VA Awards Contracts for Healthcare Innovations

The Veterans Affairs Department has awarded a contract to enable providers to share elements of a patient's electronic health record on mobile devices in addition to three other contracts under its latest VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) competition to use new technologies in the agency's facilities to improve the quality of veterans' patient care.

VAi2 is designed to tap the talent, ideas and expertise of employees, academia, and the private sector to help solve VA healthcare challenges. The Industry Innovation Competition was the third competition launched by VAi2 and is the first to involve the private sector, VA said in an announcement Feb. 4.

"These investments reflect our continued commitment to transforming VA into a 21st Century department that leads the nation in high quality healthcare," said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. They represent the first of nearly two-dozen more awards to be made in the coming months.