Trauma-informed design constructs an environment that promotes healing and evokes psychological and physical safety, connectivity, empowerment, self-worth and happiness. The VA takes trauma-informed design to heart, incorporating patient-centered technology and features throughout its facilities and patient rooms.

Each year, the VA serves more than 27,000 veterans with spinal cord injuries (SCI), making it the world’s largest health system providing lifelong SCI care. In many cases, veterans with spinal cord injuries are long-term residents. These veterans may stay in an SCI unit for months or even years. Their daily living and care environment must be conducive to promoting each veteran’s independence and quality of life.

To provide this personalized experience, VA hospitals are intentional about the design of the SCI unit and patient rooms. This commitment includes the use of eVideon’s Vibe Health Engage, Digital Signage and Digital Whiteboard solutions with four specific goals in mind.

Key Considerations for Trauma-Informed Design in Smart Patient Rooms

The team at eVideon understands the basic components of creating an exceptional experience for veterans and their families. In working with the VA to design and implement smart room technology, we considered critical traits that adhere to the principles of trauma-informed design.

Flexibility
It is imperative that the design of patient rooms is flexible to support specialized experiences for patients and their families. Specifically for SCI patients who often require ongoing assistance and dedicated care, smart patient rooms should give veterans much-desired autonomy and empowerment to control their environment. Here are two examples.

Interactive TVs with autonomous control units allow veterans to control their room environment, watch TV, engage with educational videos, order meals, and more. The system is also integrated with assistive devices such as sip-and-puff, eye gaze, and voice controls.

Our Clinical Solutions Director spoke on a recent webinar, saying, “Spinal cord injury patients lose a lot of control in their lives… they usually have to call a staff member to control the TV. The ability to manage something as simple as changing a TV station was an awesome experience for these patients and their families.”

Consistency
Messaging, communication and education for VA patients should be consistent and relevant. For example, educational training in the SCI unit includes topics such as healthy eating, addiction, mental health and suicide prevention. Furthermore, the clinical team is equipped with a workflow process to follow up training units with in-person patient conversations.

Engagement
Veterans depend on their families as crucial members of their extended care team. Connectivity, a tenet of trauma-informed design, helps patients feel supported throughout their care journey. The VA equips family members to support ongoing care, whether long-term in an SCI unit or in post-acute healthcare environments.

Vibe Health Engage TV promotes activities that both patients and their families can participate in. This includes learning and educational videos to help families provide ongoing care and support for their loved ones.

Recognition
Showing appreciation and gratitude for veterans is extremely powerful in their extended well-being and overall care. In trauma-informed design, this directly impacts psychological safety and a sense of self-worth. At the VA, consistent messages of recognition are purposefully built into the design of the patient room environment.

Using Vibe Health Engage TV and Insight digital whiteboards, patient rooms and living spaces include the veterans’ branches of service and messages of gratefulness. One particular VA facility uses Vibe Health Banner digital signage to display custom videos of staff expressing their personal appreciation for veterans’ service during Veterans Week.

These four traits – flexibility, consistency, engagement and recognition – lay the groundwork for safer and more patient-centered care environments for our Veterans, their families, clinicians and staff. One that supports their ongoing care, empowerment and healing. We are proud to serve these patients who selflessly have served our nation.

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NEWS PROVIDED BY Cogitativo, Inc. 

Jan 13, 2022, 12:24 ET

Cogitativo Will Deploy their Proven Machine Learning Solution to Help the VHA Identify and Support Vulnerable Veterans and Families Whose Costly Medical Needs Have Increased Due to Care Disruptions Caused by the Pandemic

BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Cogitativo today announced that it is deploying its AI-enabled solution called Visión. This solution will help the VHA identify Veterans who are at greatest risk of acute clinical events. The deployment is in support of the VHA’s latest initiative called Arches. Visión will also provide VHA clinicians with the insights they need to direct resources and manage conditions contributing to an individual’s risk. 

Cogitativo Will Deploy their Proven Machine Learning Solution to Help the VHA Identify and Support Vulnerable VeteransTweet this

Visión is built on proven machine learning technologies that are helping large healthcare systems and agencies across America. By using this solution, the VHA will be able to provide better care and improve access to much-needed preventative clinical and social services.

“As the son of an Army Ranger and someone who has worked within the Veterans community for decades, I know that confronting our most overwhelming and costly healthcare challenges must be a top priority,” said Gary Velasquez, CEO and Co-Founder of Cogitativo. “We are proud to work with the VHA on an innovative, data-driven solution that will benefit millions of Veterans and their providers while optimizing existing resources.” 

The effort comes as physicians and public health experts sound the alarm over the long-term consequences of missed screenings and treatment during the last 22 months. It will initially focus on VHA beneficiaries who have chronic conditions – specifically, those with cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease or diabetes. In addition, Cogitativo is exploring future disease focus areas for Visión, such as mental health disorders and autoimmune diseases.

