The CEO of Activision Blizzard is using telemedicine apps to assist sick employees.

Doctor on Demand, Medical Advice Apps Provide Positive Impacts

A recent story on venturebeat.com highlights two apps meant to improve patients’ health and lower stress levels, Heal and Doctor on Demand. 

The story begins with Activision Blizzard’s CEO and a very ill employee who was struck by COVID-19, according to the article by Dean Takahashi.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick took responsibility for the safety of his company’s 10,000 employees. He gave them all his mobile phone number and went to work securing help. It turned out only six people tested positive for the virus.

One of the people who took him up on that was Amy Tekell, a veteran esports broadcast associate producer at Blizzard Entertainment, who has suffered from COVID-19 for several months now. She hasn’t had to pay any of the costs for her care, which includes house calls from doctors and full coronavirus treatments.

“The symptoms hit me very hard and very fast,” she said in an interview with GamesBeat. “I went from the Friday before feeling the best I’ve ever been. And then by the second day home from work, I was completely incapacitated with fever.”

Tekell used Heal, which employs medical doctors who make house calls. She had asthma, and her tests showed she had positive results for COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs. Getting help early was critical because getting tested in the state was nearly impossible at the time. Kotick continues to check on her.

“He regularly emails me to check-in and to see how I’m doing and if I need anything,” said Tekell, who is in her 30s. “It’s not exactly how you want to be on your CEO’s radar. I’ve never spoken with Bobby before in my life. Honestly, this is the only reason I was able to get oxygen on time. He switched me over to Heal and when I was getting worse and had to go to the hospital, he made sure the Heal director called me to make sure I was getting what I needed.”

Activision Blizzard has been on the 100 Best Companies To Work For list for four years running, and it has been on Fortune’s Most Admired Companies list. But on Glassdoor.com, which rates companies and CEOs based on anonymous employee feedback, only 60% of employees would recommend the company to a friend. Kotick’s use of Heal most likely saved Tekell’s life. Kotick sent her Grubhub money to get others to shop for her, and she hasn’t had to pay for any care.

Heal has about 170 on-demand doctors, and overall they paid more than 350 visits to Activision Blizzard’s workforce during the pandemic. Of the 10,000 employees in the company, six of them tested positive for COVID-19, and Kotick kept personal tabs on how they were doing. A Heal doctor calls Tekell twice a week. The doctor also made house calls to listen to her breathing and examine her lungs.

Tekell continues to improve at home.

“Bobby Kotick was extremely proactive about protecting the entire Activision Blizzard workforce, and specifically, the families in the workforce,” Heal CEO Nick Desai said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Their HR team and Bobby reached out to us, and I spoke personally numerous times about the testing and testing options.”

The article is packed with useful information about the Heal app, too, with information that might save lives or at least lessen the damage of the virus.

read more at venturebeat.com