The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are seeking input to prevent veteran suicide through data-sharing methods.
A June 25 Request for Information (RFI) OSTP marks a step in addressing the White House’s March 5 executive order to develop the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End the National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS).
Amid a series of questions that generally seek suicide-prevention strategies, OSTP also asked how it could establish relevant data-sharing protocols across Federal partners to align with community partners.
Namely, OSTP asked how it could leverage Federal data from informatics systems and combine it with local or regional data to provide new insights into trauma or disease progression. OSTP also asked what types of data would help propel it forward in researching veteran suicide, mental health, risk determination, or other health areas relevant to PREVENTS.
Additionally, the RFI requested information on how OSTP could leverage technology to capture and use data from non-clinical settings to advance its behavioral and mental health research for PREVENTS.
Agencies have looked to refine and utilize data in effective ways before. VA and the Defense Department (DoD) is reportedly working to create a predictive analytics program to combine and aggregate DoD and VA data to preemptively identify and intervene with service members at risk for suicidal thoughts or poor mental health conditions.
The RFI marks another step to create data-driven solutions through technological collaboration among different entities and agencies.