Ireland’s Ratemyhospital wins top e-health prize

Ireland’s Ratemyhospital.ie has been awarded the top prize for e-health by the Internet’s World Summit Award at a gala event in Venice.

In its citation, the WSA said: "In line with the best of social software sites, Ratemyhospital provides a single and clear platform for feedback on hospital treatments and services…the site aims to provide patient-centred transparency in the Irish hospital system, leading to improvements in the entire health infrastructure".

Former French Prime Minister Edith Cresson presented the five global winners in the E-Health category of the competition, which included the Danish Medicines Agency, the Guyana Ministry of Health and Ratemyhospital.ie, Ireland’s first ever e-health winner in the competition which is organised in conjunction with the United Nations.

WSA chairman, Professor Peter Bruck described Ratemyhospital.ie as one of the most innovative and outstanding projects the grand jury had reviewed this year, and congratulated the publishers on their achievement.

Another e-health entrant that was recognised for ‘outstanding strategic value’ for the development of the information society was ULSS Asolo Medical Network – pic.ulssasolo.ven.it/fpaweb – an Italian online medical records, clinical reports and test results for patients, doctors and medical authorities.

Held every two years, the World Summit Awards (WSA) involved entrants from 168 countries around the world. Over 24,000 e-content projects were reviewed for the 2007 Awards, with a shortlist of 650 nominations examined by the WSA Grand Jury in Croatia in September. From this, 40 winners – five per category in eight categories – were selected.

Ratemyhospital.ie is published by Ireland’s MedMedia Group who also publish Irishhealth.com.