When health centers and free clinics needed help to reach their underserved patients who are most impacted by emergencies like Covid-19, CareMessage decided to provide free access to its text messaging platform to improve awareness and access for patients in underserved communities. Since then, CareMessage has facilitated critical Covid-19 communication between health workers and patients, with over 15 million messages sent across 38 states.
This is just one example of how the best innovations are created out of need and necessity. The current public health crisis has shown that startups and social enterprises are continuing to innovate to address crucial challenges that both frontline health workers and healthcare facilities currently face. Many have shifted their short-term priorities to provide frontline health workers with access to free resources, certifications, and job placement tools needed to improve productivity, mental health, and patient care.
However, there is more to be done. COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of public health infrastructure that has become even more stretched beyond its capacity to adequately meet the demand of incoming patients, and the shortage of healthcare workers nationwide is accelerating as more frontline workers fall ill. Communities of color and medically underserved areas, usually low-income or rural, are particularly vulnerable.
To address this, Village Capital is partnering with Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures (JJIV) on an initiative to highlight startup innovations in the U.S. that support health workers and relieve the burden on overstretched public health systems – from telehealth tools that provide rural frontline workers with consultations to platforms that enable them to offload administrative tasks, such as scheduling rides for patients so they can focus on patient engagement and care.