Indian American doctors to send oxygen equipment, launch free Covid-19 consultation platform

The largest ethnic organisation representing medical professionals in the USA -- the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) -- has been stepping up efforts over the last couple of weeks to support India in the midst of the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The organisation's leadership has reached out to over 80,000 of its members, who are practising doctors of Indian origin, to raise funds.
"We have already raised over $2 million from our members and in partnership with Indian American charitable organisation SEWA International, we are sending oxygen supply equipment including concentrators, ventilators, nasal cannula, BiPAP and CPAP machines which are urgently required by patients and hospitals in India," AAPI president Dr Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, a gastroenterologist in Georgia's Douglas, told TIMESOFINDIA.com. "Some of these consignments will be reaching India early this week and we're also in talks with suppliers across the US to source more equipment as the requirement is very high."
Along with a few other AAPI members, he is also scheduled to speak with Indian health and family welfare minister Dr Harsh Vardhan via a teleconference call later on Monday to understand the requirements of the Indian government and work out ways in which Indian American medical professionals can offer support to healthcare services. "Some of our members are visiting Washington DC later this week to speak with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to urge them to send doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that have been stockpiled by the US government but not being used to India,” Jonnalagadda added.
According to statistics available with the AAPI, every one in six American patient is treated by an Indian doctor and hundreds of them working at the frontlines were badly hit during the first and second wave of the pandemic in the US. Indian American doctors are now reaching out to help their Indian counterparts with their knowledge and experience gained over the past year. “We lost many of our friends and colleagues to Covid-19. But now, as the US slowly recovers from the pandemic, we're trying to help Indian doctors and hospitals with our knowledge and experience about the virus," Dr Sreeni Gangasani, a cardiologist who is on the board of trustees of AAPI, said.
From sharing updates on anti-viral medicine available for treatment to more rigorous personal protection protocol to deal with new Covid-19 variants and vaccination efficacy, AAPI doctors have been discussing various aspects of the pandemic and healthcare via webinars with doctors in India. The organisation is also launching daily consultation free of cost for Covid patients in India on the eGlobalDoctors platform this week.
"Patients and physicians in India can avail tele-consultation on different aspects of treatment, medication, change in protocols, breathing exercises and vaccination. We want to reach out to more and more patients in India from the safety of our homes and share our lessons and experience over the past year," Gangasani added. "We have many volunteers for this -- not just Indian Americans, but doctors in the UK and several other countries. This, we feel, will help patients who can be cured with treatment at home and stop many of them from getting nervous and rushing to hospitals which are under pressure with more serious cases."