Oxygen concentrators to jabs: IBM helps community as second wave surges

The IBM India team has also come together to leverage the AI-powered IBM Watson Assistant to build an assist solution

Technology giant IBM is helping colleagues and the community with critical resources amidst the medical emergency due to the second Covid-19 surge in the country.

The Big Blue said in a blog post that it has set up a dedicated 24x7 medical helpline through healthcare firm Portea for a variety of services including doctor consultation, and medical, home care and testing services. It is offering round the clock emergency transport services for medical requirements for both employees and their immediate family members who are Covid positive (for transport to a medical facility). It also applies to those who are Covid negative (for procuring medical supplies or attend to impacted family members).

The firm is also setting up medically supervised quarantine facilities in hotels. It has worked with Apollo Hospital group to offer medically supervised ‘step down’ facilities at designated hotels in every major city. Here the IBMers (employees) can quarantine in case it is not feasible to do so at home.

“We are amidst an unprecedented crisis, one that does not have a playbook,” said Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India General Manager, IBM India, South Asia, in the blog post. “However, in these challenging times, what is building hope is the coming together of the entire IBM family including our clients and partner ecosystem,”

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, IBM is organising vaccination camps in line with Government regulations) in all major cities with IBMer populations. Here employees and family members will have the option of getting vaccinated at hospital centres or camps at selected IBM locations. There would be additional IBM-funded insurance coverage for each insured employee and their covered dependents. The firm is also making 500 oxygen concentrators available to its employees across India.

The IBM India team has come together to leverage the AI-powered IBM Watson Assistant to build an assist solution. It connects IBMers in need with the volunteers for critical resources. It also provides a unified dashboard to the India Covid Taskforce to enable seamless support for IBMers.

“As we pivot and adapt to the ever-changing world around us, we are finding our way through these unimaginable challenges, by leveraging the power of technology and that of our collective force,” said Patil.

Squads staffed by company volunteers have been constituted to take service requests and match them to verified sources of available resources - hospital beds, ICUs, oxygen requirements, ambulances and medicines.  With over 1500 volunteers already signed up, this is really making a difference to quickly triage requests and ensure that needs are matched to resources available nationally. The plasma donation drive is also already underway.

The employees are volunteering to become first responders on Covid-19 helplines through a collaboration with StepOne. StepOne is an NGO having an interface with 18 state governments and is helping to train and deploy volunteers to respond to queries on the government helpline.

Employee support groups have also been set up across cities to provide employees with a platform to discuss issues and coping mechanisms such as managing stress, staying active and promoting self-care.

IBM will play a key role in the Global Task Force on Pandemic Response launched by the US Chamber of Commerce to aid India and other Covid-19 Hot-Spots. The public-private partnership will provide immediate assistance to India and will assist in coordinating relief to respond to Covid-19 surges. The key areas included 1,000 Medtronic ventilators to be delivered to India. About 25,000 oxygen concentrators are scheduled to be delivered by end of May, with thousands already delivered.