April 2021

Submitted by Darryl

Foreword

With minority communities being hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic change is needed now. But we simply cannot wait. Too many loved ones, grandparents, parents, and even children have been lost to the virus. With the Trump administration completely failing to stop harm to Black and minority Americans, others have taken it upon themselves to rise up and fill the need in our communities. This article dives deep on one such service provider, providing free digital health care services to eligible individuals. Let’s look at how they’re disrupting healthcare in the midst of the virus.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically disrupted healthcare delivery, and ten years from now, this moment will be remembered for being the catalyst for accelerating the adoption of innovative virtual health service delivery solutions. Individuals, organizations, and governments are increasingly using virtual health to meet their most urgent short-term needs during the crisis. New services are facilitating engaged patient care for delivering preventative, personalized programs and ongoing care management. The importance of virtual healthcare has taken on a new significance.

A survey carried out by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in collaboration with the ATA (American Telemedicine Association) between November 2019, and January 2020 found that fifty percent of healthcare executives thought at least a quarter of all outpatient care and well-being services would go virtual by 2040.

Further, three out of four executives predicted that investments across the virtual health landscape would be significantly higher (more than 25 percent) over the next decade compared to today. Also, 88 percent of respondents predicted wearable devices would be integrated with care delivery, resulting in a more tailored, personalized virtual health experience for consumers.
This context motivated the creation of the National Coronavirus Hotline in one of the most severely COVID-19 hit states in America: California.

Community-based healthcare platforms

NCH is a community-based healthcare platform that prides itself as an information resource and treatment center for the COVID-19 / Coronavirus pandemic. It exists as a platform that lets organizations and groups launch campaigns to deliver healthcare services to many people. NCH automates and simplifies healthcare service delivery by enabling institutions, governments, and organizations to launch healthcare campaigns based on their operational goals.
Patients can book an appointment with a doctor, speak with a therapist about their particular situation, or request disinfection services to sanitize their homes all at the click of a button.
By bringing healthcare directly to patients wherever they are, NCH streamlines delivery and curbs excessive healthcare expenses. NCH is currently serving California, but plans to extend its healthcare options and roll out in other cities in the future.

Services

NCH provides a range of services geared towards reducing the spread of Coronavirus, helping control its contagion rate, and managing other flu and respiratory problems so that people can protect their loved ones.

1. Telemedicine

Telemedicine

Users seeking advice and medical help can speak with licensed coronavirus doctors from the comfort and safety of their homes. With lockdown rules enforced across the world, and face-to-face meetings with doctors all but put on hold, telemedicine has become the most preferred way for many people to visit a doctor. Virtual appointments extend beyond one-on-one meetings with your doctor, and now include the ability to order lab tests, have prescriptions sent to your local pharmacy, and even get referrals to local doctors for in-person visits. Anyone can book an appointment, whether they are infected or not, or have questions about Coronavirus or other medical problems common to flu and respiratory issues.

2. Mental Health Support

mental health

Without a doubt, it is stressful living through a global pandemic. There is so much to worry about with your own health and your family’s health and safety at stake. All of these factors can take a toll, causing anxiety, emotional distress and even lead to depression. Talking to trained and experienced mental health professionals from the safety of your home is an advisable step for users to cope with the distress and challenges caused by Coronavirus.

3. Household Disinfection

disinfection

One of the most critical steps in the effort to slow the spread of the Coronavirus is to live in an environment that makes it difficult for the virus to thrive or spread. NCH offers a disinfection service with hospital-grade solutions. Users that request this service will have a team of Coronavirus disinfection experts dispatched to their homes for inspection and disinfection.

Disruption from standard healthcare

NCH enables cities, counties, states, non-profits, foundations, and for-profit companies to launch targeted healthcare campaigns to deliver healthcare-related services to their constituents at scale and track the performance of these services in real-time. NCH makes it possible to buy and distribute healthcare-related services – just like any online service – in less than 15 minutes.

You can easily book an appointment with a Coronavirus doctor, speak with a therapist or obtain professional disinfection for your home, right on the platform.

Summary

National Coronavirus Hotline (NCH) was created in response to the impact the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has had on the lives of people all over the world. NCH offers a new take on the mass delivery of healthcare. It aims to reduce Coronavirus infections by a factor of 10, by automating the delivery of a range of healthcare services.
By creating healthcare campaigns, companies, governments, and other organizations can provide healthcare to their constituents while monitoring performance as they do so.

