mr. pruden in your testimony you talked about va prosthetics research has lagged in recent years. now, mr. oros talked about outcomes but i think you're talking more generally in terms of the research. what impact, and i shouldn't speak for you, i should let you say what research you were referring to and then if you could, after you tell us that piece, what impact has that had on veterans in the services that they need? >> the va has stepped up a number of capacities in the past few years, but as mr. mayor pointed out earlier, dod has taken the lead on the, you know, development of the deca arm, and all these advanced technology things. in years past, va has been, one of its key roles and one of the reasons it exists is to provide specialized medical equipment for our combat wounded, for our veterans, and va really needs to have the capacity and the focus on research for durable medical economy when dod and global war on terror dollars go away, and this also ties into the discussion about the centers of excellence at walter reed, brook army medical center and so forth. when these

mr. pruden. first of all, thank you for your service to our country. you mentioned your testimony, again, the same subject, you mention ed in your testimony th concerns about the planned changes in the va's prosthetic process. will you elaborate on the real world implications that this will have on our veterans, specifically from the time a prosthetic is ordered. how long does it typically take to alive under the va's current process, and what timeframe would you anticipate under the new proposed acquisition process? and then what are the quality of life and health issues that could arise from these delays? >> thanks for the question, sir. i -- under the current system, there are safe guards in place to ensure va is being fiscally responsible and it can take a month, two months. some of this is predicated on the clinical needs of the patient and availability of the product in the area. which is appropriate. our real concerns is with the new system it would be supposition, but it may take months and months longer to put it -- to get purchase orders for

mr. pruden, captain pruden, i should say, he talked about this new system that you're going to go to, the electronic contract management system, and talked to us about the fact that it requires 300 steps to get the request in. can you comment on that? >> i'm going to ask mr. doyle, who's our expert in this area, to comment on that, that electronic contract management system. >> ecms, that -- it's new in that we're putting in place as part of this system the module which is the part where they're requiring people, in this case, prosthetics can put in their requirements and that's how it's transferred over to the contracting office. we have had the electronic contract management system actually in va for several years and that's what our -- our contract writing tool in effect. and that's what we will use to write the contracts for the prosthetics that come across to us. as for the 300 steps, i will say that i know it's not probably the easiest system to use and it can be laborious. i would have to sit with the individual to say how they came up with the 300 steps. that's a new figure on me,

heard you say, i completely agree with, captain pruden, about we could set this back, if we do what the va is going to do in delay and what was said by mr. meyer right before you about just an inconvenience. it's like you said, you can't go out and walk your doctor or whatever it may be, whatever function you may have. the other thing i would argue a little bit, i wouldn't argue but just to comment with congressman sterns is that what i see with a lot of these wounded warriors, they want to go back to a regular life and use this pr prosthes prosthesis, not to have any advantage but to do what they used to do before they went into the military. am i wrong on that or not? >> i think, too, that's, the employment issue is obviously important for many veterans but it all comes down to their ability to doing what they want to do to regain their function, to live, to have a quality of life, and that comes down to the care that they're going to get, the lifelong care they're going to get at va and maintaining their prosthetic items in a timely manner. >> a brief example i had been here probably six months in congress, this is only my second ter