 Angela Gant-Curtis, Director of VA Innovation Unit, VA Office of the Chief Technology Officer
Angela Gant-Curtis has worked with VA since 1986. Her journey began at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where she served in many different roles that allowed her to interact with Veterans and different services in the hospital. Her front-line experience has inspired her to serve as an extension of front-line health care workers in the innovation space.
“Every day I show up, looking forward to figuring out how to remove blockers for them so that they can get to the tools that will empower them to do their jobs better,” Gant-Curtis said. “There is no question for me that what I do actually has a direct impact on my VA colleagues and Veterans.”
During her 37-year career in VA, Gant-Curtis’ work has received many awards and recognitions. She was a 2022 Federal 100 Awardee, Dr. Robert L. Jesse Award Recipient, and managed the launch of five innovation centers. Today, Gant-Curtis works for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer within the Office of Information and Technology as a Project Manager and Director of the VA Innovation Unit (VAIU).
Gant-Curtis’ work is inspired by her drive to look for solutions to solve the problems when she sees them. She started what would become VAIU in 2018 and it was formally established in 2022. Gant-Curtis is responsible for providing customers high touch service, helping with deployment, and ensuring there is security and privacy compliance.
Since its inception, VAIU has helped pilot and scale innovative projects including automated hearing aid adjustments from home, and an automated solution to discharge patients and find a bed for them once they leave the hospital.
A project Gant-Curtis and the VAIU team are currently working on is Data Arch, which is a solution that automates information processes. It will bring in data from third party sources and get that data in front of VA providers. This solution is effective in improving the transfer of information from community services and home care devices that are given to Veterans.
Before Data Arch, Veterans’ data had to be manually copied by a VA employee, or non-VA providers emailed or faxed the Veteran data to their facility for manual uploading into the medical record. Data Arch is also effective in collecting assessments like medical questionnaires from non-VA providers.
“A Veteran was able to use this solution to fill out a questionnaire before their appointment at one VA facility, he had an appointment at another VA facility, and he asked them, ‘why don't you have this solution?’” Gant-Curtis said. “Our Veterans are now asking for these solutions that we’re piloting. That's how I know that what we're doing is the right thing; if it matters to our employees as well as the Veterans.”
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The VHA Innovators Network (iNET) is a group of 42 VA medical centers across the country who invest in frontline employee-driven, Veteran-focused innovation. iNET engages employees in their design and development of their Veteran solutions and the education of thousands of employees through teaching innovation competencies such as Human Centered Design (HCD), lean start-up, storytelling, building an innovation strategy, and more.
iNET has just announced their 2023 Annual Report, highlighting the achievements of the innovators and Innovation Specialists across VHA.
This year's annual report covered a variety of topics, from the VA Intrapreneurial Product Marketplace, how iNET is engaging Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) in the innovation process, and the latest on 2023-2024 Spark-Seed-Spread Investments. This year saw the launch of the VA Intrapreneurial Product Marketplace (VAIPM), a new platform to put employee developed innovative products straight into the hands of Veterans. The marketplace is the next step in connecting these new innovations directly with the people they were designed with and for. Through VAIPM, individuals can browse the latest inventive healthcare products, read about the employee innovators (or “intrapreneurs”), learn about the intended product audience, and locate purchasing information.
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2023 also saw iNET welcome 7 new sites to their network after nineteen applications were received. iNET Sites host Innovation Specialists and promote a culture of innovation to their employees. The seven new sites include:
- VA Tampa Healthcare System
- VA Dayton Healthcare System
- VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System
- VA Detroit Healthcare System
- G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center
- South Texas Veterans Health Care System
- VA Long Beach Healthcare System
"It is the engagement and enthusiasm that really hits the target in our mission, changing the culture of the workforce," said Allison Amrhein, Director of iNET. "We use innovation as just a tool for something bigger."
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