VA launches contest to expand Blue Button

The Veterans Affairs Department will launch a developers’ competition to expand the deployment and use of its Blue Button functionality that enables patients to download their health information to all veterans who receive care from providers outside of the VA.

Blue Button is a simple, convenient and secure method over the Internet for a patient to retrieve his or her information in plain text ASCII format. The competition starts July 18, and VA will announce the winner Oct. 18, VA said. The first prize is $50,000.

By clicking the Blue Button tab in MyHealtheVet, VA's patient portal, veterans can download demographic information used to fill in the clipboard at providers’ offices and some categories of clinical information, such as their medication list, medical conditions, and most recently, lab and test results, into a personal health record (PHR) on their computer and print it out or share it with other providers.