The Veterans Administration (VA) is at the forefront of innovation in evolving healthcare delivery models, particularly in VA virtual care health services. With a steadfast commitment to serving our nation’s Veterans, the VA is instrumental in pioneering Veterans’ virtual care initiatives to improve access to healthcare and enhance patient outcomes. In 2023, VA virtual care was delivered to over 2.4 million Veterans, representing 40% of those served. These Veterans had over 11.6 million telehealth appointments, including 9.4 million video appointments.
New Research Planning for VA Virtual Care
Recent research, “Defining and Improving Outcomes Measurement for Virtual Care: Report from the VHA State-of-the-Art Conference on Virtual Care,” offers valuable insights into the VHA’s efforts to continue advancing VA virtual care modalities. The research addresses the evolving landscape of VA virtual care, including telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) published the research, to identify research priorities for virtual care. The study involved convening a State-of-the-Art (SOTA) Conference, where participants worked in groups on different aspects of virtual care. The outcomes workgroup, in particular, examined virtual care outcome areas with existing evidence, areas needing further research, and those best suited for study within VHA.
Before the conference, the evidence brief and goals were shared with attendees to guide a discussion. Through literature review and consensus-building, the workgroup addressed four key questions:
- What outcomes of VA virtual care should be measured and how?
- How to select the appropriate care modality for patients?
- What are the potential safety consequences of VA virtual care?
- How can Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD) benefit decision-making and self-management?
After the conference, the outcomes planning committee reviewed workgroup notes and drafted key conclusions. The following section includes key findings and recommendations identified.
Conference Key Findings
These key findings included the following recommendations for future research.
- There is a need for standardized outcome measures to evaluate virtual care’s impact across patient populations and conditions.
- The importance of researching virtual care outcomes beyond controlled trials to include real-world patient scenarios.
- Examine safety concerns unique to VA virtual care, such as communication failures and diagnostic accuracy.
- Exploration of PGHD integration into care processes, considering patient and provider acceptance, data validity, and privacy concerns.
These questions highlight the significance of nuanced research to ensure high-quality VA virtual care delivery, focusing on patient-centeredness, safety, and the effective use of emerging technologies. The Veterans Health Administration’s role as a leading healthcare system is to provide a valuable platform for investigating these critical aspects of virtual care. The VHA is well-positioned to lead studies on safety risks, hybrid models, and PGHD impacts.
The Future of VA Virtual Care
The Veteran’s Health Administration conducts additional research through The Virtual Care Consortium of Research (VC CORE). The Virtual Care CORE’s mission is to “facilitate research that evaluates and improves the use of virtual care to enhance the accessibility, capacity, and quality of VA health care and Veteran experience.”
The VC CORE has four impact goals:
- Facilitate adoption and use of VA virtual care.
- Foster research on the impact of VA virtual care
- Build a network of virtual care investigators aligned with the needs and priorities of Connected Care and other VA virtual care partners.
- Impact policy by coordinating virtual care projects and needs of the Office of Connected Care.
The Office of Connected Care brings veterans digital technology to Veterans and healthcare professionals, extending access to care beyond the traditional office visit. The VA delivers healthcare to patients where and when needed through virtual technology with healthcare apps, a digital pharmacy program, remote patient monitoring, and telehealth.
The VHA’s Pivotal Role Advancing Virtual Care
The Veterans Health Administration stands poised at the forefront of virtual care innovation and research. As this article has shown, VHA has already made great strides in increasing telehealth access for millions of Veterans, especially in rural areas. Moving forward, VHA is uniquely positioned, through entities like the Virtual Care Consortium of Research and Office of Connected Care, to spearhead critical investigations into outstanding questions around virtual care outcomes, safety, optimal delivery models, and patient-generated data.
By leveraging its scale and integrated structure, VHA can ensure high-quality virtual care improves outcomes for even the most complex patients. The future of virtual care depends on nuanced evidence generation and continuous quality improvement – and the VHA is leading the charge.
