Voting is now open for Healthcare IT Champion of the Year; the coveted accolade that is decided by the readers of eHealth Insider.
This year’s contest promises to be the toughest ever, with a record 17 nominations to choose from.
So many nominations have been made that voting has been split into two rounds, with only the top six from the first round going through to a final and deciding round.
You now have two weeks to cast your vote in the first round, and the second round will be run in September.
Linda Davidson, co-founder and director of eHealth Insider, said: “The Healthcare IT Champion of the Year is always a highlight of the summer, but it is going to be harder than ever to choose between some fantastic nominees.
“Industry experts, IT managers and clinicians at every level of NHS IT are represented, and the people who sent in their nominations were often passionate about their candidate. We wish them all the very best.”
The Healthcare IT Champion of the Year award, which is sponsored by CSC, was founded to celebrate individuals who work tirelessly to promote healthcare IT through individual practice, professional organisations, and the NHS itself.
This year’s nominations are:
Dr Paul Altmann, chief clinical information officer, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
Anne Cooper, national clinical lead for nursing, Department of Health Informatics Directorate
Dr Michael Dahlweid, chief medical and innovation officer, Healthcare group, CSC
Neil Darvill, director of health informatics, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Andrew Fearn, director of ICT services and senior information risk officer, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust
Glen Griffiths, patient e-health / digital healthcare specialist, vice chair - BCS Primary Health Care Specialist Group
Dr Amir Hannan, GP at Haughton Thornley Medical Centres, primary care IT clinical lead for the Health Informatics Clinical Advisory Team at NHS North-West
Andrew Hooper, head of IM&T, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
Di Millen, head of workforce development and professionalism, Department of Health Informatics Directorate
Eddie Olla, director, Nottinghamshire Health Informatics Service
Jayne Parr, website development officer, Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust
Martin Powis, head of ICT (informatics), NHS Bradford and Airedale
Enid Povey, associate director, clinical information and development, NHS Direct
Dr Avish Punater, GP and chair of Microtest User Group, Symons Medical Centre, Maidenhead
Carl Reynolds, national clinical fellow with an interest in change management and health IT, organiser of the NHS Hack Day
Dr Jonathan Richardson, consultant in old age psychiatry, clinical director of informatics, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, chair Royal College of Psychiatrists Informatics Committee
Christine Walters, associate director of IM&T, The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
More information about the nominees and the voting process can be found on the website of the EHI Awards 2012 in association with BT.
Previous winners of the award have been: Mike Bainbridge, the then clinical architect of NHS Connecting for Health and Sue Rushbrook, head of systems and network services at York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Andy Inniss, a control training supervisor in South Western Ambulance NHS Trust won in 2009; and John Thornbury, then the ICT director of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, won in 2010.
Last year’s winner was James Norman, director of IM&T at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The winner of Healthcare IT Champion of the Year will be announced at a black-tie dinner in London’s Covent Garden on Thursday, 4 October.
The winners of all the categories of this year’s awards will be announced at the event, which will take place in the sumptuous surroundings of the Grand Connaught Rooms. To find out how to book tables and tickets, visit the EHI 2012 Awards website.
© 2012 EHealth Media.
Clinical data needs to be thought of as a multi-purpose core component of any healthcare institution - hospitals currently use data for, as others have said, "bean counting" but have neglected the clinical benefits that can be derived from using clinical data to support service delivery (through research, outcomes analysis etc.). The CCIO role addresses this gap. Ensuring clear clinical direction on data-related projects is key.
This will only be possible if an implementation is clinically led and ensure clinical buy-in/ownership. In order to achieve it, requires clinical leadership, understanding of clinical process and above all a level of trust and confidence in the project. This can only be delivered by a clinician leading the process. The CCIO role should be a pre-requisite to any large scale deployment
The BCS is right behind this campaign, and as Chair of the BCS Primary Health Care Specialist Group, I am delighted to add my support, and will encourage my members to do so too.
The role of health informatics is now central to healthcare, and that must be reflected at board level. But equally importantly, this is not about the technolocy, it is about full clinical input into how informatics is used to support clincal care. Without that we see the repeat of the expensive mistakes of the past. I also believe that clinicians have a better understanding of the confidentiality issues of the new shared records. So a Chief Clinical Information Officer is essential to maintain the respect of clinicians and the acceptance of new technology.
As a UKCHIP Council Member, I would also want to see UKCHIP registration as a requirement on the job description.
The people best place to identify the requirements for any it are the one that will use the systems. It is vital they have input to ensure that care standards are improved on. IT professionals provide the solution to those requriements using their knowledge of current and future technologies and IT standards. It has to be a joint venture the one can not deliver with out the other.
