News :

 

Health One Global provides Health Record Services at Special Olympics World Summer Games, Athens, Greece, July 2011.

 

The Special Olympics 2011 World Summer Games, held in Athens, Greece in June and July 2011 was the largest sports event world-wide in 2011, and was host to 6,500 athletes from 160 countries for 9 days of Olympic style events.

 

As the exclusive Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Global Partner since 2003 Health One Global provides its electronic health record software solution HEALTHone for two different applications:

 

  1. Healthy Athletes Software (HAS) to record the screening details of all athletes who were offered health screenings.  This also occurs at up to 930 events world-wide each year;
  1. Medical Encounter Software (MES) for the medical primary care of the participating athletes, their coaches, volunteers and members of the public attending all Games events but also including all residential venues.

 

Healthy Athletes software

 

HEALTHone was installed on a local area network at the Healthy Athletes screening venue.  All demographic data including sporting event, medical history, contact data was imported directly from the Special Olympics Games Management System (GMS) to create the basic patient record in HEALTHone.

13,858 screenings were carried out in 9 days from 26th June 2011 to 4th July 2011 by global volunteer screeners from around the world assisted by Greek volunteers.  All screening data was recorded on Special Olympics standard Healthy Athletes forms and taken to the Healthy Athletes data centre, set up specifically for the event.  50 Greek data enterers worked in shifts on 24 networked PCs to enter the 13,858 screenings into HEALTHone.

 

Of the 6,507 athletes from 160 countries who attended the Games, 3,751 (57.6%) of them underwent at least one of the 6 screening programs available.  On average each athlete attended 3.7 of the 6 screening programs.

 

To screen 3,751 people from 160 countries in 9 days was a major achievement for Special Olympics.  Few organisations globally have the knowledge, resources, commitment and experience to mount such an event, which Special Olympics does every 4 years, plus a World Winter Games every 4 years too!

The Healthy Athletes free screenings were offered to all athletes in six separate screening programs:

 

Fit Feet

Podiatry: assessment of feet, gait and footwear, provision of heel raises, onward referral, education.

FUNFitness

Physical therapy: measurement of muscle strength, joint mobility, flexibility, range of movement, onward referral, education.

Health Promotion

Health Promotion: comprehensive lifestyle assessment including smoking, diet, exercise, measurement of height and weight, education.

Healthy Hearing

Audiology: comprehensive hearing assessment, fitting hearing aids, onward referral, education.

Opening Eyes

Ophthalmology: comprehensive visual assessment including acuity, color vision, perception, provision of new prescription eyewear on the spot, onward referral, education.

Special Smiles

Dental: comprehensive dental assessment, onward referral, education.

Healthy Athletes Attendance

 

As % of athletes at World Games

Number of athletes at World Games

6,507

Number of athletes screened

(by 1 or more of the 6 screening programs)

3,751

57.6%

Fit Feet

2,097

32.2%

FUNFitness

1,580

24.3%

Health Promotion

1,876

28.8%

Healthy Hearing

2,658

40.8%

Opening Eyes

2,566

39.4%

Special Smiles

3,081

47.3%

Total number of screenings

13,858

Average screening programs completed

per athlete

3.7

 

Healthy Athletes Screenings Key findings

 

As at every Special Olympics Healthy Athletes event the screening results in Athens of athletes from all around the world were alarming and demonstrated, yet again, the poor healthcare status and massive unmet needs of people with Intellectual Disability:

 

  1. 26% had never had an eye examination before;
  1. 36% reported difficulty seeing;
  1. 66% did not pass the eye screening test;
  1. 23% were issued with new glasses at the Games;
  1. 46% had untreated dental decay;
  1. 15% needed urgent dental treatment;
  1. 22% did not pass the hearing screening test;
  1. 20% needed a referral for an ear condition;
  1. 8% had raised blood pressure and needed urgent follow-up;
  1. 69% had gait abnormalities;
  1. 30% had foot bone deformities.

 

The data from Athens will be merged with the master global database that Health One Global manages on behalf of Special Olympics which is already the world’s largest research database on the health parameters of people with Intellectual Disability. Each year data from up to 930 Healthy Athletes events world-wide is added by Special Olympics.

