It’s the rare topic that Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agree on: no, the VA isn’t broken. In fact, a 2018 study showed the VA provides better healthcare than private hospitals in most cases.
This should come to no surprise, given VA’s rich history of innovation and groundbreaking achievements-- the VA has been home to several nobel laureates, and revolutionary technologies like the nicotine patch and first implantable cardiac pacemaker were invented there. And the VA digital team has been no exception. The VA pioneered electronic medical records, and launched a new website in 2018.
Even so, the digital experience could still be improved. Veterans continue to have challenges accessing the information they need, getting appointments quickly, and knowing how to use the benefits and services they’ve earned through their service.
Interestingly, almost half (40%) of the visitors to VA.gov are using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, but the site isn’t optimized for that. What problems are Veterans still having with their digital experience? How can the VA— which provides benefits to more than 9 million Veterans and runs America’s largest healthcare system— continue to solve those problems? These are the questions that we’re trying to solve over the next couple of months.
Who are we? Glad you asked.
Our team was formed at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) as part of a field class taught by Nick Sinai, former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer, to work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. We’re working with VA CTO Charles Worthington and his team, and are excited to work across the VA. We bring unique strengths:
A. Taylor Thomas is an MD/MPH student currently studying Health Management at Harvard. Prior to pursuing a career in healthcare, Taylor studied political science and worked as a staffer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Jeremiah Hay spent 4+ years before coming to HKS working on community outreach, admissions, and enrollment policy for New York City's universal pre-kindergarten program where he strengthened his innovation, systems integration, and stakeholder engagement skills.
Lien Tran is a senior at Harvard College studying Computer Science and Linguistics. She brings to the team her experience in UX/ Product Design, software development, and conducting research in the field of Science and Engineering.
As we set out on this journey, we have more questions than answers. Why are Veterans using the website on their mobile devices? Does a dedicated mobile app make sense? What would it look like? What else can we try? Are there particular services and benefits we should focus on? These questions, and more, are what we’re asking ourselves as we get started with our research.
Image source: https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/use-validated-learning-ux-design-2/
Using the KJ method, we quickly determined and prioritized our design challenges
We’re humbled by our lack of knowledge in this field (none of us are Veterans), and we know that in order to deliver results that would improve Veterans’ experiences, we need to talk to as many real-life Veterans as possible. At this early stage, our assumptions about the problems (let alone the solutions) are not only uninformed but dangerous— because they can overshadow what we’re hearing on the ground. Before anything else, we need to get in Veterans’ shoes and hear their stories from them.
We got moving by starting small and reaching out to Veterans among our friends and the Harvard community. We heard more than a couple stories that we hadn’t expected, which backed up our hunch that we didn’t know much.
After these early conversations with friends and fellow students, we expanded our outreach to engage local Veterans organizations and online communities. We’ve already attended a handful of events, including a ceremony for Vietnam Veterans, which have been very useful in getting outside of our little Harvard bubble. We’ve also had success talking to Veterans at the nearby Jamaica Plain VA Hospital, where surprising numbers of generous Veterans have taken the time to patiently walk us through their experiences, teaching us what has worked well for them and where they’ve had frustration in the past.
We have many conversations ahead of us, and we’re planning on sending out an online survey to try to reach a different and more national audience (we’re also hoping to get our hands on the VA’s own website analysis). We’ll check back in to share what we’ve learned once we’ve heard a lot more from Veterans themselves. From there, we’ll get thinking about how we can help the VA deliver the world class digital experience Veterans deserve!
If you are a Veteran and want to chat about your digital experience with the VA, drop us a line at harvardvaresponses@gmail.com.