WellTab, a local non-profit, Provides User-Friendly Tablets for Thousands of New York Hospital Patients

By Yehudit Garmaise

When highly contagious viruses, like Covid, cause hospitals to curtail visiting hours, many patients languished in isolation, and some died of loneliness.

Although cell phones and tablets were lifelines for many, not everyone had them, and many New Yorkers sadly died without getting the chances to say goodbye to their families.

As a result, Joel Friedman created WellTab, a non-profit organization, that has provided 3,661 user-friendly Samsung tablets, free-of-charge to hospital patients, regardless of race or religion, to communicate with their loved ones remotely.

Similarly, families of patients who cannot speak because they are on respirators or otherwise incapacitated can get regular updates from doctors and nurses.

Friedman, who has raised several millions for his project and has 263 volunteers worldwide working around the clock, explained that he “could not just take any tablet off the shelf, put on a video conference and it will work,” had to employ a team of nine software developers to build the custom-made technology themselves.

After working since the beginning of Covid and launching WellTab only hours before the zman on Pesach 2020, by 15,616 patients have connected with their families with WellTab’s tablets.

Westchester Medical Center and many other hospitals throughout the WMCHealth Network are now recognizing the benefits of “virtual communication” and encouraging patients to use WellTabs’ tablets.

Shimon R., who was recently hospitalized for a few days while he was donating his kidney, said that “WellTab is necessity for hospitalized patients.

“With WellTab, I felt totally connected to the world and could hear the soothing voices of my family,” said Shimon, who is in his 40s. “With the tablet, I did not feel isolated at all.