November 2023 marks 20 years since the official launch of My HealtheVet, VA’s online patient portal. What began as a modest website has become a vital tool for Veterans and providers alike.
Lara Storke can attest to the portal’s benefits from two perspectives. As an Army Veteran, she uses My HealtheVet for her own care. As a VA optician, My HealtheVet helps her connect with the Veterans in her care.
When Storke was going through cancer treatment in 2006, she started using My HealtheVet because it offered a better way to keep track of her test results and providers’ notes. “You used to have to request records and just wait,” she said. “When VA first came out with a way to access records online, I was all in!”
Today, she incorporates Secure Messaging and other My HealtheVet features into her work as a VA optician at the VA Portland Health Care System. “We … get more secure messages than phone calls. Many have thanked us for making it so easy.”
