Two more vendors grab a piece of VA's $80M innovation competition

Two more vendors have been selected as winners of the Veterans Affairs Industry Innovation Competition for their use of new technologies to improve veterans’ health, Secretary Eric Shinseki announced on Feb. 4.

The winners are Agilex Technologies Inc. and Venture Gain LLC. The previous two winners announced in December were MedRed LLC and mVisum, Inc..

The VA launched the $80 million competition in June 2010. About 20 more vendor awards are expected to be announced in the coming months.

MedRed and mVisum together received about $7 million in awards, according to a news release. Award amounts were not immediately available for Agilex and Venture Gain.

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“VA is proud to do its part by supporting these entrepreneurial companies while they help VA improve the care and services we provide to our veterans,” Jonah Czerwinski, director of the innovation competition, said in a news release.

The winners were selected based on the following technologies:

• Agilex Technologies, of Chantilly, Va., is conducting a pilot project at the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C., examining how to extend the capabilities of the VA’s Electronic Health Record system to include electronic devices such as iPads or smart phones. In the pilot project, devices will be made searchable for patient names, demographics, lab data, medications, allergies, appointments and problem lists, and also will integrate clinic schedules and secure messaging.
• Venture Gain, of Naperville, Ill., is funding a project at the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City. The project involves wearable sensors which, combined with software analytics, can help monitor complications for patients diagnosed with heart failure.

In addition, it was previously announced that MedRed, of Washington, D.C., is implementing a software tool at the McGuire VA Medical Center’s Polytrauma Clinic in Richmond, to share treatment strategies for traumatic brain injury.

mVisum, of Camden, N.J. , is helping care providers at the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C. to view and share cardiology data on mobile devices.