New ORTEC system helps North Star Alliance 'optimize the world'

After successfully developing North Star Alliance's client health registration system, ORTEC has now delivered a new application that will assist North Star Alliance in determining optimal clinical locations and number of employees for its network of Roadside Wellness Centres (RWCs). The new solution is developed in cooperation with Paragon Decision Technology, using their mathematical optimization platform AIMMS.

"The delivery of this new system, named POLARIS (Program for Optimizing the Long-term Achievements of the Roadside Wellness Centres Investment Strategy), enables us to select optimal Wellness Centre locations, taking into account important factors such as continuity of care and number of visitors" explains Luke Disney, Executive Director of North Star Alliance.

Health services for mobile populations

North Star Alliance started as a practical industry response to an urgent health problem and has matured into a balanced approach that meets industry, public health and individual needs by establishing a network of drop-in health clinics, called Roadside Wellness Centres, at truck stops, ports, rail junctions and border crossings in low-income countries. The RWCs offer essential healthcare and information to mobile populations and roadside communities who are often unable to access conventional community or in-company-based health services due to their itinerant working conditions.

“ORTEC already provides invaluable support in this area with a customized client health registration system and passport system, called COMETS,” explains Luke Disney. “With POLARIS, ORTEC has developed an innovative application to help determine the optimal locations for North Star RWCs, without the need to invest a great deal of time and expense for research and data analysis. In our collaboration with ORTEC, we are always looking for ways how –in this case where – to best serve the truck drivers and the surrounding communities.”

‘Business Action on Health’ Awards

Earlier this year, the GBCHealth recognized ORTEC for its contribution to optimizing the logistical processes of North Star Alliance. “Our involvement in North Star’s mission to provide long distance truck drivers and corridor communities with sustainable access to healthcare and safety services has been extremely rewarding. For ORTEC, it is a real honor to have been recognized as a finalist in the 2011 Business Action on Health Awards,” adds Geerhard de Vries, VP Global Business Consulting for ORTEC.

About North Star Alliance
North Star works at the crossroads of disease and mobility to ensure that highly-mobile populations, especially truck drivers and their direct and indirect contacts have access to basic health services. North Star is strengthening national health systems by expanding their reach and plugging the gaps through a network of “Roadside Wellness Centres” (RWCs) located at hotspots along the most important transport corridors in sub-Saharan Africa. North Star’s unique approach unites the transport and public health sectors in a common response to high impact diseases.

North Star’s RWCs are open to everyone, but designed for the specific health needs of mobile populations. They offer a focused package of prevention and treatment services, including: information, education, basic health services, treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV counselling and testing, and medical referrals.

More information is available at: http://www.northstar-alliance.org

About ORTEC
ORTEC is one of the largest providers of advanced planning and optimization software solutions and consulting services. Our solutions result in optimized fleet routing and dispatch, vehicle and pallet loading, workforce scheduling, delivery forecasting and network planning. ORTEC provides best-of-breed, custom made and SAP® certified and embedded solutions, supported by strategic partnerships. In the area of Advanced Planning Solutions, ORTEC has over 1,550 customers worldwide, over 550 employees and offices in Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific Region.

More information is available at: http://www.ortec.com

About AIMMS
AIMMS is advanced optimization software for building operations research applications and advanced planning systems for decision support. AIMMS enables businesses and universities to apply Operations Research (OR) techniques successfully in the easiest and most effective way. It speeds up application development and lowers cost compared to direct programming alternatives and competing modelling packages. AIMMS is developed and marketed by Paragon Decision Technology B.V. Paragon has offices in The Netherlands, USA and Singapore.

More information is available at: http://www.aimms.com

Ms. Robin Landis
Director Communications
North Star Alliance
Denis Pritt Rd, Kilimani

PO Box 165
00202 Nairobi, Kenya

robin@northstar-alliance.org
Tel: +254 736 300 413

This release was published on openPR.