EHI Awards 2009 winners announced

NHS Waltham Forest’s implementation of the RiO community and mental health system emerged as the overall winner of the E-Health Insider Awards in association with BT last night.

The team behind the successful deployment was named healthcare IM&T team of the year at a black tie dinner at The Hilton on Park Lane, before going on to scoop the top prize in a ceremony hosted by broadcaster Emily Maitlis.

“We are over the moon,” said head of ICT Simon Midlane, straight after collecting the award. "The award is a terrific recognition of what we have achieved this year."

The awards scheme, now in its third year, is designed to recognise and reward the efforts of outstanding teams and individuals in UK healthcare information technology.

Jon Hoeksma, editor of E-Health Insider said: “Healthcare information technology is a vital component of all plans for modernising the NHS and producing health services that are fit for the 21st century. We are proud to celebrate the work of people who are showing the way forward in this sector.”

There were 10 categories in total, with awards for:

Healthcare IM&T team of the year – sponsored by Assist

• NHS Waltham Forest – RiO programme implementation

Best use of IM&T to promote patient safety – sponsored by FirstDataBank Europe

• Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Psychotherapy/ITC Service - Itinerant therapeutic community/out of hours service user-led e-support

Best use of wireless healthcare – sponsored by Cisco Systems

• Southampton University Hospital Trust – Wireless remote access programme

Best use of ICT in patient and citizen involvement in healthcare- sponsored by Microsoft

• NHS Direct, Digital Public – Health and symptom checkers

Excellence in healthcare information management- sponsored by IMS Health

• North Bristol NHS Trust – Business Intelligence initiative (Joint winner)
• Audit Commission – Web-based National Benchmarker (Joint winner)

Healthcare ICT product innovation – sponsored by Quicksilva

• MCP Systems Consultants and Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust – 3M RFID case note tracking system

Excellence in healthcare ICT service delivery – sponsored by E-Health Insider Primary Care

• McKesson Shared Services and University Hospitals of Leicester Payroll

Best use of telehealth and telecare – sponsored by iSOFT

• TeleMedCare; NHS Norfolk, Norfolk County Council, Barchester Health Group – Population-based telemedcare

Innovation in healthcare interoperability – sponsored by InterSystems

• NHS Connecting for Health – GP2GP

Overall winner – sponsored by BT Health

• NHS Waltham Forest – RiO programme implementation

A final award, The Healthcare ICT Champion of the Year, was also made on the basis of votes cast by readers of EHI and EHI Primary Care.

Andy Inniss, a control training supervisor in South Western Ambulance NHS Trust’s control room in Exeter, emerged as the winner of the award, and said he was "gobsmacked."

There was huge local support for Inniss, who developed an online training module for staff moving to a new triage system, which has been used to train hundreds of staff.

Sir Jonathan Michael, managing director, BT Health, said: “BT is delighted to be supporting the E-Health Insider Awards for the third year running.

“Once again the entries haven’t failed to impress, and have been of a consistently high standard. Last night was a celebration of excellence and exemplary working practices in healthcare ICT, and demonstrates that innovation is alive and well in the NHS. Congratulations to the winners.”

More reaction in our 'quick wins' news analysis.

See the winners: Photographs of the winners have been posted on the dedicated awards website.