National Center for
Collaborative Healthcare Innovation

Collaborating Across Industries to Improve Veteran Health Care

Our Mission

Located in Silicon Valley, the National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation (NCCHI) collaborates broadly with industry partners, other government agencies, academia, and throughout VA to create far-reaching positive impact for Veteran care. NCCHI is translating complex technologies from the research bench to the clinical bedside.

NCCHI is driven to bring our Veterans the best and most advanced healthcare possible. With groundbreaking collaborative partnerships and cutting-edge technology, NCCHI focuses on enhancing healthcare delivery at VA and in the broader healthcare community.

Fall Prevention e-Wearable

Falls are one of the most common causes of accidental harm, leading to increased length of hospital stay, discharge to long-term care facilities, and costs over $50 billion annually in the U.S. In collaboration with the medical company Palarum, NCCHI has configured a wireless electronic textile SmartSock system designed to immediately detect and smnd a safety alert, with the room number, directly to the most appropriate nurses in the ward. The system is optimized for efficient clinical response and decreased alerts - empowering nurses to be in the right place at the right time to enhance patient safety.

Smart White Cane

The traditional “white cane” for the visually impaired has not significantly changed in the last 100 years– until now. NCCHI has been collaborating closely with Brian Higgins, a retired VA employee, and Veteran. The team has been co-developing an advanced “smart cane” with sensors, such as LIDAR and ultrasound, so visually impaired Veterans can navigate with sound. This breakthrough invention is designed for increased freedom, safety, and independence through technologically enhanced mobility and navigation.

Five for 5G

5G is the next generation of advanced telecommunications technology that can utilize more data, do it faster, and with better performance. This infrastructure has many potential mission-critical applications for improved healthcare communication, collaboration, and patient care. NCCHI is leading an exciting collaboration called "Project Convergence" with Verizon, Microsoft, and Medivis to develop the technology for our Veterans.

AR and VR for Clinical Training

The bandwidth of 5G combined with augmented reality technologies opens new opportunities for interactive virtual teaching and training. Groups of people, even at a significant physical distance, can learn and share insights about a wide range of medical topics. Additionally, virtual procedures will be taught and practiced on dynamic 3D holographic human anatomy models. Multiple projects are underway at NCCHI to improve clinical training and education for medical students, interns, residents, and fellows so they can have a safe and controlled environment to learn procedures.

AR for Presurgical Planning

The 5G ability to utilize large amounts of data combined with AR technologies allows us to transform traditional flat CT and MRI scans into more intuitive and dynamically interactive 3D models. In doing so, Veteran diagnostic scans can be transformed to optimize the best possible surgical and treatment approaches. NCCHI is developing these tools with industry partners to allow smaller incisions, improve recovery time, avoid critical structures, and therefore, improve safety and outcomes.

AR for Procedural Guidance

The new 3D holograms of patients' CT and MRI scans can be positioned so that a clinician is provided virtual x-ray vision. This opens tremendous opportunities for improved care, such as enhanced surgeries. The low latency of 5G negates artifacts such as latency that would impair performance. The ability to have enhanced visual awareness allows more precise surgeries by seeing the full depth and complexity of the target, while also avoiding otherwise hidden critical structures. NCCHI and “Project Convergence” collaborators are working closely to optimize this transformational technology, in the lab, for the future benefit of enhanced Veteran surgeries.

Advanced Sensor Enabled Drones for Emergent Response

The capabilities of 5G and connected technologies allow us to have improved situational awareness for the rest of a facility. NCCHI is partnering with VA Police, Safety, Engineering, Facility Planning, and Executive teams to leverage this technology and improve emergency response for important use cases such as: fire, earthquake, search and rescue, security, incident response, routine campus inspection, and maintenance.

Virtual Teleportation

The combination of advanced hardware, software, 5G, and creative engineering has allowed the NCCHI team to teleport someone into another room virtually. Bringing this science fiction technology to life has significant healthcare applications, including more natural and safer interactions between patients, families, and providers when Veterans are on infection risk precautions or isolated in remote locations.

