Back 
Welcome to the eMed blog - a place where you may learn more about the cutting-edge work we are doing every day to improve access to health care and testing during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
We kick off our blog today, on the one-year anniversary date of the World Health Organization’s official declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
First and foremost, I want to thank all the frontline workers for all they do, especially during these challenging times, reminding us of their commitment and bravery – we are so grateful for your support.
That said, I think we can all agree it has been quite the year for all of us – from learning how to cope with this public health crisis and its impact on our daily lives, to creating greater awareness and being intentional about solutions to help us get back to doing the things we enjoy most.
A year into the pandemic, we continue to learn more and more about COVID-19, and each day we continue to improve our response to the pandemic as we better understand the virus and the disease. One thing we learned earlier in the pandemic is that frequent, widespread rapid testing is understood by health professionals, scientists and public health thought leaders to be a critical tool for not only reducing spread of the virus, but steering society toward recovery and reopening.
On that note, I want to tell you a bit more about eMed.
eMed is a mission driven company and our mission is democratizing healthcare. We have made great strides since founding our company in June 2020. We are using technology to solve for some of healthcare's challenges, helping to shape a process for testing that is more affordable and accessible. With a team led by tech and healthcare professionals passionate about making a difference in the fight against COVID-19, we developed a digital health platform to deliver testing and guidance directly to your doorstep and to your device screen.
While our company is still relatively new, we have had success in providing a crucial resource to helping mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by administering convenient, at-home COVID-19 rapid tests for symptomatic individuals. The tests we administer are authenticated and verified, with automated results reporting to public health departments.
So what does this all mean?
We have been around for less than a year, and during this time we have secured partnerships with states like Colorado and Ohio to help administer millions of tests to their constituents. During our conversations with each state we talked about their needs, why at-home COVID-19 rapid testing was a viable option for each, and how eMed is positioned to help each state achieve their testing goals.
Additionally, eMed announced a collaboration this past Tuesday with Cardinal Health to get millions of our rapid tests in the hands of individuals who need them most across the continental United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. Collaborations like this one allow us to expand our reach directly into communities needing greater access to at-home, rapid testing.
Aside from our partnerships and collaboration to date, the eMed platform facilitates sales of tests to qualified individuals with symptoms, directly from our site, and provides a virtually guided testing session with an eMed Certified Guide - a first, and game changer, for at-home, rapid testing. An eMed Certified Guide is there every step of the way to help ensure we are verifying the individual taking the test, that the sample is collected correctly, and that results are validated and then reported to local and federal health officials.
Early in this pandemic, Americans faced unacceptable hurdles such as inequitable access points, long lines and wait times to receive a COVID-19 test and test result. eMed offers a better way. We are not just testing this concept; we are already on track to deliver and administer millions of tests - as we had hoped - through our digital point of care platform.
I am thrilled to be on the front lines of innovating COVID-19 testing processes, and I am confident the eMed vision and model - democratizing healthcare through digital tools – holds great promise for the future.
Stay positive. Test negative.
Dr. Patrice Harris is eMed CEO
