Congratulations Sweet Louise!

July 2007
computerworld.co.nz

Sandfield are very proud to announce that their client the Louise Perkins Foundation has won Computerworld IT Awards for their website and administration system developed to assist women with Metatastic breast cancer.

The following story is based on extracts from their Computerworld Award submission and clearly demonstrates why they are a very deserved winner www.sweetlouise.co.nz

The Louise Perkins Foundation was established in 2005 after research and experience that identified gaps existing in the provision of services to improve the quality of life of women with breast cancer. Since November 2006, Sweet Louise (the public face of the Foundation), has co-ordinated and funded the provision of a range of services shown by research to assist women to live with their disease in a positive way. These services are provided to women with metastatic breast cancer, using a voucher system that enables our members to choose from a range of services at a time to suit them. The Foundation also provides information, access to research, and advice to assist women and their families with the many issues they must face to lead a positive life with their disease. The Foundation is a charitable trust, the trustees are Scott Perkins (Chairman), Dr Vernon Harvey, Janet Mikkelsen, Ian Narev and Brett Shepherd.

“ It isn't easy having breast cancer, all of our journeys are different but they all start with that moment when you are told of your diagnosis. At that point many of us search for information about how we can help ourselves, to deal with our treatment and to help us feel better. Sweet Louise provides much of this information in one place, and links to lots more " - Jennifer Clark, Executive Director.

The Sweet Louise System is an integrated information management system that controls membership, education, service provision, and administration for the organization. It is a hosted, internet based system which also integrates accounting and communication packages to provide a single enterprise wide system.

Software was developed for Sweet Louise based on the organisation's innovative voucher based operating model using Microsoft's ASP.NET technologies and SQL databases. This software is integrated with Sandfield's On-Account (financial) and On-News (email newsletter) systems.

The Sweet Louise website provides the general public with access to information about strategies that help women to live positive lives with breast cancer and enables those women with metastatic breast cancer, that is women whose cancer has spread to other parts of the body, to register for membership of Sweet Louise and receive vouchers to enable them to access a range of services free of charge. The website provides secure access for members to view their personal information, for service providers to redeem vouchers and for staff to manage administration.

The Sweet Louise System enables our organization to run its operations through the internet, allowing members to access information, to register and to check their voucher status, service providers to redeem vouchers and staff to manage membership, voucher allocation, accounting and communication. This, together with having the application hosted, allows the foundation to operate as a 'virtual organisation' allowing part-time staff and supporters to contribute from their homes and businesses, saving costs by eliminating the need for office space. Management of operations is highly efficient due to the integrated nature of the systems for registration, voucher redemption and accounting, often the only paperwork generated is the vouchers themselves. For patients without internet access a paper registration form and service directory is available.

We estimate that the savings to be in excess of $100,000 per year based on the costs associated with premises, services, equipment and staff. The system is easy to use and training for the organisation's support coordinators was conducted in one day as described by Sue Taylor, Manager, Sweet Louise:

“ the system is so intuitive that training for our support co-ordinators, both of whom were new to the organisation and who are 'people people' not 'technical people' was effectively completed in one day "

Women with metastatic breast cancer face a daunting range of physical, financial and practical issues. Having support to deal with these and access to therapies that complement the medical treatment they are receiving can make a huge difference to their quality of life. Sweet Louise encompasses everything from strategies that complement traditional medical treatment (reiki, positive mind techniques, dietary advice, counselling, specialised exercise programmes) to practical assistance such as home help, child care and assistance with transport. Where other providers offer comparable or additional services that fit our philosophy, Sweet Louise refers patients to them. Our Support Co-ordinators work with each woman and her family, and help them select the Sweet Louise services that best meet their needs. Patient feedback has been immensely positive, such as the following example:

“ I don’t know how to tell you what it means to have the understanding and philosophy of metastatic breast cancer through Sweet Louise recognised and acknowledged in the thorough way that you have addressed this.... Its much bigger than a philanthropic exercise and I just want you to know how I feel and how much appreciation and admiration I have for what you’ve achieved here.’ Sweet Louise Member. "

Trustees of the Foundation designed the voucher system based on an entirely novel concept. Foundation trustee Ian Narev explains:

“ The vision revolved around a simple, user-friendly system for helping our members – women with metastatic breast cancer – to access the services we provide. Above all, we needed something intuitive and easy to use. The whole idea would fail if our members found it hard to work with us, or if our people found it hard to work with the system. "