Innovation Revolutionary is a regular series of the VA Innovation Ecosystem. This series focuses on VA employees who are disrupting the status quo, breaking down barriers and fundamentally revolutionizing veteran care and the employee experience.
How do providers make important health care decisions for veterans? Engaged, understood and personalized health care is at the forefront of these decisions.
machine learning
Machine learning (ML) helps healthcare providers make smarter decisions by analyzing healthcare data in new and innovative ways.
Use machine learning to audit and influence prescription benefit decisions is a 2017 VHA Shark Tank Competition Gold Status project to identify and reduce prescription drug billing errors.
Dr. Corey Fominaya
Dr. Cory Fominaya, who created and piloted the program, is now expanding his capabilities as a Senior Innovation Fellow in the Health Solutions Division.
Senior Innovation Fellowship
Veterans Health Care Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE) offers several fellowship programs for VA employees. These programs offer unique opportunities for up-and-coming, skilled frontline employees with a dynamic presence, a passion for innovation and a vision for the future.
The Senior Innovation Fellowship is for mature innovation projects that are ready to scale. Under the new title Machine Learning Decision Support (MLDS), Dr. Fominaya has spent the past year developing cloud-based systems that improve the capabilities of the project. Fominaya’s experience with innovation made him a natural fit for the fellowship.
Machine learning and veteran care
“The value that machine learning brings to veterans is that it frees up time for clinicians to focus on the patient during a consultation,” Fominaya said when asked how machine learning could help veterans. I was.
When joining Fominaya Charleston, Virginia When he began acquiring and processing data in 2011, he had to challenge the results and decisions. “I was aware that medical and pharmacy benefits could conflict, which could lead to veterans being incorrectly billed for copayments.”
MLDS was created to turn possibilities into measurable and lasting outcomes. “Clinicians often go to great lengths to document visits. Incorporating decision support systems into the structure of electronic medical records allows clinicians to shift their focus to their patients.” .”
Fominaya has developed a system to streamline processes and make them more efficient. The system has already been piloted at 10 of his VA medical centers and has proven scalable nationwide. With the fellowship year coming to an end, Dr. Fominaya said the program will help more than one million veterans better experience more accurate and consistent benefits.
Investing in MLDS also benefits new recipients of certain disabilities. “Two years ago he was approved for a $450 reimbursement and I remember being frustrated by Charleston veterans who had not yet received their reimbursements. can prevent charges from occurring.”
The Senior Innovation Fellowship gave Dr. Fominaya new insight into how the VHA Innovation Ecosystem is being driven to improve care for veterans. “The interest of the innovation ecosystem in ensuring the success of this solution has been constant and the resources invested have helped the project mature. We greatly appreciate their efforts.”
Interested in a VHA Fellowship? Fellowship webpageWant to support VHA IE’s innovation revolution? Visit us website Learn about opportunities to innovate at VA.
