CNN — A Harvard Medical School professor who works with the Veterans Affairs Department to assess veterans’ risk of suicide hopes his project can survive a fierce internal debate at the department on whether to cancel research contracts with Harvard. VA and the Pentagon have the level of access to data on millions of veterans and their behavioral history that is needed to truly understand their risk of suicide and how to prevent it, said Dr. Ronald Kessler, a renowned psychiatric epidemiologist. “It’s been fantastic,” Kessler told CNN of working with the VA on the project, which helps clinicians decide...