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Global Health Research Foundation Awarded $25,000 Grant From Westly Foundation to Study Asthma in California's Central Valley

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 February 2009, 09:30 CST

Foundation to implement advanced patient outcome analysis software to monitor health outcomes in Fresno, California

LOS ALTOS, Calif., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Global Health Research Foundation (GHRF) today announced that it has received a $25,000 grant from the Westly Foundation to fund asthma treatment in California's Central Valley, a region with the highest level of asthma cases in the state. The grant will help fund data collection and analysis at community clinics to better focus scarce resources on the most severe asthma cases. The data will also be used in a study of children's asthma and pollution levels conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine. "Asthma cases have more than doubled in the state since 1996. With our grant, we hope to help turn this around," commented Steve Westly, co-founder of the Westly Foundation, a private family foundation.

GHRF will implement sophisticated patient outcome analysis software, called Solutions, in two clinics in Fresno, CA, a city the American Lung Association named the third most polluted in the nation. "A significant group of patients has trouble managing asthma, so they end up suffering unnecessarily and require expensive intervention such as emergency room visits. The data generated by Solutions will identify these patients so they can receive assistance managing their asthma," explained Dr. Erica Weirich, director of GHRF. The Westly Foundation grant will also fund "promotores," or community health workers, who will train and support patients identified as at-risk. Over time, these steps should significantly reduce costs while improving patient health.

Solutions will also provide important data to a research project undertaken by Dr. Kari Nadeau, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The project plans to analyze clinical data from children in the target region, along with air and water quality data to determine the possible health impact. The results will enable clinics to better serve children and to provide patient training on preventive measures.

Solutions, from Health Metrics Systems, Inc., can harvest clinical data from a variety of electronic or manual sources. It then cleans and analyzes the data to produce sophisticated calculations and reports that are tailored to the needs of the user. Solutions uses open source components, fitting seamlessly into nearly any existing information system installed at a clinic. The software is currently deployed in 210 sites in Oregon.

Westly Foundation

Westly Foundation is a Redwood City, CA-based private family foundation that provides education and health care services for children and underserved communities throughout California.

www.westly.org

Global Health Research Foundation

Global Health Research Foundation is a Los Altos, CA-based 501C non profit providing community-based, sustainable health methodologies and tools for use by local health workers worldwide.

www.ghrf.org

Health Metric Systems, Inc.

Health Metrics Systems, Inc. in Palo Alto, CA, is the developer of Solutions software. Solutions enables health care organizations to optimize use of clinical and other data sources to improve the delivery of health care services and practice efficiency.

www.healthmetricssystems.com

SOURCE Global Health Research Foundation

Source: PR Newswire

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