ORTEC Consulting Group Recognized as Finalist in 2013 Business Action on Health Award

Gouda, The Netherlands: ORTEC Consulting Group announced today that it has been selected as a finalist for the 2013 GBCHealth Business Action on Health Awards in recognition of its contribution to optimizing the logistical processes of North Star Alliance (North Star), a not-for-profit organization established in 2006 to build a network of roadside health clinics across Africa.

The GBCHealth Business Action on Health Award recognizes companies that exemplify a spirit of innovation and help set the agenda for addressing today’s most important global health challenges. The awards represent a key opportunity to recognize success and best practices, while providing powerful examples that inspire others to redouble their own efforts.

“We are thrilled and excited with this selection. This means much to us and to North Star Alliance. Being a finalist for the 2013 GBCHealth Business Action on Health Awards means recognition on the highest possible platform.”

With optimization techniques you can achieve more with less or, so-to-say, much, much more with the same. In the field of humanitarian logistics this means simply saving more lives, reaching more people with aid and healthcare and contributing to the welfare of communities.”
Lambert Van der Bruggen, CEO ORTEC Consulting Group

North Star works to establish a network of drop-in health clinics, called Roadside Wellness Centers along major transport corridors in low-income communities across Africa. The clinics offer healthcare and health information to mobile populations and corridor community members who are often unable to access conventional community or in-company-based health services. ORTEC Consulting Group supports North Star on a pro bono basis with the development of a customized client health registration and passport system, called COMETS. COMETS creates an electronic file for each visiting client enabling each person’s information to be exchanged between the various centers, so treatments can be continued across different locations.

COMETS is accessible for staff without advanced computer skills and is resilient to common operational challenges like power outages and breaks in connectivity. The latest version will help Medical Officers diagnose medical conditions and prescribe appropriate treatment. In the future, innovations such as biometric identification will be introduced.

In addition to COMETS, ORTEC Consulting Group launched a new system in 2011 called POLARIS, which combines information from a wide range of sources including COMETS data, traffic flows, commodity flows, and costs to improve North Star’s planning and decision-­‐making on the ground. The system helps to ensure that future and existing Roadside Wellness Centers are strategically placed, and that the mix of health and safety services is optimal.

“ORTEC Consulting Group has made a fundamental contribution, not only toward improving our capacity to deliver and monitor health at across our network of clinics, but toward a global capacity to monitor the health of some of Africa’s most hard-to-reach populations” says North Star Executive Director Luke Disney. “Their innovation and partnership is truly a core element of North Star’s success to date.”

In 2012, 218,762 people visited North Star clinics to receive counseling, testing, treatment and essential health information. Each of these patients health information was stored, monitored, and evaluated using COMETS.

ORTEC Consulting Group was selected as a finalist in the Technology for Health category alongside IBM, Merck, HP, and Anglo American Plc.
The awards will be announced in New York during GBCHealth’s 2013 Conference, held May 15-17th.


About ORTEC Consulting Group

ORTEC_CoreORTEC Consulting Group is relative small company of about 150 people, mostly econometrists, mathematicians and even a few astronomers. ORTEC Consulting Group is active in operations research and optimization, using mathematical models to support a wide range of business decisions and analytical processes, adding credibility to, and increasing confidence in, decisions made.

The ORTEC Consulting group optimizes revenues and supply chains and is active in the field of advanced analytics. We work in a wide range of industries, from oil and gas to retail and e-­‐commerce.

ORTEC Consulting Group is part of ORTEC, established in 1981 and headquartered in Gouda, The Netherlands. ORTEC is one of the largest providers of advanced planning and optimization software solutions and consulting services.

ORTEC uses analytical methods to identify business improvement opportunities and to execute on continuous business process optimization. A traditional collaboration with the academic community guarantees that the methodology continues to be well founded in scientific research. In the area of Advanced Planning Solutions, ORTEC has over 1,650 customers worldwide, over 650 employees and offices in Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific Region.

Visit ORTEC Consulting Group Online: www.ortec-consulting.com


About North Star Alliance

NorthStar_logoNorth Star Alliance is a not-for-profit public-private partnership that works at the crossroads of health and mobility. Our mission is to provide sustainable access to quality health and safety services to mobile workers and related communities.

We harness the energies of more than 70 public, private and social partners to stop the spread of disease by establishing a network of strategically located clinics, called Roadside Wellness Centres, across Africa.

Our Roadside Wellness Centres are located at critical hotspots along Africa’s transport corridors, such as border posts, transit towns or ports, where large numbers of trucks stop and where sex work and other informal trades flourish. For people on the move, these locations are conveniently accessible.

North Star’s model is to extend access to health and safety services to traditionally hard-to-reach and underserved target groups by addressing existing gaps. We work closely with national and regional health authorities to integrate our Roadside Wellness Centres into their service delivery networks.

Visit North Star Alliance online at: http://www.northstar-alliance.org


About GBC Health Action Awards

GBC Health LogoGBCHealth serves as a hub for private sector engagement on the world’s most pressing global health issues. Since 2001, GBCHealth has worked with hundreds of members — individually and in partnership with one other — to tackle the challenges of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Diabetes and other health issues facing the workplace and communities where business is conducted.

Visit GBCHealth Online: http://www.gbchealth.org/


For more information:

Sicco Brakema
Marketing Director
ORTEC Consulting Group

Email: sicco.brakema@ortec.com
Tel: +31(0)654763152
Web: www.ortec-consulting.com