**Project Atlas: Virtual Care for Rural Veterans | Philips Healthcare — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/project-atlas-virtual-care-rural-veterans-philips-healthcare/

Terry Ray Beasley, a 72-year-old veteran in Eureka, Montana, describes how remote rural veterans lack access to VA care and how Philips' Project Atlas virtual care pods address this gap.

## Key Takeaways

- Remote rural veterans face serious barriers to VA care, including distance, aging, lack of technology, and unreliable weather.
- Project Atlas uses data-driven criteria, such as travel distance, broadband availability, and veteran organization engagement, to prioritize deployment sites.
- Co-designing the solution with the community drove adoption and demonstrated the value of listening to end users.
- Telehealth pods can turn a hazardous multi-hour trip into accessible care, improving safety and quality of life.
- Peer connection and mutual support among veterans remain central to community wellbeing.

## What the video covers

- Terry Ray Beasley, a 72-year-old veteran in Eureka, northwestern Montana, introduces the community and his family's military service.
- Rural veterans, many of them older Vietnam-era vets, often lack computers, adequate cellphones, or the ability to drive.
- The local veteran community is aging, with an average member age of seventy plus, and the area is very remote with unpredictable weather.
- The nearest clinic is an hour and a half away and the nearest VA hospital five hours away, making travel a safety issue.
- Project Atlas identified communities with many veterans far from VA care, lacking broadband at home, and with active VFW and American Legion leadership.
- Eureka ranked first among these criteria and was chosen as the initial deployment site, with other locations to follow over the next year.
- The project was co-designed with users through community meetings, shaping the solution around stated needs and desires.
- The virtual care pod gives every veteran who is a VA patient access to telehealth without dangerous winter travel.
- Veterans in the community have already come in asking to use telehealth.
- Beasley emphasizes peer support among veterans, who look out for and depend on one another.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction to Eureka and Terry Ray Beasley
2. 00:42 Family military service and rural veteran challenges
3. 01:11 Aging veterans and barriers to technology and transport
4. 01:54 Distance to care and safety concerns
5. 02:31 How Eureka was selected for Project Atlas
6. 03:27 Co-design approach and the virtual care pod
7. 03:59 Veteran peer support and closing message

Answers

## Questions about this video

Why was Eureka, Montana chosen as the first deployment site for Project Atlas?

Eureka ranked highest across the selection criteria: a high concentration of veterans far from VA care, no home broadband access, and active VFW and American Legion leadership supportive of the concept. The speaker also notes its remote location as a strong reason.

What challenges do rural veterans in this community face in accessing healthcare?

Many are older, some lack computers or adequate cellphones, and many cannot drive. The nearest clinic is an hour and a half away, the nearest VA hospital five hours away, and winter weather makes travel dangerous.

How does the virtual care pod help veterans according to the video?

The pod gives every veteran who is a VA patient an outlet for telehealth, so they don't have to risk icy roads for a long drive to receive care. Veterans have already asked to use it.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:04

Speaker A

our life here in Eureka in this part northwestern Montana so close to the Canadian border you know small community the kids started school here kindergarten and all the way through high school graduation so we were involved in all the sports activities

00:22

Speaker A

and stuff and just being a part of the community when we could you know I mean it's amazing this this is a great place everybody helps everybody and we're community my name is Terry ray Beasley I'm 72 years old

00:42

Speaker A

my uncle and my dad they both served in the army one in Korea and one in South Pacific over to [Music] [Music] where we're at here even with the amount of veterans in Montana we're so different than a large metropolitan or

01:18

Speaker A

urban area because so many of these veterans that I've ran into especially in our rural areas here they're old many of them are older than me the early vet Nam vets they don't have access to computers some of them don't have

01:32

Speaker A

adequate cellphones some of them can't drive don't drive have medical issues that are service-connected or whatever you know it's why I insist on talking veterans that talk to other people get somebody to know that if you need something you got to talk to people

01:54

Speaker A

the veteran community here is is aging the average age of our members is seventy plus we're very remote and our weather can be very unpredictable it's an hour and a half to the nearest clinic five hours to the nearest VA hospital

02:11

Speaker A

suddenly it's not just a challenge it's a safety issue if you can circumvent that kind of travel time then the benefit is monumental as we looked at the map of America we started to prioritize where are the largest number

02:28

Speaker A

of veterans who have to drive the greatest distance to receive VA care so we made a list of communities where we have this high concentration of veterans who are very far from the VA care they would prefer to receive and we overlaid

02:43

Speaker A

that with criteria that were chosen by our office of connected care where our communities where broadband would not be available in their homes where is their VFW and American leadership that would embrace this concept so when you put all

02:58

Speaker A

those criteria together Yurika came out at the top quickly followed by some other locations that we'll be rolling out over the next year I'm so grateful that this was the first place to be able to deploy because we

03:12

Speaker A

really are in God's country in one of the furthest corners of the United States and it's magnificent I mean it's it's no wonder why people here I couldn't think of a better place to first deploy Alice I think what's

03:27

Speaker A

been their great about this project is just to come out meet with the community and Co design something with the users that's given us the energy because we were hearing back from them what they want what they need when they desire and

03:40

Speaker A

we're shaping that and then you know the reaction when they see the solution is not wow you've really helped improve my life the pod gives every veteran that's a VA patient an outlet you don't have to take that chance on the icy roads for an

03:59

Speaker A

hour and a half to get anywhere we've had more than one veteran come in and asked to use telehealth we as veterans we spar amongst ourselves jokingly but right or wrong we all are vets and that's important we all went through the same thing you

04:21

Speaker A

learn to work as a group you learn to depend on your buddy and I think for the people that have stepped up and done this Phillips and everybody else I think it's great you help you take care do

04:34

Speaker A

whatever you can to help a veteran a fellow vet because he's been there he's done that he's done his bit he's done his time that's pretty much what it's about

Topics: telehealth rural veterans Project Atlas Philips Healthcare VA care virtual care Eureka Montana veteran healthcare access connected care digital health

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