Human-centered design

In this week’s episode of Chats with the Chief, VHA Chief of Staff Jon M. Jensen sits down with Brynn Cole, Director of Design and Storytelling with VHA Innovation Ecosystem.

Innovation program provides opportunity for employees to get engaged in their work. It brings new ideas, tools, and experiences to their work setting with the goal of improving Veterans’ experiences.

Using a new-to-VA methodology known as Human Centered Design (HCD), VA created what is now known as the Veteran Journey Map and dozens of others since then.

The VHA Innovators Network (iNET) has Human-Centered Design (HCD) to provide creative solutions to the biggest challenges facing Veterans and VHA employees. Now, as we count down toward the VHA Innovation Experience (iEx), iNET is turning to HCD to gain a better understanding of itself, asking those that engage with the Network to reflect and help imagine potential new futures for the Network. This work will culminate at #hackthenetwork, an open, interactive workspace taking place at iEx from October 22-23.

VA's disability compensation program gets a 21st century update with latest major IT modernization project, streamlining the claims submission process.

The first step to improving the Veterans experience is understanding the moments that matter.

One example is the Care in the Community Tool (CITCoM). This innovation improved the timeliness of the information transfer to third-party administrators as part of the Choice program. According to a VHA Product Effectiveness study, the tool cut the time by more than half and ensures Veterans’ records are transferred in the most efficient manner possible and increases care safety.

This post from the VA Center for Innovation originally appeared [...]