The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs revealed today that it’s joining with Google Cloud to develop new applications that will help improve veteran’s access to VA services and data.

The VA is currently the largest healthcare provider in the U.S., serving more than 19 million American veterans and their families. It has a network of more than 170 medical centers and 1,000 outpatient sites. Besides healthcare, it also provides services around educational opportunities, unemployment assistance, housing aid and pension benefits, among other things.

VA’s priority is to ensure veterans can easily access all of these services and that explains why it has signed a $13 million, multiyear deal with Google Cloud to deploy its Apigee application programming interface management platform. Apigee will help to facilitate VA’s Lighthouse API program, giving developers seamless and secure access to VA APIs and develop new tools and services, Google said.

APIs provide a way for applications to talk to other software programs and access data easily and securely. Apigee helps organizations to manage multiple APIs at once.

Google said developers will now be able to use Apigee to access VA’s Benefits API to create applications that will make it easier for veterans to submit and track benefits claims. The VA Health Benefits APIs, meanwhile, will make it easier to build apps to help veterans access their medical records.

VA Lighthouse Director Dave Mazik said the main benefit of Apigee is it will help the VA to scale the Lighthouse API program to third-party developers and keep things cost-effective.

“This partnership is a logical next step to better connect Veterans with VA services, innovate with trusted third parties and continue to offer a high-quality, digital-first customer experience to which they’re accustomed to in other areas of their lives,” he said.

“By making it easier for developers and partners to build new applications through Apigee, the VA is spurring innovations that will ultimately enable veterans and their families to more easily access important benefits and services,” added Google Cloud Vice President of Public Sector Mike Daniels.

Image: Google