The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced the recent establishment the National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation (NCCHI) within the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) in California. The VA says the initiative is part of the department’s strategy to advance Veteran healthcare services with cutting edge technology.
The new center, formed in partnership with the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE), will help VA achieve its broader mission of developing impactful healthcare solutions that are efficiently shared throughout the VA enterprise. Strategically located in Silicon Valley, an area internationally known for groundbreaking innovations, NCCHI will build on a foundation of existing collaborations between VAPAHCS, VHA IE leading technology companies and other government agencies.
“The NCCHI is an important part of our strategy to be leaders in healthcare innovation and quality” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “The center is particularly exciting because it is uniquely designed as a catalyst to combine strengths from non-health care fields.”
Immediate priorities for the center include:
- fine-tuning work being done in artificial intelligence
- clinical decision support
- workflow efficiencies
The VA says the overarching goal is to share successful solutions broadly for the benefit of many more patients. In parallel, an infrastructure is being built for efficient communication, collaboration and engagement to support current and future development work throughout the organization. VA’s vision is that the process, procedures and operational tools developed at NCCHI will be a foundation to efficiently support similar work throughout the enterprise.
