Boston VA workshop tests AI’s potential for Veteran care

Applying new technology to help Veterans

Diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires specialized clinical expertise, a structured assessment that can take up to an hour to administer and additional time to interpret. As thousands of Veterans seek PTSD care each year, VA is exploring how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can help providers analyze complex clinical information more efficiently while keeping human judgment at the heart of decision-making.

That challenge became one of several real-world use cases explored during a recent AI innovation workshop at the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHCS), where providers, researchers and technology experts worked together to develop proof-of-concept solutions designed to improve care for Veterans. As the first VA medical center to host the enterprise workshops, VABHCS is helping shape how AI can responsibly strengthen clinical decision-making, improve care coordination and enhance healthcare delivery across VA.

For Dr. Amar Mandavia, a clinical psychologist and informatician with VA’s National Center for PTSD, the goal with AI is never to replace clinical expertise.

“Our hope is that we can free up some clinician time and still be confident whether a Veteran meets diagnostic criteria,” Mandavia said. “That means we can reach more Veterans and get them the care they need.”

Mandavia said the team learned as much from the tool’s limits as from its strengths. Early testing revealed the tool performed at a level comparable to a clinician, but adding more training data made the tool too rigid, and some of the team’s larger ambitions proved to be beyond what current models and resources could support.

“We were able to get pretty far with what the current models offer,” he said. “But we wouldn’t have known where the limits are if we hadn’t come in and tested it.”

What the workshop revealed about AI’s potential and its limits

“The opportunity is to help clinicians make better use of the information they already have,” Mandavia said. “PTSD assessments require clinicians to use psychometrically valid assessment tools like the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5) to synthesize large amounts of information while applying clinical and professional judgment. AI has the potential to organize that information more efficiently so clinicians can focus on what matters most: listening to Veterans, making informed decisions and delivering high-quality care.”

The PTSD project reflects a broader vision for AI across VA. AI is about more than reducing administrative work. It is about creating intelligent technologies that help clinicians and care teams access the right information at the right time, support more informed decisions and improve the experience of Veterans.

“AI gives us an opportunity to rethink how we deliver care,” said Dr. Kieran Warner, chief health informatics officer for VABHCS. “Whether it’s supporting clinical decision-making, improving care coordination or identifying new efficiencies, we’re looking for innovations that create meaningful value for Veterans.”

Other workshop teams explored opportunities to improve operating room scheduling, Veteran transportation, research support, and additional clinical and administrative workflows. Each project began with a challenge identified by frontline employees and focused on developing practical solutions that could ultimately be scaled across VA.

Dr. Michael Charness, chief of staff at VA Boston, said the best innovations begin with the people closest to Veteran care.

“The people delivering care understand where the opportunities exist,” Charness said. “AI gives us another tool to solve longstanding challenges, improve clinical workflows, and help our teams spend more time doing what only people can do: that is caring for Veterans.”

For Evan Carey, Ph.D., acting director of the Veterans Health Administration’s National Artificial Intelligence Institute, workshops like these represent how VA is building AI from the ground up.

“The most effective innovations begin with real needs from our VA care teams,” Carey said. “By partnering with frontline employees, we’re developing AI that strengthens decision-making, supports our workforce and ultimately improves healthcare for Veterans.”

While the projects remain in the proof-of-concept stage, the workshops demonstrate VA’s commitment to responsibly advancing AI that supports clinicians, strengthens healthcare delivery and improves outcomes for Veterans nationwide.