VA Employees Exhibit Innovative Solutions to Local Problems at #VADemoDay

At “Innovation Demo Day” held last month at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Innovation Center in Washington, DC, VA employees, senior leaders and Veterans gathered to showcase the results of a yearlong effort to design innovative solutions to improve the Veteran experience. The VA Innovators Network was founded to provide a way for VA employees to test new ideas and team with private sector partners to improve the way the VA serves Veterans.

Teams demonstrated 33 projects that addressed an array of challenges facing Veterans. A project team from the VA Medical Center in Jackson, MS presented a plan to provide emergency room care for patients with acute mental health issues. Other projects and innovations were more tech-focused, such as a smartphone app developed by a team from the VA Medical Center in Atlanta, GA that allows patients to receive cardiac rehabilitation services and support from home. The Boston, MA VA has developed the Creative Expressions Studio to provide art-based creative therapeutic interventions to increase self-esteem, encourage community re-integration, and develop leadership and coping skills among Veteran participants. The center also educates VA staff on holistic wellness for themselves and the Veterans they serve.

“For us, innovation is not just important to do, it’s actually essential,” said Dr. David Shulkin, the Undersecretary of Health for the VA, during his opening remarks. “Much like every healthcare organization, if you are involved in the delivery of medical services to Americans, you have to be rethinking what you’re doing, reinventing, and innovating to be able to survive. Those that don’t will find themselves increasingly irrelevant.”

This event was sponsored by the VA Innovator’s Network, a program within the VA Center for Innovation, the Diffusion of Excellence, and forward-thinkers within the ranks of VA. The VA Center for Innovation arms VA employees with the tools and resources to solve some of the most pressing challenges facing our Veterans. This innovation ecosystem empowers the staff to innovate and enables consistency of practice by spreading those innovative best practices to medical centers across the VA health care system.

To learn more about the projects showcased at Innovation Demo Day, read the VA’s blog here.

To learn about Booz Allen Hamilton’s Innovation Center, visit: http://www.boozallen.com/consulting/strategic-innovation/dcinnovationcenter