Watch the AMA's daily COVID-19 update, with insights from AMA leaders and experts about the pandemic.
Featured topic and speakers
AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger discusses a new collaboration between the AMA and the nonprofit called Project N95, an effort to get quality-certified PPE to physicians.
Learn more at the AMA COVID-19 resource center.
Speakers
- Susan R. Bailey, MD, president, AMA
- Andrew Stroup, founder and executive director, Project N95
- Kristen Tinney, vice president, AMA member programs
Transcript
Unger: Hello. This is the American Medical Association's COVID-19 update. Today we're talking about a new collaboration between the AMA and a nonprofit called Project N95, to help bring much-needed PPE to physicians.
I'm joined today by Dr. Susan R. Bailey, AMA's president and an allergist and immunologist in Fort Worth, Texas, Andrew Stroup., founder and executive director of Project N95 in New York, and Kristen Tinney, the AMA's vice-president of member programs in Chicago, Illinois. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago.
PPE has been an ongoing challenge for physicians throughout this pandemic. Dr. Bailey, as a small practice owner you've experienced this personally. Can you begin by sharing your story?
Dr. Bailey: Todd, in the beginning of the pandemic it was really panic time in my small allergy office. We had plenty of gloves, but the only masks we had were an old box of 10 N95 masks that were stuck back in a closet from the H1N1 epidemic over 10 years ago. That was all we had. Fortunately we had 10 people in the office, so everybody got at least one to help get us started, but it was an incredibly stressful time.
Our normal suppliers, they didn't sell masks. We didn't certainly have any kind of stockpile of them. We had gloves, but that was about it. So added onto our worries about taking care of our patients in the pandemic, now all of a sudden we have to figure out how to get more masks, and they were almost impossible to find.
So on top of being an IT officer and an infection control officer in a small practice, all of a sudden now you're the PPE procurement officer at the same time, and now everybody needs masks. Non-medical people need masks. Schools, businesses, churches, everyone is trying to reopen, so unfortunately it has really become a free for all trying to get good PPE so that we can take care of our patients.
Unger: Mr. Stroup, can you talk a little bit about the results you've seen to date?
Stroup: Yeah. Absolutely. Since we started back in the middle of March one of the things that we've been driving towards has been around engagement with the frontline workers. Over 10,000 different frontline healthcare workers have come through the door, and we've helped qualify and understand how we can best support them.
Subsequently hundreds, now thousands of suppliers and their products have come and gone through the vetting process. By creating facilities and tools like the marketplace or the collaborations with the AMA we've been able to deliver over 600,000 units of PPE through those workflows that have been looking to purchase.
More specifically, and what we really care about, is the number of frontline workers in which we are protecting and being able to support and serve, and to date that's been over 77,000 frontline healthcare workers who now have the PPE they need to continue supporting their communities.
Unger: That's amazing. Ms. Tinney, why don't we talk a little bit about the collaboration that AMA is undertaking with Project N95 to offer PPE to AMA members? Can you tell us more about that collaboration?
Tinney: Of course. Thank you Todd. I'm really excited to share a little bit more about the details for our members. This collaboration was initiated to support our physicians during the ongoing PPE shortage, and our collaboration with Project N95 is to reserve quality certified PPE exclusively for AMA members.
Unger: Dr. Bailey, any other words about the collaboration with Project N95?
Dr. Bailey: Todd, the AMA-N95 collaboration is so important because not only is it going to help and has helped frontline healthcare workers, it's going to help those of us that are not necessarily on the frontlines keep our practices open.
All of us do procedures in our offices that can't be done by telemedicine. Telemedicine has been wonderful, but I can't allergy test somebody in telemedicine. I can't do pulmonary function testing with telemedicine. And especially the pulmonary function testing: although the device has a special filter on it to help keep from aerosolizing particles into the air, afterwards patients typically have a coughing fit after they do the procedure, so it's going to be very important for our employees to have full PPE when they do that.
I don't see the need for PPE going away any time soon. I think this is going to be our new normal. All of us are going to have to think about maintaining PPE supplies that really never had to do it before.
Unger: Mr. Stroup, can you speak to how you vet PPE suppliers and choose what's being offered?
Stroup: Absolutely. When it comes to the vetting process, and we have an entire segmented team focused on different product categories, we go from literally down to the supplier itself in thinking around background checks and verifying that they are a legitimate company and that they have the ability to do business with the import and export licenses, down to the products and looking at verification of the FDA's rotations, to customer references, as well as testing where it makes sense both before it leaves or gets off the plane.
The goal here is that although we've been this 100 person plus all volunteer organization focused on this aspect, what I would say is from my experience, world class, when it comes to being able to dive into this and have those conversations, build those relations, to understand how we can convey that, the confidence and the trust, with frontline organizations and healthcare workers and others looking to protect themselves as they go in and perform functions that are required in person in sometimes in an aerosolized environment.
Unger: Dr. Bailey, why is it important that the AMA is taking this step?
Dr. Bailey: The AMA from the very beginning of the pandemic has listened to our members, physicians in the country, and have heard loud and clear their desperate cries for PPE. We have worked with the White House, with FEMA, with other governmental agencies, to ask for a Manhattan Project type of effort, that large in scope, to get us the PPE that we need and asking for a national system for acquisition and distribution of PPE so we know where it all is.
I'm so excited about this effort, because AMA is going to directly be able to help physicians protect themselves and protect their patients as we continue to work to find ongoing sources and to have a more robust federal effort to make sure that PPE is distributed fairly and equally.
Unger: Ms. Tinney, can you talk a little bit about what members should do who are interested to get started?
Tinney: Absolutely. Members who are interested can go to our website to get started. They'll just have to sign in to their AMA account or create one, then proceed to the members only offer. We'll have an FAQ to help answer questions, as well as additional support if needed.
Unger: It's an exciting collaboration, and one that is much needed as we continue to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you very much Dr. Bailey, Mr. Stroup and Ms. Tinney for being here today and sharing this exciting opportunity with us.
That's it for today's COVID-19 update. We'll be back tomorrow with another COVID-19 update. For updated resources please go to ama-assn.org/covid-19. Thanks for joining us and please take care.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
