VHA Highlights Emerging Tech Impacts Over 2024

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) highlighted 25 innovations including virtual reality, 3D printing and its Uber transportation program that have enhanced veteran care and experiences over the year.

In the October report, the agency said these technologies helped deliver more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before in fiscal year 2024, exceeding last year’s record totals. This milestone spurred a surge of innovative care programs and solutions to keep pace with demand and deliver better care to veterans.

This comes as the agency prepares for a new administration that could bring potential new focuses in technology and acquisition.

Mark Zhang, chief innovation officer at the VA’s Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL) Office of Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks (DEAN), told GovCIO Media & Research in a written statement that “innovation has long been a cornerstone of VA’s ability to provide quality solutions for the health and wellness of our nation’s veterans.”

Zhang positioned VA “at the forefront of innovative health care for decades” and highlighted efforts to deliver advanced care services ranging from perinatal care to geriatric care.

“We value these innovations, because they enable us to meet this demand by providing the soonest and best care to veterans, regardless of where they live, their age or their gender,” Zhang said.

Among the 25 innovations, Zhang noted the benefit that programs like VHA-Uber Health Connect Initiative gave 263,000 rides to 38,000 veterans over 4 million miles between January 2022 and March 2024.

Other cited programs include Pharmacogenomics (PGx), which allows providers to personalize prescription drugs based on an individual’s genes to optimize the drug’s effectiveness, and the Surgical Pause, which evaluates a veteran’s frailty and manages risks associated with elective surgeries.

Zhang said Surgical Pause contributed to reducing the six-month mortality rates from 25% to 8% across more than 50 VA medical centers across the country.

Innovation within the VA often comes from frontline staff, and the agency has taken steps to leverage its internal talent through competitions like its VHA Shark Tank Competition, which grants funding to VHA pilots that have been successful in at least one facility over three months, and the Innovation Ecosystem Fellowship program, “which identifies high-potential innovations with demonstrated impact and helps them to scale more broadly.”

Additionally, the VA collaborates with the broader community through groups like Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs).

“Another approach we take to measure feedback is through VHA’s Innovators Network. The network is a community of employees who facilitate local and national programming and connect fellow employees with the resources they need to design, develop and test their own solutions,” Zhang said.

Beyond 2024, the VHA is looking to incorporate its Social Determinants of Health Information Exchange Referral Platform into its operations. The platform will allow VA employees to refer veterans to community-based health providers and resources to address social isolation following their departure from the military.

Zhang also pointed to the VA’s Technology Enabled Respite Homecare Model (TERHM), a pilot program designed to give primary caregivers the ability to take a break while leaving the veteran in the hands of someone they trust. According to Zhang, a one-year pilot at six VA facilities found that “more veterans accessed in-home care, and both veterans and homecare aides showed a high overall satisfaction.”

“The north star for OHIL is serving the hopes, dreams and the future for veterans, VA staff and the organization. Throughout the next year and beyond, we will continue to support our dedicated frontline employees, who have developed many of our key innovations,” Zhang said.