Submit Your Ideas to Improve Life as a Disabled Veteran

Have any ideas for inventions that would improve your life as a disabled veteran?

The VA launched its 2015 VA Innovation Creation Series for Prosthetics and Assistive Technology last week. The Innovation Creation Series is open to anyone—from engineers and designers to problem solvers and creative thinkers—who would like to help the VA find ways to assist disabled veterans in dealing with everyday challenges.

The VA has five specific issues they are trying to solve in this year’s Series, including creating a pill box that can dispense medicine up to 8x/day with an alarm system to notify the veteran when to take the meds, and creating a device to help a veteran with tremors perform fine motor tasks. The full list of challenges can be found on their website: www.innovation.va.gov/challenge.

All ideas should be submitted by the end of June. There will be a 2-day Make-a-thon event at Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, VA, July 28-29. During this event, some of the submitted designs will be built and tested to demonstrate how they could help meet the needs of disabled veterans.

We believe that the best ideas will come from those who have to deal with these issues every day: you guys. We also know that many of you are exceptionally smart, talented, and creative, so put your thinking caps on and have fun! For more information on how to participate, including online training videos on design and prototyping, go to www.innovation.va.gov/challenge.