How technology is a weapon in the fight against COVID-19 [PODCAST]

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“As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the globe, companies are working hard to develop innovative solutions to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese companies such as Alibaba have led the way using artificial intelligence, data science, and technology. Startups are teaming up with clinicians, engineers, and government entities to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As we continue our fight in the management and eventual eradication of the virus, here are innovative ways companies are helping on the frontlines.”

Amita Kundra is a cardiac anesthesiologist.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, “How technology is a weapon in the fight against COVID-19.”

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Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have Amita Kundra. She is a cardiac anesthesiologist, and she wrote the KevinMD article “How technology is a weapon in the fight against COVID-19.” Amita, welcome to the show.

Amita Kundra: Thank you for having me today.

Kevin Pho: We’ll get into your article in a little bit, but first off, can you share your story and your journey to where you are today?

Amita Kundra: Sure. So I’m a practicing anesthesiologist. I’ve been practicing for about seven years now. I grew up in Connecticut, trained and went to college in New York, and then went to medical school at Ross University. And then, you know, I wanted to do anesthesia. I ended up matching in Buffalo, New York, and I ended up doing my fellowship in Buffalo as well, and now I’m practicing in the New York area. It’s been a long journey, but I feel super grateful.

Kevin Pho: So from an anesthesiology standpoint, and we’re talking in the third week of January, what are you seeing from a pandemic standpoint?

Amita Kundra: You know, we’re seeing our numbers climbing. In New York, we really faced a lot of challenges in the spring. We really had a peak at that point. Our hospitals were flooded. So we’re slowly seeing an increasing rise in our hospitals, but not nearly as high as we had in the spring. We’re taking precautions. Fortunately, we do have the vaccine that’s being rolled out, so we are getting patients and health care workers vaccinated as quickly as we can. But it’s definitely more stressful now to be a health care provider, and we definitely feel the stress all around us. I mean, we’re stressed, and the patients are struggling as well, their families while they’re in the hospital. But we’re doing our best.

Kevin Pho: Wonderful. So let’s go ahead and transition into the KevinMD article that you wrote, “How technology is a weapon in the fight against COVID-19.” Now, for those who didn’t read that article, can you just walk my audience through it and share the story of why you decided to write it?

Amita Kundra: Yeah, so I’ve always had an interest in health care technology. I’m an advisor to several companies, and actually, during the pandemic, I was on bed rest. I was 33 weeks pregnant. And so I was part of a group that was working on developing technology for the COVID pandemic. I developed a symptomatology tracker with a group of people internationally to help patients in developing countries, just to triage them at home, so that we were able to determine whether they needed to come into the hospital or whether they’d be able to be managed at home.

So during that time, I started seeing a lot of technology that was coming out internationally, from technology related to contact tracing, from BlueDot, which was monitoring the pandemic using data science. There was just amazing technology that’s been coming out. I mean, just telemedicine in itself has really been the top, just in a short period of time, and it’s been around for such a long period of time. So I really explored what technology is out there. There’s a lot of AI technology that was being used by radiologists to assess whether the patient may have signs of COVID pneumonia. And so I just wanted to explore what’s out there.

And I also think it’s important for physicians to become involved in any way in the development of technology or the assessment of technology, because we’re really the ones who are using it. So that’s why I wrote the article, and that was kind of the synopsis behind it.

Kevin Pho: So you mentioned telemedicine, and I’m a primary care physician myself, and of course, telemedicine has grown by leaps and bounds during the pandemic. You mentioned some other technology regarding contact tracing and what radiologists use. What piece of technology do you think has gained the biggest traction, other than telemedicine, during the pandemic?

Amita Kundra: I would say really the technology behind the vaccine development. And I think that there’s so much, whether it’s the mRNA technology, whether it was the technology of distribution. There was a lot of work that happened and a lot of innovation that happened just to get to this point, and I would say that’s probably one of the biggest accomplishments that science has made in many years.

And apart from that, there’s a lot that’s out there. Unfortunately, a lot of it wasn’t utilized in the United States as much as I wish we could have. For example, there were robots that were able to disinfect and clean rooms and bring COVID patients supplies or food. I mean, there’s a lot there, but a lot of it couldn’t be utilized. I mean, there are so many restrictions, such as cost, availability, just the administrative hurdles that a hospital faces in terms of approving these devices. It’s impressive to see, but there’s a lot that has prevented us from getting to the point where we can actually utilize it.

Kevin Pho: So you alluded to some other countries using technology more frequently and more readily than we are in the States. So what other countries are we talking about?

Amita Kundra: I mean, if you look at China, the contact tracing technology that they were using was phenomenal. Basically, you would scan your phone at a train station, and they would tell you where you are and also be able to connect you with the people that you have been in contact with in the past day. Google and Apple had this technology that they have developed, but in the United States, we’re a little reluctant due to privacy issues, and understandably. But at the same time, Google and Apple are tracking where we are at all times anyway. So there were kind of some hurdles in terms of adapting these technologies into the United States

Kevin Pho: So what do you see as the future of, say, contact tracing? Because, like you said, I think there are also some cultural differences. If you look at countries in the Far East, like China and Korea and Taiwan, I think there’s a different emphasis on privacy and a different acceptance on the part of the public when it comes to privacy. A lot of the public over there don’t mind if their locations are always tracked by the government, but I don’t think that’s probably going to fly here. So I guess, what do you see in the immediate future, the future of these contact tracing apps in the United States?