Visión analyzes patient records through the lens of peer-reviewed literature on disease progression, social determinants of health and other relevant data sources. Cogitativo will use Visión to identify and rank the individuals in those cohorts who are most likely to require greater medical attention in the months and years ahead. This information will enable the VHA to proactively conduct outreach to the most at-risk VA beneficiaries and offer clear pathways to address their personal deferred care challenges.           

“As a nephrologist who spent years promoting access to preventative care for patients with chronic conditions, I commend the VHA for taking action on behalf of its beneficiaries and investing in innovative approaches that health systems across the country can learn from,” said Dr. Meredith Mathews, Cogitativo Board Member and former Chief Medical Officer of Blue Shield of California. “Visión’s analytic capabilities not only predict future outcomes for patients but can also provide insight into future utilization – which makes it a foundational data and analytics investment.”

About Cogitativo Inc.
Cogitativo is a Berkeley-based data science company founded in 2015 with a mission to create and implement innovative, scalable solutions to the most complex challenges facing the healthcare system. Leveraging machine learning, proprietary data sets and expertise from leaders with decades of experience working with public health agencies, Cogitativo can deliver actionable insights and save lives. To date, Cogitativo has successfully applied data science solutions to more than 200 unique operational challenges to significantly improve the efficiency of our healthcare systems and protect vulnerable patients and communities. Visit www.cogitativo.com for more information. 

Company Contact:  
Amy Domangue
Amy.Domangue@cogitativo.com 
Phone: (225) 337–6402 

SOURCE Cogitativo, Inc.

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This week the US House of Representatives passed a bill giving veterans access to no-cost contraception through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The legislation passed with bipartisan support 245–181.

This bill intends to give Veterans access to birth control like all other Americans who have enjoyed free access to family planning services since the 2008 Affordable Care Act.

Green spoke on the House floor in opposition to the legislation. The speech is filled with incorrect statements and misinformation. No one is surprised anymore by Green’s nonsensical rants. She has mocked victims of the Parkland shooting and blamed California wildfires on Jewish space lasers.

Green even compared wearing a mask to prevent the spread of a respiratory virus during a pandemic to the Holocaust stating, “We can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany.”

Representative Green’s statements about Plan B and emergency contraception are simply incorrect and ill-informed. Here is what she said.

Green states, “contraception stops a woman from becoming pregnant. The Plan B pill kills a baby in the womb once a woman is already pregnant.” This statement is entirely false.

Plan B is the brand name of one form of emergency contraception. Emergency birth control prevents pregnancy and is not an abortion medication.

RU486 (Mifepristone) is a medication used to induce abortion. Abortion medication terminates a pregnancy and is not a form of emergency contraception.

Plan B and RU486 are not the same medication. One has nothing to do with the other.

Emergency contraception (EC) contains progesterone, a hormone produced naturally by the ovaries. It is often called “the morning after” pill. Common brands, such as Plan B, are available over the counter without a prescription.

Emergency contraception is formulated with a high dose of progesterone. This hormonal blast disrupts, delays, or prevents ovulation. When people take Plan B within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, it reduces the risk of pregnancy by 70–80%. If a woman is already pregnant and takes Plan B, then nothing happens.

Emergency contraception is called Plan B and not Plan A for a reason. It reduces the risk of pregnancy and does not cause an abortion.

Here is a chart outlining the hormonal changes that occur during a menstrual cycle. The hormones must follow this particular pattern for the ovary to release an egg successfully.

Plan B emergency contraception sends a shock to the system through a high level of progesterone to disrupt or delay ovulation.

The high dose of progesterone in Plan B also thickens the cervical mucus creating a toxic environment for sperm. 

Plan B will not terminate an already established pregnancy. Plan B progesterone does not cause abortion.

Emergency contraception decreases the risk of pregnancy by inhibiting ovulation. If a person is already pregnant and conception has occurred, then Plan B will do nothing. It is too late for emergency contraception.

Taking emergency contraception after one is already pregnant will only add more progesterone to support the developing fetus.

Progesterone can be helpful in certain high-risk pregnancies. Obstetrician gynecologists and infertility doctors often give extra Progesterone to help prevent miscarriages.

Marjorie Taylor Green also stated, “Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act is not contraception, it’s providing with taxpayer dollars the ability for women to have an abortion.”

Once again, Taylor is wrong. Birth control methods do not work by causing abortions. In addition, Federal law bars the use of Medicaid funds for abortions through the Hyde Amendment.

Green got one thing right when she stated, “Words matter and their meanings need to be exactly clear.” 

I agree. I wish Green had paid attention in her junior high health class and learned the basics about human reproduction and contraception. 

The post Marjorie Taylor Green Needs a Primer on How Birth Control Works appeared first on Medika Life.