VHA Innovation Ecosystem Launches New National Center for Innovation to Impact

Veterans Health Administration sent this bulletin at 05/28/2024 04:54 PM EDT

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VHA Innovation Ecosystem Launches New National Center for Innovation to Impact

Launched in March 2024, VHA Innovation Ecosystem’s Digital and Remote Health Center for Innovation to Impact (DRHCI) aims to enhance Veteran care by designing and developing digital health technology and expanding the use of remote monitoring resources. Hosted by the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, this initiative is a collaboration with Veterans Integrated Service Network 10 (VISN 10) and VA's Office of Connected Care (OCC).

DRHCI interventions significantly reduce travel time for Veterans living in rural areas, improve clinical outcomes via remote early diagnosis and treatment, and provide affordable and accessible health care options. “This center positions VA at the forefront of digital health technology with the mission of providing best-in-class preventative care for Veterans,” said Director of DRHCI Dr. Lindsay Riegler. “It allows us to systematically evaluate innovative digital health and remote patient monitoring solutions so that VHA can make informed, validated health care decisions.”

DRHCI is one of five National Centers for Innovation to Impact (NCI2I) within VHA Innovation Ecosystem and the first to partner with VHA's Office of Connected Care. This collaboration promotes cooperation between VA, academia, and the private and public sectors to address urgent health care issues and connect VHA strategic priorities with scalable solutions.

Visit the Digital and Remote Health Center for Innovation website here.

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Innovations in Cancer Care - Recapping the May Exchange Panel

During this month’s edition of "The Exchange," leaders from across Veterans Health Administration (VHA) came together to discuss advancements in cancer care for Veterans. The event highlighted significant progress and ongoing efforts to enhance cancer treatment and screening through advanced manufacturing, telehealth services, and innovative medical technologies.

Innovative Cancer Screening Programs

Chris Moore, leader of the VHA’s colorectal cancer screening initiative Mailed FIT, opened the conversation by highlighting the urgent need to increase screening rates among Veterans. Moore emphasized that colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among Veterans but is preventable with early detection. He discussed Mailed FIT: his program that intends to promote at-home annual testing through telehealth modalities, aiming to improve screening rates and early detection.

“We’re not screening enough for colon cancer,” Moore said. “If we screen people early enough, we can get them the proper care they need for a preventable condition.” Moore shared Mailed FIT’s approach to at-home stool tests and tele-screening to address common misconceptions and logistical challenges faced by Veterans, aiming to enhance cancer care accessibility.

Enhancing Oncology Care through Telehealth

Dr. Vida Passero, Chief Medical Officer for the National TeleOncology service, emphasized the importance of expanding telehealth services to improve access to oncology care for Veterans. Dr. Passero discussed her leadership in building subspecialty oncology teams and implementing initiatives like the Close to Me Cancer Care Service. Dr. Passero discussed how, through Close to Me, the VA Pittsburgh Multidisciplinary Virtual Cancer Care Network has established TeleOncology clinics in rural areas, ensuring that Veterans receive timely and effective treatment.

Also representing the Close to Me program, Dr. Jenna Shields, the National Oncology Program Pharmacy Manager, highlighted her dedication to improving cancer care for Veterans. “Some medications don’t travel well, or aren’t stable long enough,” said Dr. Shields. “So, the difficulty is operationalizing the process of getting cancer care to those in rural areas.”

Advanced Manufacturing in Cancer Care

Brian Strzelecki, Deputy Director of Production for VHA's Office of Advanced Manufacturing (OAM), continued the discussion by emphasizing the transformative role of advanced manufacturing technologies in cancer care. Strzelecki, with his background in mechanical engineering and 3D printing, discussed how personalized medical devices are revolutionizing treatment.

“Our OAM team is on the mission to build manufacturing capabilities sin VA to provide health care solutions for our Veterans,” said Strzelecki. “We sought to make things more personalized.”

Following Strzelecki, Lorelei Gorr, also representing OAM, spoke in her capacity as a Clinical Engineer at VA Ventures. She discussed her contributions as the Product Lead for the VHA DEAN Radiotherapy Bolus, a 510(k) cleared Class 2 medical device used in radiation therapy treatments. Gorr shared insights on how her background in biomedical engineering has enabled her to streamline the procurement and deployment of medical equipment, enhancing the delivery of personalized radiotherapy for Veterans with cancer.

Personalized Prescription Tailoring

Dr. Rona Margaret Relova, a VHA Innovation Ecosystem Senior Innovation Fellow and Research Health Scientist, shared insights on the VHA IE fellowship programs. As part of the 2024 Fellowship cohort, Dr. Relova co-directs a clinical pharmacogenomics (PGx) program at VA Palo Alto Health Care System. PGx translates evidence-based findings to a novel approach in medical care, enabling individualized prescription of medications based on patient’s genes.