Amita Kundra: I mean, it’s really hard to say, because you really have to get the public to buy the idea. And we had a discussion about this recently on Clubhouse, which is this new app that I started using, another thing that the COVID pandemic has given us. Have you used Clubhouse at all?

Kevin Pho: I haven’t. I have heard about it on my various physician Facebook groups, but that’s something definitely on the list I’m going to try.

Amita Kundra: Yeah, definitely try, and I’d love to have you in one of our groups. But yeah, so we were talking about just how the United States, how we are just not really willing to buy the idea of someone invading our privacy and knowing where we are at all times, even though it’s already there in many formats. So I don’t know if there’s a future for us in terms of contact tracing, unless the government mandates it, or there’s a really big public-private partnership that takes place that really gives the public a little more reassurance about their privacy. But I’m hopeful for the future, and I’m hoping that maybe we’ll be able to develop something.

Kevin Pho: Now, what do you foresee as some of the immediate technological advances that may come online in the near future?

Amita Kundra: OK, in terms of vaccine development, there have been a lot of treatments that are coming out, not only the vaccine itself and the technology, but also in terms of treatment. So there was a friend of mine, his name’s Dr. Reed Robson. He’s developing T-cell immunotherapy to treat asymptomatic patients who are positive, and the theory behind that is to just reduce transmission of the virus to people who may be immunocompromised or may be at higher risk of mortality. So I think that’s in the pipeline. He’s doing clinical trials in Ohio, and he’s been trying to do clinical trials, and he has a lot of support, so I think we’ll be seeing that in the future.

I also think we’ll be seeing more technology behind just distribution of the vaccine. There are a lot of partnerships that are taking place, like North Carolina: the CEO of Honeywell, the owner of the Panthers, their work, and I think another CEO of another company, they’ve all come together, and they’re working with the North Carolina government to distribute the vaccine. And there are a lot of issues associated with vaccine distribution. We have to get to populations, like socioeconomic populations of people that may not have rides to the site. They may not have a car, so we need to provide them with transportation. We need to establish portals that are easier to use for the elderly to sign up for the vaccine. We need to have portals that are reminding patients, “OK, you need to take your second dose on this date.” And I think there are a lot of people who are working hard to do that.

The third thing is actually sanitation. There are people who are developing air filtration systems. One of my friends is actually working on a great one, and it’s basically helping filter air particles in the air, on the theory that it will reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the air. So there’s a lot coming, and I think we’ll be seeing it in the near future.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Amita Kundra. She is a cardiac anesthesiologist, and she wrote the KevinMD article “How technology is a weapon in the fight against COVID-19.” I mean, you mentioned that physicians need to get involved with these technology companies going forward, so they could be better adapted to what we can use. And you yourself are involved with a couple of technology companies. Tell us about how you started with that. How did you get involved with these companies?

Amita Kundra: A lot of it is networking. I started attending a lot of events in New York City. There are a lot of accelerator programs that are looking for physicians to give their input on technologies that are being developed in health care. So a lot of it’s word of mouth. I’ve been reaching out to different companies that I feel are of interest to me. Social media has really brought people together, and through my social media account, a lot of people have approached me and asked me to give advice about a project that they’re working on or something that they’re developing. So it’s been fun. It’s kind of a way for me to fight burnout, because it really allows me to see what’s coming in the future. Medicine is ripe for disruption. I mean, there are a lot of problems that we face every day, and I think there are so many ways that technology can help us.

And also, like I mentioned before, many times we’re the last to know about this technology. We’ll be taking care of a patient, and suddenly we’re told, “Oh, this is a new thing that you need to use to do this procedure.” Many times, it’s a technology that I don’t really understand how it works, so I don’t think it’s fully effective. So I really want physicians to get involved in any way that they can, and I really hope that we can encourage the next generation to innovate, to work with individuals who may be able to help you develop a solution, because I think we’re the people who are actually utilizing it the most, and if we don’t get involved, it’ll just be placed upon us.

Kevin Pho: And do physicians need any special training before they start working and advising technology companies?

Amita Kundra: I don’t think so. I think that the experience that we have clinically is valuable to these people, because a lot of these people are biomedical engineers, they’re in business, they’re in finance, so they have a different perspective than we do. So there’s really no course. I do take courses that are of interest to me. So I think it’s important to never stop learning, to keep advancing yourself, so that is important, but I don’t think it’s necessary to get any training to take that first step. Just jump right in.

Kevin Pho: And what’s your take-home message you want to leave with the KevinMD audience?

Amita Kundra: I would just say never stop learning, and never give up, and never be afraid to ask a question, to reach out to someone. Now it’s actually a little easier than it was before. We have Zoom meetings, there are places like Clubhouse, there’s social media, where you can connect and network with people. So never be afraid to reach out to that person, because I feel like it’s so important that we just get involved and jump right in there. At times, sometimes we’re afraid.

Kevin Pho: And how can people reach you?

Amita Kundra: So I actually have a YouTube channel that I’ve launched. It’s Amita Kundra MD. You can find me on YouTube. I’ll be interviewing CEOs and founders in health care. I’ll also be trying out new wearable devices and new things that I feel enhance my daily life. I have an Instagram account, amitakundramd, and you can also find me on Twitter at askameda. So it’s fun. Thank you for having me.

Kevin Pho: Well, thanks again for sharing your time and insight, and thanks again for being on the show.

Amita Kundra: All right, thank you so much.

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