My Healthe Vet Launched Across the Nation On Veteran’s Day 2003

On November 11, 2003, computers across the country were connected to MyHealthe Vet, the Veteran Health Administration’s (VHA) newest web-based application. MyHealtheVet is a web page designed specifically for veterans, their families, and clinicians. It is a place they can come together to optimize the veterans’ health care.

Dr. Robert Roswell, Undersecretary for Health, established a clear mandate for using today’s technology to empower veterans with information about their health in his VHA Vision 2020 Plan. MyHealtheVet is a result of that vision. It uses the newest technology to provide veterans optimal access to health related information.

My Health e Vet is designed to provide veterans three important benefits:

• To serve as a single source of objective, clinically sound health education information.
• To provide veterans with “o ne-stop shopping” in terms of what VA offers in benefits, special programs, and health information and services.
• To empower veterans to partner with their health care providers to achieve optimal health through the sharing of health information.

My Health e Vet’s “one-stop shopping” gives veterans access to numerous web sites that provide health and non-health related services to veterans. Veterans can view information from other VHA approved web sites. Information about Education, Life Insurance, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services, Compensation and Pension, Survivors and Eligible Dependents, Burial & Memorial Benefits, and Cemeteries are among the many topics available through My Health e Vet. My Health e Vet has a facility locator for VHA medical centers, Veteran Service Organizations, and State Veteran Affairs Offices. Veterans can also access the Congressional Sub Committees on Veteran Affairs web pages and read about the latest news topics of special interest to veterans.

The second phase of MyHealtheVet is scheduled for release in June 2004. This second phase will give veterans the ability to refill prescriptions through the computer, or online. Veterans will be able to view co-pay balances and pending appointments. They will also have the ability to input self-entered metrics. Self-entered metrics are data or numbers related to their health care that veterans enter on the web page. They may include blood pressure readings, daily weights, or blood sugar readings. It’s a good way for veterans to keep track of and monitor their health conditions. And by recording the data on the web page they can make it available for the physician to review if the veteran has a question or becomes concerned.

After the release of the final phase of My Health e Vet in October 2005 Veterans will have access to portions of their medical record. They will be able to save the information in a secure “eVault.” Veterans can then reread notes from their visits and refresh their memories with regard to instructions or follow up information. Veterans can also share that information with their non-VA physicians. They can also show that information to a veteran service officer, if they choose, to gain assistance in processing compensation and pension claims. And finally, veterans may choose to designate a surrogate. By doing so they give an advocate, close friend, or family member full or limited access to the medical information contained in their eVault.

Veterans can access MyHealthe Vet from any computer with Internet capability. The majority of veterans are logging on right from home. If veterans do not have access to a computer at home or their local library they can visit the My Healthe Vet web site at any VA medical center across the country. Each VA medical center has a computer specially designated for veterans to access MyHealtheVet.

MyHealtheVet is located on the Internet at http://www.myhealthevet.va.gov/ Go and check it out today!