can leverage the Internet2 backbone network  
as well as tap into the Internet2 community’s numerous collaboration  
opportunities, in order to enhance its partnerships with universities,  
medical schools, medical libraries and research institutions in the  
U.S. and around the world.

In the near term, VA plans to work with the Internet2 advanced  
networking community to investigate next-generation technologies like  
IPv6 and determine how these technologies can enhance the transmission  
of medical data and information. Additionally, the VA medical  
community intends to explore how the Internet2 Network may be used to  
support medical data sharing, distance learning, high resolution image  
transfers and bandwidth-intensive health science applications like  
telepresence, telepathology, and IP video for home healthcare.

VA connects to the Internet2 high performance nationwide network via  
the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads at one of the VA's existing secured  
Internet gateway locations in the Washington DC area. This link will  
facilitate communications between all VA facilities and affiliated  
institutions and business partners that are also using the Internet2  
Network. As the VA network and business requirements evolve and the VA  
relationship with Internet2 expands, the Department may consider  
connections to Internet2 from other VA locations in the future to  
support specific projects and demonstrations.

“VA provides critical medical care and services to our nation’s  
veterans.  We welcome VA to the Internet2 community and look forward  
to helping them to tap into a wide array of new healthcare resources  
via the Internet2 Network and community. We believe we will be able to  
work with them to enhance the care and services in the future for our  
nation’s veterans,” said Michael McGill, director of the Internet2  
health sciences initiative. “We look forward to cultivating a long  
term and fruitful relationship with VA as the Internet2 community  
continues to focus more resources and development efforts on health  
sciences and the improvement of health research, education and  
clinical care through advanced networking.”

ABOUT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates nationwide  
programs for health care, financial assistance and burial benefits  
with a total 2007 budget of $82 billion.  It has the second largest  
work force among agencies of the federal government, with the majority  
of employees in the Veterans Health Administration, the nation’s  
largest provider of direct health care delivery.  VA’s medical system  
includes 155 medical centers and a total of 1,400 sites of care in a  
full spectrum of medical, surgical and rehabilitative care.

ABOUT THE MID-ATLANTIC CROSSROADS
The Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) is a Regional Optical Network (RON)  
consortium founded by Georgetown University, George Washington  
University, the University of Maryland, and Virginia Tech. The MAX  
mission is to serve the long term strategic planning, deployment,  
operation, and coordination for advanced internetworking services and  
initiatives in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. MAX  
serves the research and education community as well as collaborating  
organizations from the public sector, private/commercial sector, not- 
for-profits, and state and federal agencies that require access to  
leading edge telecommunications technologies. For more information  
about MAX, please visit http://www.maxgigapop.net/.

ABOUT INTERNET2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by  
the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes  
the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network  
capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together  
facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary  
Internet technologies. Internet2 brings the U.S. research and academic  
community together with technology leaders from industry, government  
and the international community to undertake collaborative efforts  
that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet. For more  
information: http://www.internet2.edu

Media Contact:
Lauren Rotman

202.331.5345