Ayush Agrawal and Tapan Mishra, Co-founders of Seniority, talk about how SafeSeniors, the risk-monitoring tool based on predictive analysis, is helping the senior citizens during COVID-19 outbreak, in conversation with Sanjiv Das
Seniority and RPG Life Sciences have joined hands to launch ‘SafeSeniors’. What is the vision behind this? What is the business value that your company will gain from this endeavour?
Coronavirus has affected close to 25 million (as of today) people across the world. The elderly population is more susceptible to the virus, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions like cardiovascular diseases, respiratory problems, diabetes and other similar chronic illnesses.
As an organisation catering to the needs of senior citizens, it is our duty to ensure their safety in such tough times. We worked diligently with leading pharma company RPG Life Sciences and trusted medical experts to develop SafeSeniors, a COVID-19 risk-monitoring tool based on predictive analysis. The tool is a public service offering by the RPG Group in our endeavour to contribute to India’s fight against this COVID-19 pandemic and has not been designed from a business gain perspective.
What are the healthcare services you will offer for the senior citizens?
Due to the essential nature of COVID-19 symptoms, it takes anywhere between seven to 14 days for the symptoms to occur in an infected person. Hence, a one-time assessment is not sufficient to identify the potential risk. Unlike other COVID-19 testing apps, SafeSeniors monitors data on a daily basis to provide a more accurate assessment of risk – ranging from L0 (normal) to L4 (hospitalise) – by detecting changes in symptoms.
Users are required to enter their key vitals, medical history, travel and social exposure information and all occurring symptoms such as fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, etc. to get results with the highest accuracy. Such analysis helps them make an informed decision on the medical intervention required.
How many senior citizens have you been able to reach out to with this tool and in which cities? How many senior citizens do you plan to cover?
Within a week of its official launch, we have already had around 3-5K visitors from all over the country recording their symptoms on SafeSeniors. COVID-19 hotspots like Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are witnessing maximum usage of the tool and we aim to reach as many users as possible.
What type of precautions have you adopted to safeguard senior citizens at a time when COVID-19 is affecting them more?
As a brand especially empathetic to the needs of senior citizens, we have beefed up our inventories and customer service processes to continue delivering essential products such as masks, sanitizers, adult diapers, etc. to our customers in approximately 10,000 pin codes. We also launched Seniority Volunteer Connect, a special volunteering programme to help meet the daily grocery and medical needs of senior citizens by connecting them to volunteers across key cities.
Additionally, we tied up with multiple partners such as Emoha Eldercare, DocsApp, Second Medic, Reliva, etc., to offer emergency medical assistance, a helpline for COVID-19, tele-medicine consultations with renowned experts as well as online physiotherapy sessions to our customers. We are also creating ample awareness by sharing a complete repository of information around COVID-19 through blogs, social media and emailers.
Are you following ICMR guidelines while catering to senior citizens? Did you receive any notification for the same?
Being a senior-focused start-up, we want to ensure their health and well-being and are following all relevant guidelines issued by the ICMR, WHO, MoH&FW and similar other nodal agencies.
sanjiv.das@expressindia.com
sanjivdas1@gmail.com