Looking For A Rule On Internet Submissions

[carlie]

Will someone please point me into the direction that states you may submit internet information to substantiate your claim -- I've gone brain dead -- again.

Thanks,

carlie

[Tbird]

i think this may be what you are looking for http://www.hadit.com/internetprintouts.htm

[carlie]

PERFECT ! ! Where was that hiding?

Edited November 30, 2006 by carlie

[Berta]

Carlie- even the VBM suggests using good medical abstracts or treatises to support a claim.

I used many over the last 3 years- associating each one,in each case with my husband's medical records.

I used ADA, NIH, Diabetologica and the best medical references I could find.

Also I used Merck, as VA itself does.

The association of Rod's undiagosed diabetes to his specific type of heart disease and brain trauma(from the ECHO,EKGS and MRI report) was significant as to these medical printouts and the IM0s I got agreed.

However the VARO listed this all as "letters from the widow" or as "internet printouts from the widow" and never considered a single one of them,nor the IMos.

They did not state that the abstract or treatise was not specific to the veteran as I had associated them very well to documented details in the clinical record.

This was a lot of work because I did this to make sure I knew exactly what his medical situation was.

But the treatises used by Dr. Bash in his IMOs might have more weight.

I notice that the BVA considers treatises or abstracts only if they are very specific to the claim.

I saw an award of DIC at the BVA to a widow who had fought them for years -her husband's death was caused by an extremely rare form of cancer. He was not exposed to Agent Orange or radiation and had served somewhere in Asia or Korea, but not near the DMZ.

The widow found a treatise that showed that an obscure village area in the same part of Asia where he had served had a highly pronounced rate of this type of rare cancer possibly from contaminated water -I forget what-this information was so specific to the veteran's same rare cancer that she succeeded in her claim.

Also the VVA had the first airgun hepatitus award. I emailed Monte Wilson and asked how they did it. They used a study from England that supported the incidence of airguns causing hepatitus.

The claim was actually awarded I believe -at the VARO level.

This goes to show that ,medical printouts can fully support a claim-unless the VA chooses to ignore them.

Edited November 30, 2006 by Berta

[Ricky]

Good points Berta. However, let me throw in that it is nearly impossible to get most VARO's to reconize IMO'S and even medical records so if using internet references they must be specific to the claim as you have stated and you must continue to throw them into VA's face in your claim.

Ricky

[Berta]

Ricky -here's something good to throw in their face:

"Every element in any way affecting the probative value to be assigned to the evidence in each individual claim must be thoroughly and conscientiously studied by each member of the rating board in the light of the established policies of the Department of Veterans Affairs to the end that decisions will be equitable and just as contemplated by the requirements of the law. " 38 CFR

and:

4.3 Resolution of reasonable doubt. top

It is the defined and consistently applied policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs to administer the law under a broad interpretation, consistent, however, with the facts shown in every case. When after careful consideration of all procurable and assembled data, a reasonable doubt arises regarding the degree of disability such doubt will be resolved in favor of the claimant. See §3.102 of this chapter.

§ 4.6 Evaluation of evidence.

top

The element of the weight to be accorded the character of the veteran's service is but one factor entering into the considerations of the rating boards in arriving at determinations of the evaluation of disability. Every element in any way affecting the probative value to be assigned to the evidence in each individual claim must be thoroughly and conscientiously studied by each member of the rating board in the light of the established policies of the Department of Veterans Affairs to the end that decisions will be equitable and just as contemplated by the requirements of the law.

Every element in any way affecting the probative value to be assigned to the evidence in each individual claim must be thoroughly and conscientiously studied by each member of the rating board in the light of the established policies of the Department of Veterans Affairs to the end that decisions will be equitable and just as contemplated by the requirements of the law.

38 CFR -Adjudication Book B 4.3 and 4.6

______________________________________________________________----

I had to send that to VA as well as to my POA.

This is basic established VA case law that has never been altered or amended.

The BVA honors this facet of 38 CFR-why don't the VAROs?