Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Catalyst at MIT linQ are collaborating in need-driven biomedical research and innovation initiatives

Innovation is a conduit for imagining a new world and, in the context of healthcare, redefining excellence. This sentiment has long permeated the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Innovation enables us to execute our mission and deliver healthcare to Veterans in exceptional ways. Innovative VHA solutions like 3D Printing, the Initiative to End Diabetic Limb Loss at VA, and VHA-Uber Health Connect are improving the delivery of customized solutions to Veterans and enabling the exploration of future healthcare solutions. So, how do we do it? The answer lies in creating a culture that harnesses a willingness to experiment. Innovation enables frontline staff to take calculated risks, fail early and smart, and methodically test assumptions. These principles create a culture of agility and collaboration, aligned with VHA’s goal of becoming a learning organization. By embracing this mindset, we’ve delivered landmark solutions that meet critical Veteran challenges and redefine their care and experiences. It is precisely this ability to continually innovate that allows VHA to remain the preferred choice of Veterans.

VHA Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE) is the catalyst for enabling the discovery and spread of mission-driven health care innovation that exceeds expectations, restores hope, and builds trust within the Veteran community. VHA IE leverages the collective power of innovation champions from across VA, academia, non-profit and industry to operationalize innovation in the Nation's largest integrated health care system.

MIT Catalyst’s framework sparks innovation from insight to impact, aligning with VHA Innovation Ecosystem’s priorities while accelerating the pace of healthcare innovation and empowering VA employees. MIT Catalyst’s method for executing research focuses effort, compresses time, leverages resources, and develops change agents.

Catalyst offers VA innovators the unique opportunity to collaborate with the best and brightest to solve healthcare challenges and to advance healthcare globally. Fellows will have access to international thought leaders in innovation, multidisciplinary teams, and sustained mentorship to guide and accelerate their progress.

You are intimately aware of high priority challenges, needs, and opportunities, which means you are well positioned to influence impactful changes.

You have the opportunity to:

Enhance your career  

You can strengthen your communication skills to work more effectively with business and industry leaders, gain confidence in engaging on cross-disciplinary teams (with engineers, researchers, and improvement advisors), and contribute to creation of intellectual property. 

Consider the commercial possibilities of improving patient outcomes and institutional effectiveness

In this program, you will work with teams of engineers, scientists, and other clinicians to identify, validate, and create a path to implementation for technologies and processes that create solutions in healthcare delivery.

Expand your personal horizon

You will exercise entrepreneurial thinking and increase comfort with ambiguity. Validated projects have the potential to significantly impact healthcare. You might even create and lead a company, as Catalyst Fellows have done in the past and are doing now.