“Pharmacogenomics allows us to take out the guess work of prescription medicine and give patients the proper, most effective, dosages from the start,” said Dr. Relova. “We can find out how much chemotherapy will work for a patient, or if it will work at all, by conducting a PGx test before prescribing a dosage.”

Specifically, Dr. Relova’s fellowship project aims to eliminate wait times for providers to receive their patients’ PGx results. PGx test results are obtained at a non-VA facility and must be manually transferred into the VA database. Dr. Relova is working to automate this process to provide better cancer care for Veterans, faster.

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iNET Alumni Barry Peterson Strives to Improve Workplace Wellness

Barry Peterson is a U.S. Army Veteran and Health System Specialist at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System who was hired by VA as an educator with a love for employee engagement. His overall aspiration is for people to wake up, want to go to work, and work alongside people that they genuinely respect, love, and admire. As his time at VA continued and especially with the onslaught of COVID 19, Barry began noticing problems regarding psychological safety and anxiety in the workplace.

Barry submitted this problem to iNET’s Spark-Seed-Spread Investment and Accelerator program and was accepted for the first time in FY21. During his exploration in the program, Virtual Reality (VR) emerged as a possible solution to address the stress and psychological concerns within the workforce.

Through many partnerships including one with VA Immersive, Barry’s team built a proof of concept that demonstrated that they could employ VR to help employees practice stressful, difficult conversations in private and at their own pace. Barry shared, “It was exciting to see people light-up when using the VR, and to listen to them speak about the possibilities they see for using the technology.”

With positive feedback from VA employees and Veterans, Barry continues his mission despite running into some barriers over this past fiscal year. “Innovation is the balm for burnout. Don’t beat yourself up for pivoting. And find a way to trust yourself,” Barry said. He reminds us: “By working to better the lives of our Veterans, we also better our own lives.”

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month: Highlighting VA Providers and Innovators

The month of May is both Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month and Woman’s Health Month. The Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE) would like to highlight AANHPI provider, Melissa Tran. Tran’s work has centered around improving care for women Veterans through innovative programs such as the Perinatal Reproductive Education Planning and Resources (PREPARe) service. Tran is a Marriage and Family Therapist and the Military Sexual Trauma Coordinator at Orlando VA Healthcare System. She leads PREPARe, a program designed to address the perinatal needs of Veterans. Traditionally, perinatal services were scattered across VA and community care, often requiring Veterans to travel to multiple locations and pay out of pocket. PREPARe centralizes VA perinatal services, offering whole health, mental health, nutrition, physical therapy, women's health, and chaplain care under one roof, delivered by trained VA specialists.

“Being an AANHPI provider, I am in a position to offer representation and understanding of the unique considerations of our community when it comes to health care, and more specifically women’s health care,” said Tran. “It can be relieving to meet with a professional who is attuned to one’s culture and feels the ease of communicating without having to educate or explain the nuances that might not be present in other cultures. The clinical space can be used to explore and celebrate the aspects of our heritage which is a source of strength and support for our health and well-being.”

NECIE Collaborates to Advance At-Home Testing

The VISN 1 New England Center for Innovation Excellence (NECIE) is one of VHA Innovation Ecosystem’s five National Centers for Innovation to Impact, designed to foster collaborations between VA and external collaborators to address some of VA’s most pressing health care challenges. NECIE recently announced a collaboration with VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VA Puget Sound) and Tasso Inc., a Seattle based health startup focused on delivering at-home diagnostic testing.

This collaboration will allow for a pilot to evaluate the efficacy of laboratory tests from samples obtained at home. The In-Home Sample Collection Pilot Program will use the Tasso+ Device, a FDA Class II Lancet 510(k)-cleared device, to collect whole liquid blood samples.

Diagnostic blood testing is used to diagnose certain conditions, monitor disease levels such as diabetes or high cholesterol, determine if a treatment is working, and monitor organ function. This initiative is designed to facilitate more convenient, accessible, and personalized care for Veterans.

The pilot will allow capture and testing of up to 300 blood samples, at no cost to Veterans or Puget Sound. Veterans will be able to capture a blood sample using instructions provided in the Tasso+ kit instructions and send the sample to the lab using pre-paid boxes. Samples will be analyzed at the lab and test results will be uploaded to the Veteran’s health record.

“NECIE is proud to collaborate with VA Puget Sound and Tasso to test and evaluate this emerging technology, which we think has the potential to greatly expand access to care for Veterans,” said Leandro DaSilva, U.S. Navy Veteran and Director for NECIE.

News and Announcements

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