The Veterans Affairs Department has launched a competition among its employees to see who can come up with the best ideas for how to use health IT to improve the agency’s healthcare practices and treatments.

Under the terms of the contest, employees may enter health IT ideas in a variety of categories, such as engaging veterans in their care, helping medical providers, increasing transparency and improving workflow.

“Many components of our VistA electronic health records system originated in innovations from our health care workforce” said Dr. Gerald Cross, acting VA under secretary for health. VA's health IT system has always been a collaboration among its healthcare users and IT staff, he added.