WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) partnered with Verizon, Medivis and Microsoft, effective Feb. 12, as part of its efforts to deliver Veterans VA’s first advanced, 5G-enabled, clinical care system at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.

The public-private partnership, Project Convergence, will be led by VA’s National Center for Collaborative Health Care Innovation and work to help identify potential clinical uses for technology that combine emerging health care innovations with 5G capabilities.

“Last year, President Trump challenged America to be among the first to provide 5G wireless services, and VA met that challenge,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “Our hospital in Palo Alto, California is currently one of only a handful of 5G enabled health facilities in the world. We’re excited to use this hands-on opportunity to work with our partners to develop foundational practices and deploy advanced medical solutions to serve our nation’s Veterans.”

Project Convergence will unveil and demonstrate initial clinical uses of the combined technology at the upcoming Health Information and Management Systems Society conference in Orlando, Florida, March 9-13.