As horrifying pictures of overwhelmed Indian hospitals turning patients away because they lacked room, beds, oxygen and supplies, a group of Indian and Indian-American doctors had an idea. 

What if you could help treat patients who weren’t able access hospitals at home, remotely? 

They formed Doctors in Diaspora, a group designed to treat as many patients as they could, using telehealth. 

Dr. Samar Mehta is the Director of Clinical Operations for the group, and he joined In Focus to talk about how they are working to fill a gaping need in COVID treatment in India. He says, they are not treating patients in hospitals, but those sent away to isolate at home with no medical treatment. 

He admits they can’t do everything that can be done in a hospital setting, but they are there, at the other end of a device, to offer what support they can to those left to care for COVID patients in the home, many of whom may contract COVID themselves. 

He also addressed the terrible vaccination disparity in India. The country that provides many if not most of the vaccine manufacturing for the rest of the world, and has already exported more than 66 million doses of COVID vaccines, has vaccinated less than 2% of its own population, and that is something, Dr. Mehta says, that must change immediately if this pandemic is to be controlled in the country.