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 VHA Innovators Network sites across the nation held celebrations of their 2024 investees
The VHA Innovators Network (iNET) celebrated the dedication and achievements of employee innovators at the 2024 Spark-Seed-Spread Graduation Day. Innovation Specialists, site leadership, and VA employees virtually gathered across the country to honor the accomplishments of more than 165 VA employees and their innovative projects. Each member of the graduating class completed the 2024 Spark-Seed-Spread Innovation Investment and Accelerator Program, a year-long training program for designing, testing, and spreading employee-driven innovations.
During the ceremony, commencement speakers and fellow 2024 Spread investees Alicia Hurst and Sam Smith spoke on the incredible power of perseverance even when barriers are seemingly endless and the strength of the iNET community to lend assistance and encouragement always. Attendees also shared Veteran stories to honor those we innovate for. Innovation Specialists, mentors of graduates at their respective medical centers, then read the names of all graduates and awarded them with their certificate and tassel. Executive Director of VHA Innovation Ecosystem, Kit Teague, presented the closing remarks to the graduates, voicing support for their innovations and stressing that frontline employees are where VA-wide cultural change begins.
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 The 2024 Quadrennial Women Veterans Summit was held on September 5 – 7 in Washington, DC. The event connected women Veterans and transitioning service members to the benefits and services they are entitled to by gathering VA's resources and services in one location. The theme of the event was "The Year of Empowerment."
During the summit, Assistant Under Secretary for Health Dr. Carolyn Clancy, and Suzanne Shirley, Director of Fellowships & Community Engagement with VHA Innovation Ecosystem and 2024 VA Congressional Fellow, held a discussion called ‘Innovations Moving the Needle for Women Veterans.’
The discussion centered around work at VA aimed at improving access to care for women Veterans. “Women Veterans face unique challenges that are often overlooked and under accounted for in providing specialized care,” said Shirley. “Innovation, however, has come incredibly far in address challenges unique to women and improve their access to care.”
Shirley discussed programs like PREPARe, Tech Enabled Respite Homecare Model pilot, Reach A Vet Teach a Vet project, among others that expand access to VA care for women Veterans. After this presentation, Shirley and Dr. Clancy took questions from the live audience.
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There are only seven weeks left until the 2024 VHA Shark Tank Competition during the 2024 VHA Innovation Experience (iEX)! This week’s featured innovations from cohort three are FLOW System (formerly FLOW3) and VIONE – Medical Optimization and Polypharmacy Reduction Initiative!
VA provides care for more than 50,000 Veterans with major limb loss. Led by Dr. Jeff Heckman, medical director at the Southeastern Regional Amputation Center at the James A. Haley Hospital and Clinics in Tampa, FL, FLOW System is a novel workflow that optimizes the process of creating and delivering prosthetic limbs, improving timeliness in care, employee satisfaction, and Veteran experience. First launched in 2017, FLOW System centralizes the prosthesis ordering process, allowing Veterans to view prescription details, comments, and purchase activity all in one location. With support from Diffusion of Excellence as a 2017 VHA Shark Tank Competition winner, FLOW System has been adopted as an enterprise-wide solution, implemented in 157 facilities nationwide and providing care to over 17,600 Veterans. In September 2023, Dr. Heckman and his team launched FLOW4, an updated iteration of the FLOW System designed for seamless integration into the rollout of VA’s new electronic health record system. Learn more about FLOW System on Diffusion Marketplace and explore its impact in a recent VA News article.
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VIONE (Vital, Important, Optional, Not indicated, Every medication has an indication) is a simple medication optimization and safe deprescribing methodology for planned discontinuation of Potentially Inappropriate Medications. VIONE employs medical informatics and holistic approach to improve patient safety and quality of life through an efficient framework for identifying and discontinuing unnecessary, ineffective, and inappropriate medications that can do more harm or burden to Veterans than help. Developed in 2016 by then Associate Chief of Staff for Geriatrics and Extended Care Services at Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Dr. Saraswathy Battar, VIONE aligns with core concepts of High Reliability Organizations. VIONE has won several national awards and received the Austco Patient Safety Gold award for patient safety at the 45th World Hospital Congress. It facilitates a greener care environment by reducing clinical waste. As of September 2024, VIONE has facilitated the discontinuation of over 2.5 million unique prescription orders for 980,000 Veterans across 138 VA medical center programs, totaling an estimated cost avoidance of $260 million. VIONE is being used by over 21,000 health care professionals across VA. Effective 2025, VIONE will be aligned with VHA's Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care. Learn more about VIONE on Diffusion Marketplace, in Dr. Battar’s 2018 VHA Talks presentation, and on page 25 of the 2023 VHA State of Innovation Report.
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