Development of the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System (RFCCS) for Aotearoa New Zealand

first_page Download PDF settings Order Article Reprints Font Type: Arial Georgia Verdana Font Size: Aa Aa Aa Line Spacing:    Column Width:    Background: Open AccessAbstract Development of the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System (RFCCS) for Aotearoa New Zealand † by Catherine JacksonCatherine Jackson SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1,*, Maya Cohen-RonenMaya Cohen-Ronen SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1,‡, Peter SmeatonPeter Smeaton SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1, Denise SmithDenise Smith SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 2, Vladimir ObolonkinVladimir Obolonkin SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 3, Edward FalloonEdward Falloon SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1, Brad MotionBrad Motion SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1, Andrew UptonAndrew Upton SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1 and Bronwyn PetrieBronwyn Petrie SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 4 1 Data and Digital, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, P.O. Box 793, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 2 Independent Researcher, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 3 National Public Health Service Northern Region, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, P.O. Box 793, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 4 Planning, Funding and Outcomes, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, P.O. Box 793, Wellington 6140, New Zealand * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. † Presented at the 22nd Lancefield International Symposium on Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases, Brisbane, Australia, 1–5 June 2025. ‡ Current address: Wellington Water Ltd., Lower Hutt 5012, New Zealand. Proceedings 2025, 124(1), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2025124028 Published: 22 September 2025 (This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 22nd Lancefield International Symposium on Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases (LISSSD 2025)) Download keyboard_arrow_down Download PDF Download PDF with Cover Download XML Download Epub Versions Notes Keywords: acute rheumatic fever; rheumatic heart disease; disease register; health informatics 1. Background and AimsRates of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) among New Zealand Māori and Pacific are among the highest reported in high-income countries. Successful delivery of secondary prevention improves health outcomes. 2. MethodsA business case was approved and funded by the Ministry of Health. The 4-year project was initiated in July 2022. Salesforce was approved as the platform. Key informant interviews were completed with existing secondary prevention services and sector stakeholders. Systems requirements were approved and a minimum viable product built and tested. Two existing rheumatic fever (RF) services participated in a pilot phase (Northland, Waikato) with patient data migrated from the existing RF registers, followed by a staggered rollout to other regions. 3. ResultsA total of 12 of 18 RF services have been onboarded to the RFCCS with data migrated for 794 patients. Average patient age is 19 years (range 5–63 years), 54% male, 96% Māori or Pacific. Current diagnoses are ARF (77%), ARF recurrence (5%), and non-acute RHD (17%). Current RHD severity is none (35%), mild (28%), moderate (12%), severe (21%—including those post valve repair (5%) or valve replacement (15%)). Early benefits include supporting patient transfer, shared care between two services, and improved prophylaxis timeliness reporting. 4. ConclusionsSystems, processes, and workforce vary by service requiring flexible design and implementation. National systems are important for identifying and addressing equity gaps. Rollout to all services will be completed in 2025, with ongoing enhancements of the solution planned. Author ContributionsConceptualization, C.J. and M.C.-R.; methodology, C.J.; software P.S., E.F., and B.M.; data curation, C.J., V.O.; writing—original draft preparation, C.J.; writing—review and editing, all authors; project administration, D.S. and A.U.; funding acquisition, B.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.FundingThis project was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.Institutional Review Board StatementThe Health New Zealand Privacy Review Group approved the Privacy Impact Assessment for this project. Informed Consent StatementInformed consent is obtained for patients registered on the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System.Data Availability StatementThe data presented in this abstract are available on request from the corresponding author due to privacy restrictions.Conflicts of InterestMaya Cohen-Ronen is now employed by the company Wellington Water Ltd. and declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Share and Cite MDPI and ACS Style Jackson, C.; Cohen-Ronen, M.; Smeaton, P.; Smith, D.; Obolonkin, V.; Falloon, E.; Motion, B.; Upton, A.; Petrie, B. Development of the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System (RFCCS) for Aotearoa New Zealand. Proceedings 2025, 124, 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2025124028 AMA Style Jackson C, Cohen-Ronen M, Smeaton P, Smith D, Obolonkin V, Falloon E, Motion B, Upton A, Petrie B. Development of the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System (RFCCS) for Aotearoa New Zealand. Proceedings. 2025; 124(1):28. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2025124028 Chicago/Turabian Style Jackson, Catherine, Maya Cohen-Ronen, Peter Smeaton, Denise Smith, Vladimir Obolonkin, Edward Falloon, Brad Motion, Andrew Upton, and Bronwyn Petrie. 2025. "Development of the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System (RFCCS) for Aotearoa New Zealand" Proceedings 124, no. 1: 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2025124028 APA Style Jackson, C., Cohen-Ronen, M., Smeaton, P., Smith, D., Obolonkin, V., Falloon, E., Motion, B., Upton, A., & Petrie, B. (2025). Development of the Rheumatic Fever Care Coordination System (RFCCS) for Aotearoa New Zealand. Proceedings, 124(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2025124028 Article Metrics No No Article Access Statistics Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.