VA

The outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. placed exceptional demands on the Department of Veterans Affairs, requiring multiple areas of emergency readjustment to ensure continued functionality of essential services.

President-elect Joe Biden's transition team has tapped Denis McDonough to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Federal leaders at the Departments of Veterans affairs and Health and Human Services have made patient support — both financial and technical — a vital component of its rapid expansion in telehealth services.

As federal health IT officials are looking toward 2021, their focus is on leveraging data more effectively, furthering cloud adoption, investing in their workforces and partnering with industry teams who can offer packaged rather than point solutions.

The ongoing electronic health records collaboration between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Health Agency is laying the groundwork for improvements in patient care, as well as showing promising signs to help advance public health across the nation as a whole.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is developing an agency-encompassing data strategy that will be used to guide both its health IT and patient care reforms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for major investments in digital health services and technology across the country, including telehealth and broadband infrastructure — particularly in rural communities.

The implementation of broad-reaching health records modernization across the Department of Veterans Affairs is encouraging broader tech modernization to encourage a smoother transition.

The VA is using its ongoing health care modernization to improve care during COVID-19 as well as set the stage for assisting vaccine availability that will help close the pandemic.

As the Department of Veterans Affairs launched full implementation of its new electronic health record over the weekend, the stressors and demands of COVID-19 appear to have helped VA understand critical modernization priorities.

The demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the abrupt shift to a remote workforce, has fostered the development of cybersecurity best practices at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For agencies to get the full value out of data and make the best use of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, one best practice that federal leaders are using is incorporating interdisciplinary players in their strategies.