Creating Innovative Solutions to the Unmet Needs of Injured Veterans

CAMVETS launched in Cleveland, Ohio in 2019. Forged in partnership with VHA Innovation Ecosystem, we are proud to call Cleveland the home of CAMVETS! This program leveraged the best practices from human-centered design to develop innovative solutions to the unmet needs of injured Veterans.

What is CAMVETS?

1. Veterans identify their individual challenges

As with all of our programs, CAMVETS started with the needs of our Veterans (or Challenge Knowers), empowering them to tell us what they need and then to be a part of making the solution.

2. Teams of experts come together to build solutions

Next, we put the experts to work (or Solution Makers) during a 3-day intensive make-a-thon (a making marathon!) to create innovative solutions that directly address the need at hand.

3. A Solution for one can become a solution for many

Following each event, we worked with our Challenge Teams and strategic partners to develop viable solutions into products and services that can help Veterans and others facing similar challenges.

Impact

A navy blue background with a yellow banner featuring the word 'SUPPORT' in red, accompanied by two small blue hearts.

200 Volunteers

A clock with an arrow in a cycle and a calendar, representing time management or scheduling.

7,200 Hours donated

A digital illustration of a lightbulb inside a thought bubble, symbolizing an idea or innovation, with a dark blue background.

17 Products invented

A young man assists an older man with a prosthetic hand at a public event or workshop, both focused on the prosthetic and its features.

Three people engaged in a conversation at a professional event with a sign in the background that reads 'Interactive Learning'.

Three men, two in blue shirts and one in a red checkered shirt, are examining a prosthetic limb with a robotic hand. They are indoors at a conference or event with white chairs and a large screen in the background.

A young man demonstrating a robotic device to an older man with a smile at a table with snacks and drinks in a busy indoor setting.

A man in a wheelchair demonstrates a device to a group of people in an indoor setting.

"CAMVETS gave me my hope back, made me believe in people again."

—Chris, Veteran Participant
"The friendship and bonds that were formed over just a few days...the impact on the Veteran’s lives was so significant. We need more of these events."

—Maker
"To now have the ability to complete a life dream is indescribable... we don’t get many chances at that so I'm extremely grateful for it."

—James, Veteran Participant

CAMVETS Stories

Veteran Project Highlights

Two people hugging each other warmly in an indoor setting with large windows, one wearing a blue shirt and the other in a black and white floral patterned shirt.

Each project below began with a real challenge faced by a Veteran and evolved into an innovative solution designed to restore independence, connection, and quality of life. Through close collaboration with Veterans and multidisciplinary teams, these efforts reflect how personalized problem-solving can lead to scalable tools and technologies that benefit many beyond the original need.

Team Ginger

Challenge: A digital service dog

A middle-aged woman with short gray hair, glasses, and wearing a black and white patterned top, sitting indoors near a window.

Ginger created a mobile and smartwatch application designed to help Ginger to get out of the house and do the things that make her happy. Now the goal is to make DiGi available to all Veterans and others struggling with similar challenges for free on the App Store.

Two men working together to assemble a tripod or surveying equipment in a classroom with colorful carpet and green chairs.

Challenge: Getting up from and down to floor to play with his baby

Team Chris

Army Veteran, Chris, has limited mobility and struggles with pain management. As a result, he worried that he would not be able to participate in his newborn daughter’s life and asked for a solution to help him to move between a sitting and standing position from the floor. The team developed a tripod cane that is undergoing further R&D and is open for licensing.

Team Rob

Challenge: Extra-skeletal Hand Grip

A man in a wheelchair with a headset receiving medical assistance from another man.

Army Veteran, Robert was involved in a motor vehicle accident in 1983 that rendered him a C5 quadriplegic. Rob worked with the SmartArm team to develop extra skeletal grip using AI technology.

Team Ann Marie

Challenge: Biking with her service dog

A woman in sunglasses and a pink hat smiling at the camera, holding a yellow Labrador retriever dog with a black vest on a rocky outdoor trail surrounded by green bushes.

Former U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer, AnnMarie used to race bikes and competed in triathlons, but stopped riding after she got her service dog, Leigh Ann, who is now always by her side. Her team helped her to get back on her bike by creating a trailer that allows Leigh Ann to accompany her comfortably and safely

Team Bill

Challenge: Exercising on his own

A man in a red sweatshirt participating in a rehabilitation or therapy session assisted by two therapists, one in a blue shirt, in an indoor facility. The man is using a gait training device.

Air Force Veteran, Bill has a central nervous system movement disorder, which includes spasticity and paralysis. Doing leg exercises daily helps to manage the spasms, so his team of engineers worked with him to develop a lift system that allows him to do them on his own.

Team Zarita

A woman in a pink tie-dye tank top and black pants using a walker at an indoor event with several people in the background.

Challenge: To dance again

Zarita was injured 6 years ago in training after returning from Afghanistan and hasn’t been able to do the one thing that she loves most, to dance. Her team worked tirelessly to make sure that by the end of the make-a-thon, she would be able to dance and even perform on stage at the final ceremony.

Northeast Ohioans Help Disabled Vets Find Solutions

Teams of Northeast Ohio volunteers joined with disabled Veterans at the Joseph and Helen Lowe Institute for Innovation in St. Edward High School on April 25-27, 2019 to design and build solutions to challenges the Veterans face in the debut of a program sponsored by the nonprofit Challenge America, Cleveland Clinic Innovations and the VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System.