Is there value in sending tablets to patient homes to ensure seamless, delivery of care via telehealth connectivity? Yes, according to innovators at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital.
Funded by an $860,000 award from the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program, this team’s project involved partnering with digital solution provider Equiva to configure tablets and deploy them to homes.
“Our providers are well-aware of the digital divide among some patients. We simply had to make it work for all of our patients,” says Eyal Shemesh, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and chief of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
The team sought to address barriers such as difficulty downloading telemedicine applications, devices lacking cameras and the like. They also validated that families had broadband and assisted with set-up if needed.
Equiva collaborated with care providers from separate clinics to configure tablet UIs to meet care plan and educational needs of targeted patient populations. After turning on the tablets, a patient sees three options – one button to access telemedicine visits, one to access educational materials and one to take surveys.
Despite focusing on ease of access, Mount Sinai fully expected to field support questions. “After thousands of patient interactions, we’ve had only six calls (to our tech helpline,) Shemesh says. “It’s astounding.”
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Rightway, a company that focuses on care navigation and also functions as a pharmacy benefit manager, has hired Dr. Matthew Liss as head of clinical innovation. Liss will help drive Rightway’s clinical interaction strategies to support employee engagement and experience.
Prior to Rightway, Liss worked at NBCUniversal for 20 years and subsequently for Comcast following its acquisition of the company. He most recently served as the clinical review officer for the Comcast Global Benefits team. He has also worked for Aetna and Mount Sinai Health System.
In his new role, he will continue to evolve Rightway’s clinical engagement model and work closely with its employer clients to deploy new programs to serve their employees.
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Amino, a healthcare guidance platform, has launched its platform in Spanish, and expanded its services to include mental health providers. The new developments are aimed at significantly expanding Amino’s impact by improving member access to mental health providers and making the entire platform accessible to Spanish speakers.
Approximately 41 million Americans are native Spanish speakers and language barriers can be a large obstacle to finding care. Inclusivity is critical to improving access to healthcare for this growing segment of the population, the company noted in a press release.
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Minded, a telepsychiatry startup, has raised a $25 million Seed round to ramp up expansion. Investors include Streamlined Ventures, Link Ventures, The Tiger Fund, Unicorn Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, Gaingels, SALT Fund, TheFund, and the founders of Care.com, Bolt, Gravity Blanket, RXBAR, and Gilt.com, along with venture debt from WTI.
Here’s how it works. Consumers complete a free online assessment, video chat with a board-certified psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner, and when appropriate, get prescriptions sent to their local pharmacy or delivered to their door.
David Ronick, co-founder and CEO of Minded, previously co-founded fintech business Stash.
“Mental health medication changed my life, but it’s still way too hard for most people to get quality care,” Ronick said. Minded is on a mission to make it easy for millions of people to be just a few days and a Zoom call away from speaking with a caring, compassionate expert.”
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Picture: akindo, Getty Images
