VA names second-round health IT competition winners

Six commercial and nonprofit organizations have won awards in the second round of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Industry Innovation Competition. Three of the five winning projects, funded by the VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2), are designed to improve access, quality of care and veteran satisfaction while reducing costs, the agency stated.

The health IT-related award winners are:

• Magpie Healthcare, of Westminster, Colo., which will provide a way for VA clinicians in Portland, Ore., to connect to on-call clinical staff automatically, and to activate patient care teams faster. The pilot will assess the impact of new technology on efficiency and collaboration in VA hospitals.
• DSS, of Juno Beach, Fla., and TheraDoc, of Salt Lake City, to conduct a pilot program in which five VA medical centers in Texas, Missouri and Illinois will use clinical and laboratory data in real time to identify patients at risk of adverse drug reactions and reduce medical complications.
• The Southwest Research Institute, a San Antonio-based nonprofit group, will enable clinicians at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center to integrate clinical and laboratory data to predict which patients are at risk of adverse drug reactions.

VAi2 selects, funds and evaluates new ideas from VA employees, academia and the private sector. The Industry Innovation Competition is the third VAi2 competition the VA has launched, and the first to involve the private sector. The next round of awards will be announced in a few weeks, according to the VA.

Click here for more information about the VA's Industry Innovation Competition.