VA, DoD Healthcare Apps Prepare for Next Wave of Features

A mobile application has proven to be an ideal setting for providing assistance to a service member or a veteran struggling with post traumatic stress disorder, said Sonja Batten, assistant deputy chief patient care services officer for mental health at Veterans Affairs Department.

Since its April 7 launch, the VA-DoD operated "PTSD Coach" application has been downloaded to iPhones and Android devices 12,300 times. PTSD patients resoundingly asked for something to help them "get through difficult moments," and now DoD and VA are moving to gather more data, in order to deliver better care, said Batten at a June 28 FedScoop event in Washington, D.C.

"At this point it doesn't collect any personally identifiable information. In the, sort of, next wave of where I would hope it will go--and maybe HHS, GSA and the White House can help us with this--really to find ways to integrate this with the electronic health records, which we have in VA and DoD," said Batten.

Currently the departments receive anonymous, aggregate data from the app. Batten said her team is initiating a controlled research study which allows patients to consent to have their individually identifiable information recorded "so we can get information about what really is usable and what people use the most."