{"id":8534,"date":"2026-10-06T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8534"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:30:00","slug":"boston-va-workshop-tests-ais-potential-for-veteran-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8534","title":{"rendered":"Boston VA workshop tests AI\u2019s potential for Veteran care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2026-10-06T14:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Applying new technology to help Veterans<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/148221\/va-research-stroke-chronic-pain-ptsd-therapy\/\">PTSD care<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That challenge became one of several real-world use cases explored during a recent AI innovation workshop at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/boston-health-care\/\" rel=\"noopener\">VA Boston Healthcare System<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Dr. Amar Mandavia, a clinical psychologist and informatician with VA\u2019s National Center for PTSD, the goal with AI is never to replace clinical expertise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur hope is that we can free up some clinician time and still be confident whether a Veteran meets diagnostic criteria,\u201d Mandavia said. \u201cThat means we can reach more Veterans and get them the care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mandavia said the team learned as much from the tool\u2019s 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\u2019s larger ambitions proved to be beyond what current models and resources could support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were able to get pretty far with what the current models offer,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we wouldn\u2019t have known where the limits are if we hadn\u2019t come in and tested it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the workshop revealed about AI\u2019s potential and its limits<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe opportunity is to help clinicians make better use of the information they already have,\u201d Mandavia said. \u201cPTSD 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAI gives us an opportunity to rethink how we deliver care,\u201d said Dr. Kieran Warner, chief health informatics officer for VABHCS. \u201cWhether it\u2019s supporting clinical decision-making, improving care coordination or identifying new efficiencies, we\u2019re looking for innovations that create meaningful value for Veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Michael Charness, chief of staff at VA Boston, said the best innovations begin with the people closest to Veteran care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe people delivering care understand where the opportunities exist,\u201d Charness said. \u201cAI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Evan Carey, Ph.D., acting director of the Veterans Health Administration\u2019s National Artificial Intelligence Institute, workshops like these represent how VA is building AI from the ground up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe most effective innovations begin with real needs from our VA care teams,\u201d Carey said. \u201cBy partnering with frontline employees, we\u2019re developing AI that strengthens decision-making, supports our workforce and ultimately improves healthcare for Veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the projects remain in the proof-of-concept stage, the workshops demonstrate VA\u2019s commitment to responsibly advancing AI that supports clinicians, strengthens healthcare delivery and improves outcomes for Veterans nationwide.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/150085\/boston-workshop-tests-ais-potential-for-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new VA workshop explores how AI can support PTSD assessments and clinical decision-making while keeping human expertise central to Veteran care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Boston VA workshop tests AI\u2019s potential for Veteran care - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new VA workshop explores how AI can support PTSD assessments and clinical decision-making while keeping human expertise central to Veteran care.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8534\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boston VA workshop tests AI\u2019s potential for Veteran care - 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