Veterans Health Venture Studio: Driving Innovation to Transform Veteran Care

By Roderick Cunningham, Public Affairs

December 12, 2025

The Veterans Health Venture Studio (VHVS) is a groundbreaking public-private innovation engine designed to tackle the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) most critical health care challenges.

Founded and led by Indra Sandal, PhD, chief of innovation at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, VHVS serves as a catalyst to develop and sustain a pipeline of AI-enabled solutions co-created by Veterans, clinicians, and technologists.

Dr. Sandal describes the vision of VHVS as “simple yet powerful: to create technology by the people who will use it, alongside those people,” with the goal of creating five or more technologies per year that have been developed by clinicians and Veterans rolled out across the entire VA system in the coming years—solutions that Veterans can proudly say they helped create.

A Collaborative Effort for Veteran-Centric Innovation

VHVS is a collaborative initiative led by James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital and Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 (VISN 8), in collaboration with VHA Innovation Ecosystem (VHAIE), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Microsoft, MIT Hacking Medicine, The American Legion, and University of South Florida.

Together, this coalition empowers participants to ideate, validate, and develop scalable technologies that enhance connecting Veterans to the soonest and best care, preventing Veteran suicide, and hiring faster and more competitively, directly improving Veteran health outcomes. Microsoft plays a key role in providing advanced AI development tools, synthetic data environments, and comprehensive technical training and mentorship, enabling teams to accelerate prototyping and overcome implementation challenges.

Mission and Methodology

The program's mission centers on three pillars: People Development, Technology Development, and Community Development. VHVS integrates innovation training, technical mentorship, and real-world piloting to ensure frontline ideas are transformed into deployable, VA-owned solutions. Designed as a structured, year-long innovation pipeline, VHVS encompasses three progressive phases:

Hackathon: The 2024 Veterans Health Hackathon brought together 213 on-site Hackers from 28 states—including DC and Puerto Rico—representing 13 VISNs, 35 VA Medical Centers and program offices, and numerous academic and private-sector partners. Participants formed 39 teams across three tracks, supported by over 50 mentors and 25 Microsoft subject matter experts. From 401 applications submitted by VHA, industry, and academia, nine winning teams were selected by 24 judges representing academia, Veteran Service Organizations, industry, and VA leadership.

Make-a-thon: Building on the Hackathon's success, the 2024 Veterans Health Make-a-thon engaged 84 VA and non-VA Makers from 19 states, eight VISNs, and 18 VA medical centers. The cohort included 14% Veterans or Active-Duty members and participants from academia, consulting, health care, and technology sectors. Over a 10-week program, participants completed 13 curriculum courses totaling 503 person-hours of training focused on business case fundamentals and AI applications. Supported by 53 mentors, 18 judges, and 24 advisory council members, teams delivered 16 polished business cases, pitches, and demos.

Accelerator: The 2024 Veterans Health Venture Studio Accelerator, held from March to August, supported 34 Fellows—71% VA employees and 29% industry professionals—in advancing seven functional AI-powered prototypes. With guidance from 39 dedicated faculty and over 220 hours of mentorship, Fellows completed 750 person-hours of training and 375 person-hours of requirements gathering and demonstrations. The Accelerator culminated in a Technology Showcase with 104 attendees, where prototypes were presented following extensive provider and user feedback from over 75 Veterans and clinicians, positioning these innovations for real-world pilot testing across VA sites. The solutions presented address critical Veteran care challenges, including:

Mission: Readmission: Simplifies discharge instructions into personalized, accessible plans with interactive follow-ups to reduce hospital readmissions.
GuardianAssist: Uses AI-powered speech-to-text to help clinicians detect language indicating suicide risk.
The Optimizers: Applies AI to streamline consult orders with automated summaries, evidence-based recommendations, and test orders.
VITAE: Transforms static suicide safety plans into engaging, personalized, and actionable digital tools.
HerStorAI: Integrates multiple data sources to deliver a longitudinal, gender-sensitive suicide risk score for female Veterans.
AI Reconciliation Rangers: Automates outpatient medication reconciliation to reduce errors and adverse drug events.
VA Match: Uses AI to reduce hiring review time, accelerating recruitment of critical health care talent, minimizing staffing shortages, and improving Veteran care access and quality.

Co-designed with frontline clinicians, Veterans, and technologists, the next step for these prototypes is real-world pilot testing across multiple VA medical centers and VISNs, and development of implementation playbooks and standard operating procedures to scale the technologies.

Over 7,600 hours of technical training were delivered, emphasizing rapid development, stakeholder engagement, and pilot readiness across VA sites.

Measurable Impact and Applications

VHVS has demonstrated significant outcomes across technology, workforce, and community development:

Developed seven AI-enabled prototypes addressing suicide prevention, medication reconciliation, hospital readmissions, and workforce efficiency.
Projected clinical outcomes include achieving a 95% accuracy rate in medication reconciliation, 50% reduction in congestive heart failure readmissions and projected system-wide cost savings of up to $1.25 billion.
Trained 213 VA and non-VA participants across 28 states and 13 VISNs, delivering over 7,638 person-hours of technical training.
34 Fellows graduated from the 2024 Venture Studio reporting an average 85% improvement in AI-related skills.
Program satisfaction among Fellows was 94%, and collaboration impact was rated at 97%.
VHA Executive Leaders reported 88–90% confidence in their ability to identify, prioritize, and implement AI solution.

Following the success of the 2024 Veterans Health Venture Studio, 2025 kicked off with a dynamic Hackathon that brought together over 350 participants—including Veterans, clinicians, caregivers, and technologists—from 47 states and territories, including Guam and Puerto Rico, spanning 17 VISNs and more than 100 VA and non-VA organizations. Over four days, interdisciplinary teams collaborated intensively to develop AI-driven solutions aligned with VHA strategic priorities.

Seventeen diverse teams were then selected to advance to the upcoming Make-a-thon, representing 13 VISNs and 24 VA Medical Centers and including VA employees, community Makers, and Veterans from 26 states and territories. This cohort reflects a broad, nationwide commitment to refining and accelerating innovations that will improve Veteran care across the country.

Veterans Health Venture Studio stands as a scalable, repeatable model for public-sector innovation, empowering frontline teams to co-create impactful, AI-enabled solutions that enhance Veteran care across the nation.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully recognize the sponsoring and collaborating organizations that made Veterans Health Venture Studio possible with James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital (Tampa, FL) and VISN08: VHA Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL); VHA Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE); VA Office of Information & Technology (OIT); University of South Florida; Microsoft; and MIT Hacking Medicine.

Special thanks to the Advisory Council, chaired by Carolyn Clancy, MD, and co-chaired by Indra Sandal, PhD, whose members from VA Program Offices, VISNs, VA medical centers, and external academic and industry experts provided invaluable strategic guidance. We also extend our gratitude to the faculty, mentors, and subject matter experts who supported teams from initial concepts through minimum viable products, and to the 34 Fellows who completed the Accelerator program.

VHVS Advisor and Faculty

2024 VHVS Fellows

We especially honor the Veterans and front-line clinicians whose invaluable design feedback helped shape user interfaces, clinical thresholds, and workflow integration.