“Thank you for your service” the common phrase that outlines how America expresses gratitude towards its men and women in uniform, on Veterans Day. However, this holiday shouldn’t be limited to just honoring those who serve in our armed forces, but also mark a platform to ask whether we, as a nation, are doing right by them.
In recent times, this question has been commonly pointed to the Veteran Affairs (VA) hospitals. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2015), there are approximately 21 million veterans in the United States. Yet, only 5.8 million veterans use their VA health care benefits. With many exposed inefficiencies in its healthcare system, the department of VA has received much flak over the past several years, whilst simultaneously raising the public’s awareness about the need to restructure the nationally prevalent health care systems.
How is technology changing the veterans’ healthcare scene?
Post the criticism, the technology heavy innovations by Information Technology (IT) brands are promising to restructure and reform all aspects of the veterans’ healthcare checklist. Adopting a holistic approach, these upgrades are tuned to better understand the challenges prevalent in this specialty field and apply the latest, and most appropriate solutions for speedy resolutions.
From expanded tele-health, including a new application called VA video connect to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for personalized healthcare, the VA department is rolling out new technologies as part of an initiative announced by VA secretary David Shulkin and President Donald Trump. These innovations are most definitely cutting edge, and seek to remove the lags and inefficiencies that are rampant in the current setup.
Listed herein are the top-3 trends in veterans healthcare that are slowly yet surely changing the game, for good-
1) Personalizing care plans with artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged to be the holy grail of innovative technologies and its adoption in healthcare is on the rise- solving a range of problems for hospitals, patients and the healthcare industry in general. AI is befitting in the context of veteran’s healthcare as the VA department strives to collaborate with digital platforms to unearth a range of health analytics and put them to work. The veterans’ health department initially signed a collaboration with healthcare IT major Flow Health for five years, which was terminated within a short time.
In April 2017, the VA department finally joined hands with the Department of Energy (DOE) to devise a new health analytics plan. They sought to bring together VA’s massive database and DOE’s artificial intelligence and advanced computing knowhow, to create personalized healthcare solutions for veterans. Herein, the aim was to discover the common genetic factors that make individuals vulnerable to given diseases and alongside advance diagnosis, recommend treatments on a case-by-case basis.
2) Understanding the ailment better with virtual reality
Aside from AI technology, veteran healthcare institutions have high hopes attached to virtual reality (VR) tools, which are proving to be very effective in controlling pre-and post-surgery patient anxiety. In the case of veterans, VR is expected to help them overcome post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and control pain from several other medical conditions. VR is also realigning clinician training and medical education. From CPR to nasogastric tube and wound care, VR instructional software can be used to provide training for a vast number of medical courses.
3) Treatment in real time with telehealth
How can patients get the right treatment at the right time, particularly when they would prefer to stay at home and not visit the nearest VA hospital? The enlightening and innovative answer is telehealth. From remotely diagnosing heart failures on time to monitoring patients with pulmonary disease at home, telemedicine is a breakthrough technology that will drastically change the way clinicians take care of veterans. Telehealth also brings the added advantage of ‘healthcare anywhere’ and negates the need for a medical facility to diagnose and treat ailments.
Commendably, the new technology initiatives by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. government is sure to bring a remarkable transformation in the way veterans’ healthcare systems are operated in this country. Hopefully, the statistics will indeed be different in the next few years with more veterans enjoying the benefits of VA healthcare policies. Consequently, for its part in effecting this transformation, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its proponents will emerge as major players in the updated US veterans healthcare initiatives.