Our Publications

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Thomas F. Osborne

David Arreola

Zachary Veigulis

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Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Pain and Anxiety
Caitlin R. Rawlins, Zachary Veigulis, Catherine Hebert, Catherine Curtin, and Thomas F. Osborne

Using an Automated EHR Score to Estimate Life Expectancy in Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer
Simon John Christoph Soerensen, I-Chun Thomas, Bogdana Schmidt, Timothy J Daskivich, Ted A Skolarus, Christian Jackson, Thomas F Osborne, Glenn M Chertow, James D Brooks, David H Rehkopf, John T Leppert

Medical Engineering and Physics thumbnail

PSA variability and the diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer
Fernandino Vilson, Boya Zhang, James Brooks, Thomas Osborne, Priyadip Ray, and John Leppert

Association of Mortality and Aspirin Prescription for COVID-19 Patients
Thomas F. Osborne, Zachary P. Veigulis, David M. Arreola, Satish M. Mahajan, Eliane Röösli, and Catherine M. Curtin

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology thumbnail

Machine Learning Models for Identifying Risk Factors of ALS Progression
J. Pettit, S. Nguyen, J. Cadena Pico, B. Ng, R. Reimer, T. Osborne, A. Gryshuk, P. Ray

Value-based Intervention: A Case of Analytics and Outreach at VA
Gregory D Scott, Thomas F. Osborne, Sang P Gross, Dean Fong

Differences in COVID-19 Testing and Test Positivity Among Veterans
George N. Ioannou, Pamela Green, Vincent S. Fan

Journal for Occupational Environmental Hygiene thumbnail

Deep Learning to Develop Continuous Risk Models for Adverse Event Prediction from Electronic Health Records
Nenad Tomašev, Natalie Harris, Sebastien Baur, Anne Mottram, Xavier Glorot, Jack W. Rae, Michal Zielinski, Harry Askham, Andre Saraiva, Valerio Magliulo, Clemens Meyer, Suman Ravuri, Ivan Protsyuk, Alistair Connell, Cían O. Hughes, Alan Karthikesalingam, Julien Cornebise, Hugh Montgomery, Geraint Rees, Chris Laing, Clifton R. Baker, Thomas F. Osborne, Ruth Reeves, Demis Hassabis, Dominic King, Mustafa Suleyman, Trevor Back, Christopher Nielson, Martin G. Seneviratne, Joseph R. Ledsam & Shakir Mohamed

Automated Electronic Health Record Score to Estimate Life Expectancy in Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer
Simon John Christoph Soerensen, I-Chun Thomas, Bogdana Schmidt, Timothy J Daskivich, Ted A Skolarus, Christian Jackson, Thomas F Osborne, Glenn M Chertow, James D Brooks, David H Rehkopf, John T Leppert

IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics thumbnail

COVIDVax Model to Estimate the Risk of SARS-CoV-2–Related Death Among 7.6 Million US Veterans
George N. Ioannou, Pamela Green, Vincent S. Fan

Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology thumbnail

Racial and ethnic disparities for SARS-CoV-2 positivity in the United States
Jacqueline M. Ferguson, Amy C. Justice, Thomas F. Osborne, Hoda S. Abdel Magid, Amanda L. Purnell, Christopher T. Rentsch

Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Pain and Anxiety at a VA Care Facility
Caitlin R. Rawlins, Zachary Veigulis, Catherine Hebert, Catherine Curtin, and Thomas F. Osborne

VA Office of Research & Development News thumbnail

Predictive Models for Identifying Risk of Readmission After Index Hospitalization for Hip Arthroplasty
Thomas F. Osborne, Paola Suarez, Donna Edwards, Tina Hernandez-Boussard, and Catherine Curtin

Risk Factors for Readmissions After Total Joint Replacement
Satish M Mahajan, Amey S Mahajan, Chantal Nguyen, Justin Bui, Bruce T Abbott, Thomas F. Osborne

Underspecification Presents Challenges for Credibility in Modern Machine Learning
Thomas F. Osborne and Christopher Nielson

Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography thumbnail

PSA Variability and The Diagnosis of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer
Fernandino Vilson, Boya Zhang, James Brooks, Thomas Osborne, Priyadip Ray, and John Leppert

Bioinspiration and Biomimetics thumbnail

Differences in COVID-19 Risk by Race and County-Level Social Determinants of Health Among Veterans.
Hoda S. Abdel Magid, Jacqueline M. Ferguson, Raymond Van Cleve, Amanda L. Purnell and Thomas F. Osborne