VA To Launch Several Health Apps After Year-Long Pilot Program

The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to launch several new mobile apps this fall, according to a report from Federal News Radio.  Many apps that the VA plan to launch were part of the organization’s Family Caregiver Pilot, which began in June 2013 and lasted a year. In addition to those apps, the VA has also converted desktop applications from its health portal into mobile apps.

As part of the year-long pilot, VA recruited 1,000 seriously injured post-9/11 Veterans and their caregivers to participate in the pilot. Each caregiver was given an iPad for the length of the pilot.

The apps in the pilot included HealthAdvocate, which allows a veteran to give a caregiver access to all of their personal health information; SummaryOfCare, an app that allows users to view their VA medical information like lab results, medications, and allergies; HealthAssessment, which lets veterans complete some self-assessments and make the results available to their caregiver; and Rx Refill, which helps veterans fill prescriptions. Two other apps in the pilot helped veterans coping with particular conditions: PainCoach and PTSD. PTSD is a modified version of the PTSDCoach app the VA released in 2011...