 

Medical Encounter Software

HEALTHone was made available to 55 Medical Centers at all World Games venues across Athens connected via the Internet through a Virtual Private Network to the Games server room where Health One Global had installed a server for MES.

3,426 Medical Encounters were recorded in HEALTHone between 19th June, 2011 when athletes began arriving in Athens for acclimatisation and training and 6th July, 2011 when the last athletes left Athens.  The distribution of Medical Encounters by date is shown below.

 

 

Greek version

 

The 55 Medical Centers were manned by many hundred Greek doctors and nurses working in shifts.  HEALTHone MES was therefore made available in both Greek and English.  At the click of a button HEALTHone switched between English and Greek so that users could use the language most familiar to them.  All structured data entered in Greek was immediately visible in English as HEALTHone is inherently multilingual and is already available in multiple languages.

Note that not only did all structured data switch instantly between English and Greek but all system commands and drop down menus changed too.

HEALTHone therefore behaved as a fully Greek solution for the Greek doctors and nurses.

 

Healthy Athletes data goes mobile

 

On the occasion of these World Summer Games, Health One Global demonstrated Healthy Athletes data capture on cellphones, iPad and Android tablets.

 

Healthy Athletes data from up to 930 events world-wide each year is entered by Special Olympics into the single global Healthy Athletes database created and managed by Health One Global for Special Olympics.

 

At present the Healthy Athletes data is captured on a paper form then entered into the database via the Internet by a PC either live at the Healthy Athletes event or later after the event.  This has served Special Olympics well for the last 8 years as the global database is now the world’s largest, richest, most comprehensive database on the health parameters of people with Intellectual Disability.

 

Special Olympics now stands on the brink of going straight for digital entry of the Healthy Athletes screening data on a wide variety of digital devices including cellphones, smartphones, iPads and Android tablets.  An iPhone version is planned.

 

In future at any Healthy Athletes event, anywhere in the world Special Olympics will be able to enter Healthy Athletes screening data into these devices and, just using a simple encrypted text messages the data will go straight into the global database.  This will improve even more the timeliness, quantity and quality of the Healthy Athletes data.

 

Healthy Athletes goes two-way interactive

 

Health One Global also demonstrated for the first time two-way interactive messaging between an Athletes Personal Sports and Health Record and their cellphone.

 

At every one of the 930 Healthy Athletes screening events world-wide each year significant problems and diseases are discovered.  For example at the recent World Summer Games in Athens attended by over 6,500 athletes, 3,751 underwent one or more Healthy Athletes health screenings.  20% of those screened needed aetiological follow-up of the hearing after the Games and 15% needed medical evaluation. Nearly 9% had raised blood pressure and needed urgent follow-up.  5% needed to see and Ophthalmologist and 15% needed urgent dental treatment.

 

At present Special Olympics provides a paper ‘Alert Card’ for each athlete after the Games listing their screening results and what follow-up is required.  But it is clear that these paper Alert Cards do not always reach the athlete’s family and caregivers so the need for follow-up may not be recognised.

 

Special Olympics and Health One Global demonstrated in Athens a two-way interactive text messaging system that sends simple text message reminders to any cellphones of the athlete, their families or caregivers using simple text messages, in the athlete’s preferred language reminding them of the need for urgent follow-up.

 

Because the messaging is driven by the Athletes Personal Sports and Health Record which contains all their Healthy Athletes screening data, the reminders are relevant and specific to each and every athlete.  Because the text messaging is two-way interactive the athlete, family or caregiver can respond and indicate whether follow-up has occurred or not, the outcome, or any problems finding healthcare professionals to deal with the problem.

 

For the first time ever Special Olympics is poised to ensure that problems identified at Health Athletes events are followed up and that the outcomes are optimised for each athlete.

 

Scalable, cost-effective, personalised - Reminders are software based and so scalable to millions of athletes. Simple, encrypted text messages are used to be exceptionally cost-effective. Reminders are driven by each athlete’s unique, specific Athletes Personal Sports and Health Record and modified by the two-way interactive messaging and so remain personalised to each and every athlete, no matter how many athletes are involved.
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