Federal Player of the Week: Using the Web to Help Veterans Manage Their Care

Veterans today can go to a secure government website and print copies or download digital files of their available personal health data, providing them with instant access to critical information and promoting personal management of their own health care. This groundbreaking development is possible because of an initiative undertaken by Kim Nazi, an analyst with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Nazi worked tirelessly with VA colleagues, including Rachel Lunsford and Howard Green, to make personal health information more accessible to veterans through the myhealth.va.gov website. This website contains a “Blue Button” icon that leads individual users to a login menu and access to their personal health information.

“The idea is to engage consumers in their own health and health care,” said Dr. Stephen Ondra of the White House National Science and Technology Council. “This moves the medical information to the consumers where they can access it and use it in ways they feel appropriate.”...