Veterans Affairs AI Use Case Inventory

Posted by timmreardon on 12/29/2024
Posted in: Uncategorized.

The Authoritative Source for VA’s AI Innovation

VA is expanding responsible AI innovation in service of Veterans and their families. 

The VA AI inventory serves as the record of artificial intelligence systems across our organization. This public inventory showcases our dedication to responsible innovation and transparent governance. This is inventory enables us to track, evaluate and optimize our AI systems while maintaining the highest standards of accountability.

2024 Inventory Update

This is VA’s first update to its AI inventory since Executive Order 14110 and OMB Memorandum M-24-10 (PDF, 34 pages, 518KB) required federal agencies to create and publicly post expanded inventories by December 16, 2024. These policies require VA to identify, review, and meet risk management requirements for AI use cases deployed in sensitive contexts—designated as “safety and/or rights impacting” use cases—by December 1, 2024. 

Driving Innovation and Improvement

VA believes AI holds significant opportunity to meaningfully improve how Veterans receive their benefits, reduce VA’s administrative burden (thereby improving cost effectiveness and service delivery), and increase the quality of care provided to Veterans. Our 227 use cases reflect our agency’s commitment to embracing emerging technology while minimizing risks.  These use cases represent Veteran-centric innovation from across the department, geographically and functionally, ranging from improved identification of health risks to expediteddelivery of benefits to Veterans and their families.  

Governance and Oversight

The approval body for the VA AI Use Case Inventory is VA’s new AI Governance Council, chaired by the Deputy Secretary and co-chaired by VA’s Chief AI Officer and VHA’s Chief Digital Health Officer.    

Key Benefits of the VA AI Inventory

  • Increase Collaboration: By increasing transparency, we are creating opportunities for internal and external partners to connect, share insights, and build on successful AI implementation. 
  • Showcase Innovation: The VA AI Inventory highlights AI initiatives that are improving Veteran care and services across the VA – from benefits to health care and more.
  • Responsible Implementation: By collecting data for this annual inventory, we are ensuring that AI systems within the VA meet rigorous standards for safety, fairness and effectiveness
  • Knowledge Sharing: The VA AI Inventory facilitates learning and best practices across VA departments, federal government and beyond. 

AI Inventory Use Case Highlights 

Examples of AI contributing to VA’s mission today. 

Health Care Innovation 

21% Increase in adenoma detection using AI powered colonoscopy devices. 

VHA has deployed several FDA-approved devices that use computer vision to enhance clinician performance, which has resulted in significantly improved detection of tumors. A VA study demonstrated that the provision of colonoscopy AI devices resulted in a statistically significant 21% increase in the odds of adenoma detection and an absolute increase in the detection rate of approximately 4% compared to colonoscopy without the device. Increased adenoma detection rates are associated with lower late-stage cancer incidence and reduced mortality. 

Administrative Efficiency 

1500+ VA employees using generative AI chat interfaces. 

VA OIT is piloting an on-network generative AI chat interface that employees are using to assist with basic administrative tasks (drafting emails, summarizing documents, summarizing meeting notes, etc.). This pilot currently has about 1,500 users, and early survey results show more than 72% of users agree or strongly agree that the tool has made them more efficient. VA is quantifying those efficiency gains and other positive outcomes, such as employee satisfaction and quality of work. 

Fraud Detection 

Identifying potentially fraudulent changes related to payments.

Most direct deposit changes at VA are safe, but 1-2 out of 1,000 are fraudulent changes to steal Veterans’ benefit payments. The Payment Redirect Fraud (PRF) model is using AI to identify which changes are likely to be fraudulent and refer those incidents to team investigators for review and remediation.

Explore the VA AI Inventory

The VA AI Inventory is a comprehensive view of how we are using artificial intelligence to enhance Veteran services. To explore our inventory,download an Excel version here (Excel, 96KB).

Connect and Collaborate with Us

Share your thoughts, concerns, or questions about VA’s AI systems. Your feedback helps us improve and maintainstransparency. Data from the below form is collected solely to respond to queries and comments – and will do so as deemed appropriate.

Article link: https://department.va.gov/ai/ai-use-case-inventory/