Submitted by Viki

Let’s talk about the caste system. To a western mind, the idea that we are all equals is baked into us from a young age. We have all heard Martin Luther King‘s famous speech, quoting from the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”

However, in certain cultures, most prominently, in South Asia (India especially), there is a caste system, which is a structured and rigid set of tiers within society. The higher class are treated like royalty, and must marry within their caste, or near enough to it. At the bottom end of the caste system, the untouchables, we have those unfortunate and downtrodden people, victims of bad luck of being born into a lower caste. We even use the word “pariah” in common English use, to refer to someone who is reviled and shamed: this is literally the name of a tribe / caste of people in Southeast India, who took on unsanitary work. Let’s dive into the merits and downsides of these two world views.

Unlimited social mobility
Here in the west, we sometimes have a tendency to think that we are the greatest culture on earth, and that all other cultures, countries and nations could do better by being more like us. While it’s certainly true that we have a lot to be proud of, this kind of thinking has created blind spots for us. There are weaknesses and flaws with our world view, and I’m going to highlight one of them here. Let’s take the commonly held belief that if you come to the United States of America and work hard, then you will be successful. This is a powerful motivator, and it gives a strong incentive for everyone to try hard, and to strive for success. However, the dark side of this view is that it implies, if you’re poor and homeless, you ended up that way because you didn’t work hard. It’s mentally phrased as “Well if you work hard, you could solve your problems and improve your situation, so why haven’t you done that?”. This mentality applies to very poor homeless people, but it also applies to very rich people. It means that you’re able to look at a billionaire, and question yourself: “Why aren’t I as successful as them? I must not be trying hard enough.”. In essence, because you believe that achieving upward social mobility is an option, then you can never be at peace, because you could always be trying harder. Think about that for a moment. It’s a heavy mental burden to carry. The truth is, in the United States at least, we don’t have unlimited social mobility: we have only the promise of unlimited social mobility. Let’s contrast that now.

Rigid social structures
In India, if you’re born into a low-caste family, then everyone around you will expect you to stay there. You will, in fact, expect yourself to stay there. The label will be permanent, and you will be expected to marry someone within your caste. You will be expected to do low-caste work for the rest of your life. Even if you try to improve your situation by becoming an entrepreneur, you will be frowned upon by people from your own culture, whether higher or lower caste than you. However, if a passing american sees your struggle, he’ll applaud you. In fact, if you know that your lot in life is mostly set, then very little of your time is going to be spent struggling, striving, stressing and generally forgoing the simple pleasures in life. Can a rich (or poor) person who is hell-bent on success, stop to take a full day to just watch the clouds go by? Or to play with their children every night? Or to even have children? For people who know that social mobility is impossible, life satisfaction reverts to the mean: you’re happy with your lot. Sure there are difficult times and good times, but ultimately it’s a completely different state of mind to be at peace with your place in society. This comes with one huge drawback for the culture or country as a whole.

Talent is universal
If there is a person born with a mind so special, so unique, and so capable that they are a once-in-a-century phenomenon, where will that person be born? What will happen to them? Let’s do the math. The vast majority of the world’s population sits in the region surrounding India and China. So, the probability is high that our unique hypothetical child will be born there. Let’s assume they’re born in India, for argument’s sake. Their talented brain may not be used for discovering the depth of particle physics, or building a billion dollar company that gets humans to mars. They are more likely to end up being extremely successful at whatever job is most common for people of the caste that they’re born into. If that same talented person were born into an american family, however poor, there is a good chance that they will be picked up by the school system and catapulted into college by scholarships and grants, and go on to make use of their talents. So if talent is universally distributed, it’s extremely important that we make use of it. Regardless of your place of birth, your gender, your nationality, your religion, or any other factor, if you have a natural talent for working with your hands, then it’s important for society that you become a master sculptor or heart surgeon. If you have a naturally beautiful, clear and calm voice, then your talent should be used on a radio talk show, or to make a medical device instructional voice over. If you’re great at manual labor while abhorring paperwork, then instead of being born into a fixed life of bureaucrats and government officials, it would be better for you to take on construction work. If talent is universal, then let it flow freely. Just remember to stop and smell the roses while you climb.

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