BASINGSTOKE, England, February 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Capita Healthcare Decisions has developed a new triage solution to help healthcare providers and professionals assess patients with suspected Zika virus symptoms and enable them to provide the most appropriate advice.

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The Zika virus is currently recognised as a public health emergency of international concern by The World Health Organization*.

The new triage solution will sit within Capita Healthcare Decisions' internationally renowned clinical triage tools, enabling patients, their relatives and clinicians to check symptoms and concerns against clinically validated and robust criteria.

The Zika triage solution is being made available to all of Capita Healthcare Decisions' clients, supporting more than 320m individuals worldwide, including those in the worst affected areas, such as Brazil.

As well as being part of tools which support telephone triage provided by healthcare professionals, the new Zika triage solution will also be available for use directly by patients and carers to check their own symptoms and concerns, or those of someone they are concerned about using Capita Healthcare Decisions' web-based self-triage solution. Supporting patients' self-care in this way avoids medical facilities becoming overwhelmed, and means people potentially infected with the Zika virus can be treated quickly and in the most appropriate way.

Dr Charles Young, chief medical officer at Capita Healthcare Decisions, said: "The agility of our software and our clinical expertise means we can and do react quickly and efficiently to developing healthcare emergencies. Our clinical systems are continually updated to take into account new advice and best practice so clinicians are able to offer the most up-to-date guidance. The aim with this new Zika-focused tool is to enable those who may have symptoms of the Zika virus to receive the most appropriate advice from healthcare professionals, as quickly as possible."

Notes to editors 

*http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/

About Capita Healthcare Decisions (formerly Clinical Solutions) 

We transform healthcare decision making. Our solutions support healthcare providers to make better decisions about their patients, and empower individuals to make better decisions about their own health and wellbeing. Over the past 15 years, our decision support software applications have been used by some of the world's leading healthcare providers to power over 85m patient transactions. Capita Healthcare Decisions brings together clinical expertise and Silicon Valley innovation to power decision support which delivers more for less and is underpinned by three principles: safe, connected, useful.  For more information go to http://www.capita.co.uk/healthcaredecisions

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