This is a developing story. It was last updated at 12:30 p.m. on March 24.
In a national address to his country's citizens on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the country was at war with the coronavirus pandemic.
To ensure the gravity of the situation, he repeated it six times. “The enemy is there—invisible, elusive—and it is advancing," Macron said in his speech, before putting France on a lockdown.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called this "unchartered territory" and added that the only way to contain the spread effectively and quickly was to "act now."
Closer to home, Alessandro Vespignani, a modeler of infectious diseases at Northeastern University, called the virus a "beast that's moving very fast."
And indeed, it has.
The situation surrounding the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, is changing by the hour. On Sunday, Gov. Charlie Baker ordered all public and private schools to close for three weeks and limited restaurants to only takeout and delivery as the total number of infected residents continued to rise. It now stands at 777.
Even as the nation prepares to hunker down, local healthtech startups are stepping up to do their part. From patient Q&As to nurse training programs, here’s what some companies are doing in the midst of the growing pandemic.
If your company has specific COVID-19-related health initiatives, let me know at skalyanaraman@americaninno.com.
Amwell
The telemedicine startup, formerly known as American Well, has launched a national COVID-19 telehealth response program. The 14-year-old company established an always-on-call infection control officer, COVID-19-specific workflows for clinical operations and a COVID-19 Readiness Team. It also raised $60 million in funding on Monday,
“Telehealth is the ideal venue for initial screening of patients with respiratory conditions that are common in COVID-19,” Peter Antall, chief medical officer at Amwell said in a statement. "Not only can telehealth greatly minimize the demands on in-person primary care, urgent care, and emergency departments across the country; it can also reduce unnecessary risk to patients and care teams from further exposure to this highly infectious virus.”
IntelyCare
IntelyCare, a Quincy-based startup with an app that lets post-acute facilities hire on-demand nursing professionals, is launching a free, web-based training certification program specific to nursing facilities. The training will update nursing professionals on COVID-19 prevention and treatment practices in order to maintain the health of nurses and patients during the outbreak.
“As we monitored the spread of coronavirus, it rapidly became clear that nursing homes are ground zero and health care workers are at high risk of infection. We recognized an immediate need among our facility partners and nurses for training specifically designed for these vulnerable communities,” said David Coppins, IntelyCare's co-founder and CEO.
Graphenea
Cambridge-based Graphenea, a startup that manufactures graphene materials used for industrial and research needs, is offering free graphene to perform research on treatment and diagnosis of COVID-19.
In the medical field, graphene can be used for various purposes, including for DNA sequencing and as a biomarker. An oxidized form of graphene can also be used as a diagnostic tool.
Folia Health
MassChallenge winner Folia Health, a Cambridge-based health care startup that helps patients and family caregivers collect and share data to improve treatment outcomes for people suffering from chronic diseases, has launched a Coronavirus Q&A on prevention, care and symptoms.
XRHealth
Brookline-based XRHealth, a virtual reality and augmented reality telehealth platform, announced it was launching VR telehealth support groups for people in isolation due to the coronavirus. Patients with similar ailments can support each other, and doctors affiliated with the XRHealth telehealth clinics can offer guidance as well. The groups will begin on April 1.
Orbita
Another MassChallenge HealthTech contenders, Boston-based Orbita, a startup that provides virtual health assistants to help healthcare organizations engage patients and improve outcomes, announced its new COVID-19 virtual assistant, a chatbot that can be readily integrated into existing websites to improve access to coronavirus-specific Q&A and screening tools. The startup is offering this solution for free.
ianacare
Boston-based ianacare, a startup that provides a virtual mobile-first care team for family caregivers, created a free app called to support family caregivers. The app makes it easier to mobilize personal social circles to rally around individuals/families who are caring for loved ones with chronic conditions as well as disabilities and mental illness. The app easily coordinates practical help such as running errands, organizing rides and emotional support through a private group feed.
athenahealth
Watertown-based health care company athenahealth is activating its network to help healthcare providers quickly make informed decisions and ease workflow constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic. The move includes releasing software updates nightly to align existing product structures (order sets, social history questions, and more) with CDC best practice recommendations, providing instant access to the latest CDC COVID-19 guidance through its app, activating its ecosystem of deep partnerships with leading telehealth companies for patient management and triage and deploying enhanced online scheduling to enable patients to make appointments themselves and reduce the burden on practice staff.
Kyruus
Boston-based Kyruus, a startup that provides scheduling software for health systems, updated its clinical taxonomy to enables health systems to surface providers who see patients for coronavirus symptoms in search results online. The startup is also waiving integration fees for health system customers who want to surface virtual care options within their find-a-provider.
Buoy Health
Buoy Health, a company runs an online symptom-checking tool, recently added an option to check for the coronavirus. Users can plug in their symptoms and determine whether they're high or low risk. High-risk users are advised to go to the emergency room, or call ahead to give medical professionals a chance to prepare for a visit.
Eversound
Boston-based Eversound, a startup that organizes live streamed, interactive programming to combat social isolation among senior living communities, is offering immediate access to its library of over 100 on-demand previously recorded events until April 30.
The programming features content from Dudley Observatory, The National WWII Museum, Museum of the Rockies, Greenville Zoo, and South Carolina Aquarium.
