Aakshi Agarwal.
With Covid-19 making most in-person visits impossible, many doctors and other service providers have transformed their practices into video operations. It’s an obvious and easy solution… if your patients have internet devices with cameras.
As she began doing all her coursework online in March, Yale College junior Aakshi Agarwal and a friend decided to fill a gap in the new telehealth systems that have emerged as a result of the virus.
Agarwal, who grew up in West Woods and graduated from Hamden High School before starting Yale in 2017, said she and fellow junior Hannah Verma were wondering what they could do to help. Verma’s parents are both physicians, said Agarwal. They mentioned that, though much of their work had switched to video appointments, many of their patients do not have devices that allow them to make video calls.
A few weeks later, Agarwal, Verma, and Verma’s brother Arjun are now at the helm of a growing organization that collects donations of video-enabled devices and gives them to healthcare providers who then distribute them to their elderly patients. TeleHealth Access for Seniors, the organization, has now done work in 14 states and in Washington, D.C. It is in the process of filing to become a non-profit.
Agarwal said the organization looks for devices that have cameras and can connect to the internet, including iPhones, laptops, and iPads. Newer devices are best, since the software that many doctors’ offices use only works with newer operating systems.
Devices do more than just allow seniors access to healthcare during the crisis. They can serve as “wellness tools” more generally, said Agarwal. They help people connect with their families in a time when in-person visits are not safe, helping combat the epidemic of loneliness that has resulted from social distancing.
Agarwal is double majoring in biology and political science. She arrived at college wanting to study biology or statistics. Then, she said, “I realized a big problem in America is not the healthcare itself but the healthcare policy,” which pushed her towards political science.
So far the group has collected around 50 devices in Connecticut, all of which have been donated to the West Haven VA. VA spokesperson Pamela Redmond said it has received the devices, which are mostly smartphones and tablets, and will distribute them within the next week to clients who need them.
TeleHealth Access for Seniors relies on a network of volunteers. Volunteers collect devices from donors, sanitize them, and set them up. They then bring them to healthcare providers to distribute. Agarwal said that so far, the organization has worked mostly with VAs.
The website includes instructions for how to use apps like FaceTime and grocery delivery services. Clinics can print them out to give to their clients with the devices.
Agarwal also reached out to Hamden High School Principal Nadine Gannon, she said, to see if there was a way to work with the school. She said the school might start awarding students community service hours for their work volunteering to clean and set up devices. Gannon did not respond to a request for comment.
Agarwal said she anticipates continuing the organization after the current crisis. “I think that we are going to see a larger shift toward telehealth after the pandemic,” she said. “Also it shouldn’t take a pandemic for people to want to provide devices to elderly patients who want to engage with their families” and use other online services.
