Every road, every Veteran: Using data to bring care closer

Jimmy Aspras is a completionist.  

That means unfinished business is not an option, whether he’s working his way through every paved road in his home county in New Jersey on a bicycle or helping Optum Serve identify where mobile medical units are needed so Veterans can get care closer to home.  

Cycling taught him that progress comes from staying on the road until every mile is accounted for. Family ties to military service and years of working with Veterans helped shape his commitment to Veteran healthcare.  

His unique view has shaped both his personal passion and professional purpose. On the bike, it means understanding the map, finding the roads not yet ridden and continuing until the work is complete. 

In his role as a data analyst for Optum Serve, it means using information to help find gaps in care and support teams working to reach Veterans who face barriers to timely, quality healthcare. 

"In cycling, it means riding every single road in my home county,” Jimmy says. “In my work at Optum Serve, it means trying to serve every Veteran we can."

Optum Serve's mobile medical units bring providers and equipment to places where Veterans often don’t have easy access to care. The units can support labs, radiology, behavioral health and general medical appointments, helping reach Veterans in rural areas, Native American reservations and regions like Appalachia. 

Jimmy's reporting helps the teams behind those units understand where they have been, where they are going and how they can work more efficiently. His work supports decisions about routing, utilization, completed appointments and upcoming needs, helping close gaps in the provider network and reach more Veterans. 

Optum Serve's mobile units have supported more than 30,000 Veteran appointments over the past few years, driving to more than 1,500 remote locations each year. For Jimmy, the impact is not about one story. It’s about seeing the larger pattern of care made possible when the data is clear and teams can act on it.

The work is personal for Jimmy. Both of his grandfathers served in World War II, and their military service is a point of pride for his family. Their service, along with Jimmy's earlier work in a New Jersey legislative office where he often helped Veterans, gave him a close view of the challenges many Veterans face after serving.    

"Veteran healthcare is very important to me," Jimmy says. "I've seen firsthand the trials that Veterans have faced as a result of their service."

Cycling has taught Jimmy that most hard things are mental obstacles. Long distances, winter rides and difficult conditions require the same persistence he brings to complex data problems. The answers may not come quickly, but progress comes from staying with the work.  

That is how he thinks about Healthy Optumism. It’s not ignoring challenges or assuming they will be easy. It’s being realistic about the complexity of healthcare while knowing the right answer can be found and the next gap closed.  

In his work at Optum Serve, Jimmy’s goal is to help make sure fewer Veterans are left waiting for care and fewer gaps are left unaddressed. Whether on a bike or in the data, he keeps moving until the work is complete.