How veteran healthcare will shape private healthcare and vice versa
The innovations developed to care for Veterans often shapes healthcare at large. Amanda Lienau, Ph.D, director of Open Innovation at the Veterans Health Administration discusses how Veteran care will evolve as the nature of defense changes.
Some of the most impactful healthcare innovations come from the military, including advancements in antibiotics to surgical techniques to electronic health records. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is one of America's largest integrated healthcare systems. As advances in technology and the nature of defense change, so will the models of Veteran and private healthcare, says Amanda Lienau, the VHA's director of Open Innovation.
Kate MacArthur: How does VHA forecast and plan for healthcare needs that could be decades away?
Amanda Lienau: We're closely attending to weak signals of emerging trends and practices, partially through paying attention to ideas and practices that we're hearing from our field staff. Then through our office, beginning to test, prototype and iterate on novel ideas of new technologies or care pathways at a small scale to see how we might make use of those new technologies or care pathways, then iterating and working on them over time to see if there is a good fit for VHA care.
“We’re seeing fewer physical injuries and more reports of mental health concern. With this significant decrease in physical injuries, we’re seeing our focus on the mental health and mental welfare of Veterans as being more primary.”
MacArthur: How and where does VHA influence private healthcare or healthcare at-large?
Lienau: The biggest is that two-thirds of trainees across a variety of professions will do some of their clinical training in the VHA. Many of our staff, the people who work at VA, also work at private healthcare settings. And they're maybe using a particular technology in that private healthcare system, and they want to test it within the VA. This is a bidirectional learning that occurs both with innovations that start at VA and then that same person is curious and wants to test it in a private healthcare setting. Or that can happen at a larger, more systemic level.
MacArthur: What’s an example of bidirectional learning?
Lienau: A clinician in a private healthcare setting and within VA was making use of a technology in that private setting that allowed for radiologic imaging to be prioritized to allow the radiologists on the care team to read the most urgent reports first and read them in order of priority. We were able to then successfully test and make use of that same technology within VA and test how it impacted and influenced the Veteran experience of care as well as the radiologist care team experience within VA.
MacArthur: What VHA innovations could change healthcare for the general public in the coming decade?
Lienau: The adoption of telehealth and asynchronous care [outside of the business day], as well as the use of technology to augment and personalize care through novel data points through various sensors and wearable technology, the use of real-time data through those sensors and wearable technologies, and the use of various computational strategies. That includes natural language processing, optical character recognition, machine learning under the broader umbrella of artificial intelligence to reduce administrative burden and to help augment the care that's being provided by care teams.
MacArthur: How might the nature of Veteran care evolve as the nature of defense changes?
Lienau: There are fewer physical injuries as the nature of defense changes to being less close-quarters fighting and more long-distance efforts that are both, psychological or PSYOPs in nature, as well as attacks that can be done via a long distance. We're seeing fewer physical injuries and more reports of mental health concern. With this significant decrease in physical injuries, we're seeing our focus on the mental health and mental welfare of Veterans as being more primary. We also know that a person's mental status, cognitive skills, and their mental wellness overall augment and support their ability to attend to physical health needs.
MacArthur: What is driving more of those needs?
Lienau: The underlying reason we believe we're seeing this difference is it has always been a mental battle as well as a physical battle. For this reason, VA is a leader in bringing mental health care to Veterans. VA has the largest integrated mental health treatment as part of primary care and is integrated in even specialty care. Then the communication between mental health providers and the variety of physical health providers is all in the same record.
MacArthur: Ipsos research shows that Veterans with VA benefits are more likely to be satisfied with their healthcare than civilians. What does that tell you about the job the VA and VHA are doing?
Lienau: It isn't accomplished because there's still a mismatch between the Veterans’ reported experience of care and the general population view of the quality and experience of VA care. Part of what we are doing — all of us in VA with personal conversations and as well as public ones — is sharing that information out as a mechanism to help modify the public perception that is incorrect.
|
← Read previous |
Read next → |
For further reading
What veterans know about their benefits and services