The power of promotoras in the fight against COVID-19

It was a "longshot" that resulted in doctors at a Seattle-area hospital diagnosing the first cases of coronavirus, but how they responded may serve as a model to other hospitals attempting to contain the spread further. From staff trained on incident management and a drive-through testing site that serve the health-care workers to a dedicated floor for treating the patients who have tested positive, the hospital has been able to successfully stop any internal spreading.

Kinsa thermometers connect wirelessly to a central database that has been used to track fevers across the United States during the COVID19 pandemic. The data that has been collected has shown that strict orders like business closures and stay-at-home restrictions are working. With public health measures that seek prevention rather than treatment, proof of success can be hard to identify, but these thermometers and their tracking are doing it.

Facing a supply shortage, North Dakota and South Dakota arranged a no-cost swap of needed COVID19 testing supplies. Both states are part of the Northern Plains Consortium, made up of five states’ public health lab workers in an ongoing effort to collaborate and learn from one another. And those relationships paid off when the Dakotas needed to cooperate to share supplies in order to test their residents.

ALL IN is a produce prescription program that gives patients, who are dealing with a variety of cardio-metabolic or behavioral conditions, free fruits and vegetables paired with behavioral interventions, like exercise. Its “three-ingredient approach” includes a prescription for 16 weekly bags of produce that are delivered for free by a local farm, free exercise and stress-reduction classes, and food-as-medicine training for clinic staff who are key in patients’ success.

Data disaggregation allowed the CDC to quickly recognize the severe impact of Coronavirus on the Marshallese community in Arkansas. This was only possible due to a previous precedent of collecting health data from them specifically. Services to mitigate the spread and its effects were quickly put into place.

Doctors Without Borders treats malnutrition in areas of Nigeria facing food shortages due to violence and insurgency. When safe, it runs a mobile clinic to provide basic health care, including nutritional support, particularly to children. When communities are not safe enough to enter, the organization trains community members in basic patient care and provides them the tools to run basic tests and treat malnutrition. Community health workers are also trained to treat patients, dispense medications, and educate caregivers about child nutrition.

Micromek builds low-cost drones using mostly 3D printers and recycled materials and delivers supplies to rural health clinics and relief organizations during natural disasters. The company’s drones can access a drone-friendly air corridor set up by the Malawian government to make the journeys more successful.

Rays of Hope Support Initiative or ROHSI conducts outreach in rural parts of Nigeria to educate people about hypertension and diabetes. A group of volunteers, including medical professionals, provides free screenings, medical advice, and free medications to people with hypertension and diabetes at their biannual community outreaches.

The Health Wagon provides medical care to those experiencing addiction. The Health Wagon also provides services for those in recovery, including medications, counseling, and peer support groups in an effort to reduce relapses and overdose deaths which have skyrocketed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than prescribing opioids for pain treatment, an Ellenville Regional Hospital program treats emergency room patients with chronic pain using non-opioid treatments and offers referrals to local behavioral health services to address the issue of opioid addiction and overdoses.