To benefit the Indian American and larger South Asian community, a strategic partnership was forged recently between two community-based organizations in the U.S. – Crack the Wellness Code, offering an innovative wellness ecosystem enabled by tech platforms; and the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin, a network of 60,000-plus physicians and 15,000 medical students of Indian origin across the U.S. The partnership will expand opportunities to educate, inspire, empower and impact community wellness through content and events of mutual interest alongside research and policy advocacy.
“It will help in extending our wellness-oriented community service outreach and to scale globally,” said CWC Chair of Doctor Patrons and co-founder, Dr. Pankaj Vij.
“Apart from improving community health equity and well-being, this partnership is intended to promote lifestyle medicine practices in USA and India,” commented AAPI president Dr. Anupama Gotimukula. AAPI is already planning a Global Healthcare Summit in Hyderabad, India, from Jan. 5-7, 2022, in collaboration with the Indian Society of Lifestyle Medicine to feature keynotes from eminent speakers.
CWC, a Silicon Valley-based community driven network whose executive director is Somnath Chatterjee, aims to share wellness best practices worldwide. Apart from 4 million Indians in the U.S., CWC focuses on the 18 million Indian diaspora worldwide, as well as those in India through its local chapter, noted the release. CWC’s accent is on lifestyle, diet and preventive care. Its prime goal is to improve wellbeing through its innovative wellness ecosystem of 550+ members comprising of doctors, health heroes, entrepreneurs, health tech companies, wellness champions, service providers and medical researchers.
Its wide-ranging partners focus on wellness best practices, technology, research and advocacy – both at the local and global level with strong India connections. Vinay Deshpande, CWC Founding Trustee, who is leading the coordination with doctors, felt this collaboration will ensure that they reach out to the majority of South Asians in the U.S. to generate awareness as well as adopt transformative wellness and lifestyle changes, working with trusted medical practitioners, the release added.
AAPI is a non-profit to facilitate and enable Indian American physicians, dentists, medical students and other members to excel in patient care, teaching and research and to pursue their aspirations in professional and community affairs. As the apex body in the U.S., AAPI has countrywide chapters across 12 regions and a network of over 75,000 members.
Creating educational content and distributing through CWC’s technology platform would be another benefit of this relationship for the community, confirmed Dr. Sujeeth Punnam, who is coordinating the AAPI relationship with CWC from California. Some AAPI goals that are in sync with CWC include helping patients to be fully informed as empowered partners, promoting academics, research and administrative activities, while remaining vigilant and knowledgeable in current and emerging legislative and regulatory changes impacting medical practices.
While Indian Americans make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, 7 percent of U.S. medical doctors are of Indian origin with outstanding contributions to the society in America and India, noted the release. Almost all TV networks and newspaper articles in the U.S. have acknowledged Indian American physicians, regularly updating about COVID-19. Now, after fighting on the frontlines of the pandemic across the U.S. and sending help to India during the COVID crisis, this community of doctors is coming together to promote wellness practices globally and this partnership will accelerate that process.
