WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was recognized, early June, for delivering results in the federal health information technology (IT) community as part of FedHealthIT’s 2020 Innovation Awards.

VA’s 14 projects  identify innovative products or services that positively impacts the lives of Veterans through health IT solutions.

“The department’s first priority is customer service and ensuring every Veteran who comes to VA can easily access the care and services they need,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “These projects are developed in part by listening to Veterans and then making changes based on their feedback. Using digital tools and modern technology, they provide data that allow us to continually improve the customer experience.”

Notable projects VA technologists have undertaken to benefit Veterans include:

  • No Wound Left Behind Initiative – TeleWound Care Program is a digital tool allowing clinical specialists to deliver evidence-based care at a time and location which best meets Veterans’ needs, along with reducing geographic barriers to care and decreasing the likelihood for limb-threatening infections, hospitalizations and amputations.
  • 3D Printing Network  is expanding to every VA medical center nationwide, enabling experts across the Veterans Health Administration to share best practices and explore advancements in surgery, orthotics and prosthetics, assistive technology and treatment of chronic illnesses.
  • FLOW3 is a computerized management system that optimizes the development of prosthetic limbs using custom software, making the process more predictable and consistent and creating a high-quality experience for Veterans and staff.
  • VA.gov is a user-friendly website developed by applying tactics of human-centered design including feedback from 5,000 Veterans.  Launched in November 2018, VA.gov has driven a 25% increase in customer satisfaction.
  • Caseflow is a Board of Veterans’ Appeals online workflow management system which enhances operational efficiencies, scheduling and tracking, helping Veterans by significantly reducing the adjudication time of appeals and increasing transparency of the appeal status.
  • VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure provides a secure centralized analytics platform allowing the VA research community to access VA-wide clinical data, enabling development of the National Surveillance Tool — an application that aids clinicians -providing care to Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic and allows near real-time tracking on VA’s public-facing Access2Care site.

Read more about the VA leaders and innovators whose projects help Veterans, and to see their speeches.

###

Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov

Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.

Contact us online through Ask VA

Veterans can also use our chatbot to get information about VA benefits and services. The chatbot won’t connect you with a person, but it can show you where to go on VA.gov to find answers to some common questions.

Learn about our chatbot and ask a question

Subscribe today to receive these news releases in your inbox.

More from the Press Room