VA San Diego eScreening Program Selected as Shark Tank Finalist
eScreening is an idea which has cultivated for a decade and is now spreading rapidly as a VA-wide best practice.
The eScreening program from VA San Diego Healthcare System is a finalist for the 2022 Veterans Health Administration Shark Tank competition.
This innovative solution is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs Diffusion of Excellence Program. The Diffusion Marketplace website describes eScreening as a process that allows Veterans “…to complete clinical screenings remotely at their convenience.” After that, “Veteran submitted data can satisfy clinical reminders, generate health factors, create an unsignable editable note, and satisfy measurement-based care for mental health.”
Key goals for the program are to facilitate comprehensive health screenings for Veterans worldwide, improve the number of Veterans receiving health care services, improve patient engagement and satisfaction without increasing staff and resources, expedite gathering health data, and reduce workload for clinicians.
A 2020 study by Dr. Erin Almklov found “Ninety percent of Veterans between 20 to 70 years old were found to be satisfied or very satisfied with their eScreening experience,” said John Gault, National eScreening Implementation Manager.
eScreening can be done remotely from any device that connects through the internet via a website address. Veterans input data into a screening questionnaire and are then directed to various services based on their needs. So far, the program has been successfully adopted at 19 VA Medical Centers around the country, with another 18 in-progress adoptions.
As a finalist, winning programs like eScreening pitch their program to a “Shark” and then work together to further spread the idea as a VA-wide practice.
For more on eScreening and the other Shark Tank finalists, read the 2022 Shark Tank competition finalists announcement.