Los Angeles County’s Covid-19 Test-to-Treat Program With Healthvana Successfully Reaches Underserved Populations by Leveraging Technology

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Stanford University researchers, and Healthvana, a patient engagement technology platform, are published in the March 2023 issue of NEJM Catalyst – “Streamlining Test-to-Treat: A Novel Care Delivery Model for Oral Antiviral Access to Close the Equity Divide in Los Angeles County.”

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Healthvana piloted an innovative treatment-dispensing model, cost-free to patients, to address inequitable access, complex care costs, and the time-sensitive nature of Covid-19 medication prescriptions. The intervention successfully combined confidential digital delivery of test results, antiviral education, and direct access to therapeutics within hours of a positive test result.

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“Thanks to this innovative approach, people living in disproportionately impacted communities were able to access free services within hours after receiving a positive test. This helped people get well and undoubtedly kept people out of the hospitals and saved lives,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Ed., Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is committed to addressing racial and economic inequities by bridging service gaps and this program helped us improve access to life-saving services in the midst of a deadly pandemic. I want to thank our partners at Healthvana for providing timely information about our telehealth services to residents and workers living in under-resourced communities.”

The study notes equitable public health solutions targeting underserved communities are unlikely to come from the same health care infrastructure that initially created them.

“Successful public-private partnerships like this can be replicated by local, state, and federal leaders, with the goal of reimagining how to reach at-risk populations with more streamlined solutions that leverage technologies we all use every day,” said Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH, Senior Scholar, Clinical Excellence Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine.

SOURCE: Businesswire