ALLIANCE HEALTHCARE AWARDS $1 MILLION IN GRANTS TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE ACCESS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

San Diego’s Poor and Vulnerable Communities to Benefit

November 6, 2010 (San Diego)--Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has awarded over $1 Million to two non-profit organizations in the 2010 Innovation Initiative (i2) grant competition. Social Interest Solutions (SIS) and Text4Baby won for their technological advancements that will improve access to health and social services for San Diego’s medically underserved population.

“AHF is proud to support SIS and Text4Baby in our joint fight to dissolve silos in the health care sector,” said Robert B. McCray, Chairman of the Alliance Healthcare Foundation Board.
 

SIS will use the awarded funds to grow One-e-App, an electronic software application that searches a large database of all available social services that a low-income client can qualify for. Currently, the interface is only available at a few community clinics and has to be administered by an employee. The i2 grant funds will expand the program to an online interface that will be accessible to the public from their own homes. SIS will also mobilize students and volunteers to assist with screening and application procedures in San Diego’s overburdened health clinics and organizations.

The second winner of the i2 grant is the San Diego Text4baby coalition, administered by the San Diego Medical Society Foundation. Text4baby is a national program that provides low income pregnant women and new moms and dads free text messages with information they need to appropriately take care of their babies’ health.

With the i2 grant, Text4baby coalition will create a San Diego version of the national text4baby service offering customized prenatal and maternal text messages to 18,000 pregnant women and new moms per year for two years, with the aim of decreasing San Diego’s infant mortality rate. “Text4Baby and SIS are pioneers in improving access to health care. These programs will not only impact San Diego, but act as an international model for delivering care in the future,” said McCray.

Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the greater San Diego region’s community partner for improving access to healthcare for the region’s poor, working poor and vulnerable populations. Since 1989, AHF has invested more than $45 million in grants into the San Diego community. Committed to the principle that everyone should be able to access appropriate, quality, and timely care, AHF works closely with nonprofit, government, and community agencies to further this goal. They accomplish this work through advocacy, education, and collaborative grant making. www.alliancehf.org; www.socialinterest.org; www.text4baby.org.