The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced an industry innovation competition designed to identify, test and evaluate solutions that improve accessibility and quality of care and services delivered to vets.
The VA said the competition is part of the its Innovation Initiative, a $50 million, department-wide program that seeks promising innovations from employees, the private sector, non-profits, and academia to increase veteran access to VA services, improve service quality and operational performance, and lower costs.
These competitions in the previous two years generated 600 proposals from the private sector, with 35 currently being implemented as part of a broader innovation portfolio that includes 135 projects across multiple VA lines of business. VA secretary Eric Shinseki said the competition is a good way to tap expertise outside government to improve care.
The 2012 competition is aimed at finding solutions to enhance maternity continuity of care, redesign the PTSD treatment experience, create mobile apps for benefits information and services, and to prevent and treat pressure ulcers.
