The introduction of an IT platform by the Midlands Health Network that can track a child's health milestones from birth to six has been able to identify over 6000 kids in the Waikato who have missed oral health checks over the last year, potentially saving the district health board millions in the cost of anaesthetising children for tooth extractions.

Midlands Health Network's service manager for child health Bronwen Warren told the Health Informatics New Zealand (HiNZ) conference in Christchurch yesterday that the National Child Health Information Platform (NCHIP) that has been rolled out in the Waikato had also scored some early wins in linking up newborns with GPs, identifying newborns who had missed metabolic screening tests and ensuring children are immunised as close to the schedule as possible.