VA Hosts Competition to Develop AI-Powered Tools Addressing Workforce Woes, Veterans Needs

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently hosted an event to identify an artificial intelligence-powered solution to address health care delivery issues.

After the 90-day AI Tech Sprint, the VA named six teams’ work as finalists for the program, including an “ambient dictation” project that uses AI to take notes during and after a consultation between a VA clinician and a veteran.

The other project named a finalist is an AI-enabled solution capable of summarizing hundreds of pages of outside medical records for veterans who visited a VA facility for the first time, Federal News Network reported.

Denise Kitts, executive director of the department’s Veterans Experience Office, said that AI offers a chance to provide veterans with a higher level of customer experience by “putting actionable data in front of people that are making decisions.”

The VA has been studying possible uses of AI to improve its support for veterans. In November, it hosted a competition aimed at developing an AI-powered tool to help ease the burden felt by health care workers serving the medical needs of veterans.

In May, Carolyn Clancy, the VA’s assistant undersecretary for health, disclosed that the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health – Veterans Enhanced Treatment initiative has so far identified about 6,700 high-risk veterans and connected them to VA coordinators.