Digital Health Connectivity Project

Digital Health Connectivity Project is committed to strengthening health systems in Medically Underserved Areas by reducing the hardware deficit. We provide video-enabled tablets to Federally Qualified Health Centers to expand access to care through telehealth and remote health monitoring. FQHCs serve vulnerable patient populations that would especially benefit from remote, accessible, and affordable care options. At the same time, these centers are stretched thin. Unable to fill positions for primary care physicians and nurses, FQHCs face significant challenges in dealing with high patient intake. To solve this, DHCP partners with community health associations to administer surveys and identify device needs at FQHCs. We work with bulk suppliers and electronics recyclers to provide FQHCs with compatible devices that can extend the capacity of healthcare workers. Our solution would positively change lives if scaled globally by ensuring that every hospital has the hardware it needs to deliver remote care options to patients.

Medically underserved populations have been severely impacted by COVID-19. During the outbreak, hospital volumes for non-COVID-19 patients plummeted, as such patients avoided seeking medical attention. As a result, preventive care measures and routine testing for non-urgent cases have declined. For vulnerable populations with chronic diseases, like diabetes or heart disease, the inability to access non-urgent healthcare during this time is having downstream effects on individual health and community resilience. Studies show that the burden of chronic disease is especially high among patients at Federally Qualified Health Centers, which cater to largely underserved communities. While smart device penetration is high across American adults – 81% own smartphones and roughly half own a tablet computer – smart healthcare lags. In 2014, only 24% of US hospitals reported that tablet computers are used at their organization. At a global scale, while smartphone penetration grows, as of 2017 half the world still lacks access to essential health services. By reducing the hardware deficit at FQHCs in the US and community health centers if scaled globally, these facilities can leverage technology to deploy telehealth services, remotely manage chronic diseases, and improve health outcomes for vulnerable communities, including those in public housing or migrant workers.

Digital Health Connectivity Project helps reduce the deficit of smart technology hardware in Federally Qualified Health Centers. First, our partnerships with community health associations and comprehensive health facility needs assessments enable us to efficiently identify and address needs at FQHCs that would especially benefit from our services. Second, we collect dormant devices idling in American households and work with our electronics refurbishing partners to process, recycle, and refurbish these devices. We are able to use these funds to offset bulk tablet purchases for FQHCs and build further fundraising capabilities. Our conversations with big tech companies have revealed that companies are struggling with device hibernation – that is, when a mobile phone is still retained by the user at its end-of-life. A 2019 survey conducted by ecoATM Gazelle, the leading marketplace for buying and selling pre-owned electronic devices, found that only 25% of Americans recycle electronic devices. Electronics account for 70% of landfills’ toxic waste, polluting surrounding communities. By effectively mobilizing these devices for positive social impact, we can mitigate consumer barriers to device return, empower individuals in the national effort to increase access to healthcare, and promote circular solutions that have the secondary effect of curbing e-waste problems.

DHCP serves Federally Qualified Health Centers across the US. FQHCs provide primary and preventive healthcare services to vulnerable populations, including the medically underserved and uninsured. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, 1 in 12 people nationwide rely on FQHCs for care, including 3.5 million publicly housed patients, 1.4 million homeless patients, 1 million agricultural workers, and over 355,000 veterans. In 2015, 1,375 FQHCs in over 9,750 communities served 24.3 million patients. The vast majority – 92% – of FQHC patients had income at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. Studies show that the adoption of health information technology at FQHCs is positively associated with both quality of care and patient health outcomes. DHCP, which currently serves over 70 health facilities and targets one-third of all FQHCs in the country, would serve an estimated 8 million vulnerable patients at scale. We administer comprehensive needs assessment questionnaires to FQHCs to understand their needs and identify internal champions to ensure effective deployment. By equipping each center with an average of 10 devices (the most commonly requested amount by survey), primary care providers are able to administer telehealth services from centers, amplifying patient access to lower-cost primary and specialty care.

DHCP prepares communities for emerging pandemics and health security threats by modernizing the health systems that serve vulnerable populations. The burden on the healthcare system due to coronavirus has been extreme, with over 90,000 health workers infected worldwide. Moreover, the outbreak has disproportionately affected low-income communities of color, who are more likely to suffer from underlying conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and lung disease that make them likelier to die from infection. Providing health systems in Medically Underserved Areas with tech-enabled solutions can extend their capacity for remote health monitoring and increase access to primary care options, thereby increasing community preparedness.

Our team would use The Elevator Prize for Health Security to massively scale our operations both nationally and globally, using a more sustainable and eco-friendly business model to source and supply hardware to hospitals. We would source smart devices at scale and turn electronic waste into value across American healthcare systems by (1) collecting dormant, used smart devices en masse from American households and selling them to companies that recycle or refurbish consumer electronics, and (2) using sales to offset the costs of new hospital hardware and support administrative and fundraising capabilities. While we are already working with electronics refurbishing companies to achieve this through local pilots, the Elevator Prize would enable us to effectively and efficiently do this at a large scale, providing us with sustainable income streams to continue to fulfill hospital hardware needs through a circular approach. If awarded $300,000 or more, we would: (1) acquire aggregated data from leading smart device providers on device purchases, returns, and replacements in the last decade, (2) purchase targeted advertising to reach households with hibernating devices in a national call to action, (3) purchase targeted advertising for point-of-sale fundraising and device collection on highly used smartphone applications, like ride-sharing and food delivery services, through paid partnerships, and (4) contract with networks of electronics recycling companies to handle our warehousing, distribution, and logistics for donated devices.