Virtual Battle Buddy

In today’s culture, there is a growing demand to have information and resources at your fingertips. Smartphones are used by over 70% of the US population and wi-fi access is now the norm versus the exception. Providing our veterans with an app to use on their smartphones is imperative to their well-being.
Veterans are conditioned by their military training to be prepared. During their service, they are given the training and resources to stay in a state of preparedness however after separation from service those resources are not readily available. Paralyzed Veterans of America – Wisconsin Chapter (PVA-WI) has seen firsthand this growing need to keep our membership empowered with the resources and information they need to be successful, especially during the current pandemic.
Let me introduce the Virtual Battle Buddy app. In partnership with the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (UWM) we have begun the brainstorming process to develop an all-inclusive app for veteran resources. The app is designed not only to provide information but also to incentivize veterans for using the app and having all of their medical, financial, dietary, and fitness goals and plans up to date. While in service these men and women have these types of documents reviewed and updated on an annual basis. After separation, many fail to keep these important documents up to date with their current address, family, and medical information.
The app will provide instant access to the Veterans Crisis Line. It will also step the veteran through life events and make recommendations based on their answers to questions creating a full profile of the veteran. The veteran will receive points for completing recommended tasks along their journey. These points will be used to allow the veteran to compete as an individual and/or join a team to compete amongst their peers. There will also be a swag store where they can cash in their points for swag.
In the fitness portion of the app, it will have the ability to convert energy used by the veteran to perform the fitness task and award equitable points. As an example, a veteran in a wheelchair will have their energy used measured by tire rotations and the amount of energy used to perform that task. To achieve this lofty goal, pedometers have been created that use a magnet to track the number of rotations the wheelchair tire performs and will relay that data via Bluetooth to a fitness tracker within the app. This will allow ALL veterans to compete equitably regardless of their age, gender, or abilities.
To simplify activity tracking, the app integrates with Apples Healthkit.