Penelope Case Management Software Application Now in Use at Mana Kidz School-Based Health Clinics in New Zealand

Waterloo, ON (PRWEB) May 31, 2013

Athena Software's Penelope case management software application is now being used to track child health outcomes in six schools involved in the Mana Kidz health clinics project in South Auckland, New Zealand.

The clinics offer free, comprehensive health care to primary and intermediate schoolchildren in the area.

The clinics were first launched in July 2012 in Counties Manukau with 16 schools participating. The number of participating schools increased for the current school year - there are now 34 clinics operating in the South Auckland area with another 19 expected to open in the next school term.

Penelope will be used in a pilot project at six of the school-based clinics initially.

The Mana Kidz project is led by the National Hauora Coalition on behalf of the Counties Manukau Child Health Alliance Forum and is funded by the Ministry of Health and the Counties Manukau DHB.

"Athena has really enjoyed working with the National Hauora Coalition and the Mana Kidz project is an exciting first step in this collaboration," said Greg Stanley-Horn, Athena Software's director of deployment projects.

"We believe there is a tremendous alignment of values with the Mana Kidz's Whanau Ora and school-based approach to health promotion and treatment. Not only will Penelope assist in providing a real-time client information management tool for managing the education, detection and treatment of rheumatic illnesses, but it will also serve as a powerful reporting tool to evidence the incidence of rheumatic fever and related issues in the Southern Counties. The Whanau support worker's outreach work will be assisted by Penelope's mobility and multi-service, family orientation and intuitive design."

The goal of the clinics is to improve the health of local children but also to increase access to primary care and reduce ethnic inequalities in health outcomes for preventable conditions such as rheumatic fever and skin infections.

The project also aims to reduce the rates of hospitalization for primary school-aged children for those conditions, while also increasing local health literacy and knowledge among the members of the school communities.

Penelope will be used to electronically store health assessments and monitor outcomes for each child treated as part of the project.

To achieve the goals of the project, Mana Kidz aims to increase the number of assessments and treatment in primary school children for targeted conditions (rheumatic fever, skin infections, Group A beta-haemolytic streptococcal sore throats) that can result in hospital visits if left untreated.

About Athena Software

Athena Software (http://www.athenasoftware.net) is a global case management solution provider based in Waterloo, Ont., Canada. Over the past 11 years, Athena Software has grown to partner with hundreds of organizations across the globe, with over 10,000 end users of its Penelope case management solution.

About Mana Kidz

Mana Kidz (http://www.facebook.com/ManaKidz) clinics provide comprehensive health care in a number of primary and intermediate schools in the South Auckland region of New Zealand, including rheumatic fever prevention services, assessment and treatment of skin infections and health assessments. The project is led by the National Hauora Coalition on behalf of the Counties Manukau Child Health Alliance Forum and is funded by the Ministry of Health and the Counties Manukau DHB.

AllMed Helps UR & Case Managers Learn About Medical Necessity Criteria for Bariatric Surgery

Portland, OR (PRWEB) June 06, 2013

More than one third of adults in the United States are obese, which places individuals at higher risk of morbidity from conditions and diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, and sleep apnea. Studies have shown that obesity-related diseases dramatically resolve or improve after bariatric surgery. As such, the number of weight-loss surgeries performed in recent years has increased. During a recent AllMed webinar, utilization review and case management professionals from payer organizations gained an understanding of the criteria many health plans use to determine medical necessity for bariatric surgery.

Dr. Julie J. Kim, a board-certified general surgeon, discussed issues related to determining medical necessity for bariatric surgery. Dr. Kim reviewed types of approaches to bariatric surgery. Restrictive procedures limit the amount of food intake by reducing the size of the stomach such as laparoscopic adjustable banding (LAGB), vertical sleeve gastrectomy and vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG). Malabsorptive procedures limit the absorption of foods in the intestinal tract by bypassing a portion of the small intestine. Purely malabsorptive procedures are rare and account for less than 5% of operations performed. Dr. Kim then discussed procedures that combine both restrictive and malabsorptive techniques such as gastric bypass with Roux-en-Y anastomosis (RYGB), the current gold standard for bariatric surgery and the most commonly performed procedure.

Longstanding treatment guidelines and practice parameters for bariatric surgery developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) require individuals to meet specific criteria in order to be considered candidates for surgery. According to Dr. Kim, weight loss surgery should be considered as a treatment of last resort, after first-line treatment involving diet, exercise, psychotherapy, and medications has failed. Criteria for patient selection for bariatric surgery are relatively uniform among various authors and correspond to criteria recommended by the American Society of Bariatric Surgery (ASBS) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Indications include patient BMI of 40 kg/m2, or 35 kg/m2 with significant high-risk co-morbid disease (e.g., sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes) and documented failure of nonsurgical weight loss programs.

Additional ASBS and NHLBI criteria include: