Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: The U.S. healthcare system faces persistent challenges, including rising costs, fragmented care, an overwhelming chronic disease burden, workforce burnout, and misaligned incentives. In contrast, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has successfully implemented a system-wide Whole Health transformation, improving outcomes across all domains by shifting care from a disease-centered model to one that centers the whole person—including physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional dimensions of health. The VA health system accomplished this by transforming its approach. Instead of asking, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ they began to ask, ‘What matters to you?’ This small but powerful shift transformed the entire model of care. Despite growing interest in whole-person, value-driven care, most non-VA health systems lack a structured model for implementing Whole Health at scale. The VA provides an evidence-based foundation for redesigning care around meaning and purpose in life. This work introduces a blueprint synthesizing VA innovations into a transferable framework for implementing Whole Health systems.
METHODS: The blueprint development synthesized VA Whole Health literature, systems thinking theory, transformation models, and thematic analysis of leadership interviews. Key elements were integrated through conceptual mapping to form a framework of core components and pathways for Whole Health system transformation.
RESULTS: The 'Healthcare Reimagined' blueprint provides a complete conceptual model of seven interconnected domains foundational to Whole Health system redesign—the operational components, structural requirements, value-alignment mechanisms, and measurement strategies needed to implement Whole Health beyond the VA. The results identify core leverage points (purpose-centered care, leadership humility, trust-building, cultural coherence) and a structured implementation pathway.
CONCLUSIONS: The framework demonstrates how aligning philosophy, infrastructure, policy, and culture can improve patient engagement, clinician well-being, and overall system value. It provides a transferrable model for advancing value-driven, person-centered care across U.S. health systems.