Imrproving Pediatric Pain Management and Patient Engagement in Low Resource Nations

We propose developing a wearable technology for children to enabel them to report the pain they experience as they are being treated in the hospital in a low resource country. Our idea was selected by Harvard University and the Commonwealth Fund for disucssion on their Technology and Patient Engagement portal. We encourage ideas and responses to our posting, please follow the link:

http://www.ghdonline.org/breakthrough-health-it/discussion/smart-watch-to-support-pediatric-patients-living-w/

Technology for Patient Engagement

Idea Smart watch to support pediatric patients living with painful chronic conditions

By Sylvia Sosa | 08 Dec, 2014

Idea submitted by: Global Organization for Maternal & Child Health: Sylvia Sosa, Valerie Kong, Board of Directors

Interactive device similar to a watch, or wearable technology, that engages the pediatric patient experiencing pain from chronic disease such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. “Pain watch” allows the child to press a button at the time pain is experienced. Button options describe their pain based on the “Wong Baker” pain faces rating scale in real time, allowing patient to engage in everyday life, while improving pain assessment by primary care clinician, enabling clinicians to manage and understand needs of the child. The pain watch should transmit on a cellular system, not Internet, to allow for use in a low-resource setting.

This device targets low resource settings where access and communication with care providers is lacking, and outreach and education to the community is scarce, in a culture where information related to their condition could otherwise be ignored by caregivers due to taboos related to disease and death. Children will learn the basic functions of the pain watch and record their pain score instantly. This product is meant to be simple and easy to use in low resource areas, with responses stored at a secure central database accessible by care team.

Tool improves:
• Pediatric patient – physician interaction
• Understanding of pediatric pain from disease
• Healthcare outcomes including prevention of escalated symptoms, and costly complications

Please post comments to their site! http://www.ghdonline.org/breakthrough-health-it/discussion/smart-watch-to-support-pediatric-patients-living-w/

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Child Nutrition Bill passes United States Congress

The United States Congress passed the Child Nutrition bill on December 2nd, which everyone hopes will lead to an increased availability of healthier food for many children and youth.

United States First Lady Michelle Obama lobbied for the bill, touting it as a way to fight both obesity and hunger. The first lady has long been a proponent of teaching children to eat fresh, healthfully balanced diets and this bill, which she calls ” a groundbreaking piece of legislation” according to the New York Times, it will put an emphasis on adding fresh fruits and vegetables to school provided meals.

Though the new bill may seem like a clear win for children and for the health of the nation, it comes with a serious catch. About half of the $4.5 billion dollar cost of the bill will be paid for by cutting the food stamps program starting a few years from now. Some House Democrats and advocates for the poor fought the bill in September, pointing out that expanding child nutrition programs by cutting money out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program simply takes important resources from one group of needy people and gives them to another.

School districts that adopt new, USDA-established meal nutrition standards will get a 6-cent-per-meal increase in their reimbursement rate from the USDA’s National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced-price meals to students in low-income families. The USDA has 18 months to determine the new standards once the bill is signed, but the agency claims it has already been working on them and has vowed to release a proposal by the end of this year, according to Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association.

There are plenty of other tangible parts of the bill that impact parents, foster care providers, educators and after-school programs. Here’s what is known about the bill:

* Nearly half the funding, about $2.2 billion, is allotted from cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps). Some people have criticized this funding reallocation because it means taking meals away from low-income kids while they are home, and using it to feed them while at school. President Barack Obama has assured House Democrats these SNAP cuts, which would not go into effect until a few years, will be replaced with other to-be-determined funding sources.

* There is also a provision in the bill that requires the USDA to develop healthier nutrition standards to other forms of food distribution at schools besides the official school lunch program, such as vending machines and snacks sold at school stores.

* Streamlining the certification process for students to receive free or reduced price meals so that there is no paperwork required from the child’s family. Foster children will automatically be eligible for free meals, and students whose families receive SNAP benefits will also be automatically eligible for free meals, a provision that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will lead to 115,000 additional students enrolling annually.

* Expansion and reform of the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which subsidizes after-school programs providing snacks and meals to youth participants. Currently, the program is in 13 states, but the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act allows all 50 states to participate. Any after-school program located in an area served by a school in which at least half the student population is eligible for free or reduced meals can sign up to receive CACFP funding to cover meals. This after-school meal component of the bill is estimated to cost $750 million over 10 years, according to Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research and Action Center.

* There is $40 million in mandatory funding towards farm-to-school programs, which set up local school gardens and food from local farms as ingredient sources for school meals.

Reference:

• H.R. 5504 – Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act – House Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill – June 2010 [http://www.schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/School_Nutrition/16_LegislativeAction/HR%205504.pdf?n=6104]
• S. 3307 – Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 – Senate Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill – March 2010 [ http://ag.senate.gov/Legislation/FULLCNB10.pdf ]

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