# Evaluating Connected Health Approaches to Improving the Health of Veterans

> **NIH VA IK2** · PHILADELPHIA VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Background
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality among veterans. Many
of the contributing risk factors are health behaviors that occur outside of the health care system and within their
everyday lives of veterans such as physical activity, obesity, smoking, and medication adherence. Connected
health is a model for using mobile technologies to remotely monitor health outcomes and deploy interventions
to change behavior. While connected health devices may help to facilitate the monitoring of behaviors within
veterans' everyday lives, they alone may not drive behavior change toward improved health. Insights from
behavioral economics can help to design engagements strategies around connected health devices that
leverage the fact the individuals tend to be more present-biased, put undue weight on small probabilities, and
are heavily influenced by emotions such as regret and loss aversion. The Veterans Health Administration
(VHA) is a leader in pioneering connected health technologies to improve the care and health of veterans as
exemplified by the VA Center for Connected Health. However, little is known about veterans' experiences and
outcomes with these technologies. Without the appropriate design, veterans' use of connected health devices
may be subject to multiple challenges and potentially unintended consequences. Given VHA's significant
investment in these technologies, the potentially significant impact on veterans nationally, and the alignment
with the VHA's Blueprint for Excellence, it is imperative that these approaches are rigorously tested
Objectives
To address these issues, I will aim to focus on following research objectives: 1) Understand veterans'
perspectives of needs, barriers, and opportunities with connected health devices; 2) Evaluate veteran's
experiences with Way to Health, a technology platform already being used at the CMCVAMC in Philadelphia to
integrate connected health devices and enable automated deployment of behavioral economic interventions; 3)
Use Way to Health to test social and financial incentive-based connected health approaches to increase
physical activity among veterans to inform an investigator-initiated research proposal.
Methods
My first study will use a mixed-methods approach to identify veterans' experiences with mobile and connected
health technologies, conduct a 4-week pilot using Way to Health, a connected device, and social incentive
intervention to increase physical activity, and conduct semi-structured interviews to evaluate trial experiences.
These findings will inform my second study, a 20-week randomized clinical trial testing combinations of social
and financial incentives to increase physical activity. This work will inform an investigator initiated research
proposal for a larger, multisite clinical trial. Insights from this work will be applicable to other health behaviors
such as those related to smoking, obesity, and medication adherence.
Antic...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10175012
- **Project number:** 5IK2HX001922-04
- **Recipient organization:** PHILADELPHIA VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Mitesh S. Patel
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-10-01 → 2020-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10175012

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10175012, Evaluating Connected Health Approaches to Improving the Health of Veterans (5IK2HX001922-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10175012. Licensed CC0.

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