EHI Awards 2010: the winners

A system that lets paramedics hand over patient details to A&E staff has electronically scooped the top prize in the E-Health Insider Awards 2010 in association with BT.

The cab-based terminal developed by the Scottish Ambulance Service was judged the overall winner at the awards at the Grand Connaught Rooms in central London last night, having earlier won ‘best use of mobile technology in healthcare’.

The healthcare IT champion of the year award, which is decided by EHI readers, went to John Thornbury, ICT director at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Jon Hoeksma, editor of EHI, said: “The awards are a bellwether for the health and vitality of this important sector and they show that healthcare IT is still producing great innovation and excellent work by teams and individuals.

“We face a period of austerity in public services, but it is clear that the coalition government’s plans for healthcare will make ever-increasing demands on the skills of the healthcare IT community.

"Ambitions to provide more choice, to enable patients to control their own records, and to improve the commissioning of health services all need to be underpinned by excellent IT. The awards provide a great showcase for the talent available to tackle those reforms.”

The awards are now in their fourth year. This year, there were 11 categories in total, and a record number of entries. The full list of award winners is:

• Healthcare IT team of the year, sponsored by iSOFT: Avon IM&T Consortium, hosted by NHS Bristol.
• Best use of IT to promote patient safety, sponsored by First DataBank Europe: Bedside observation recognition and alerting system, Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust.
• Best use of mobile technology in healthcare, sponsored by EHI Primary Care: Cab based terminal, Scottish Ambulance Service.
• Best use of IT in patient and citizen involvement in healthcare, sponsored by Cerner: The Patient Concerns Inventory, Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
• Healthcare IT product innovation, sponsored by Quicksilva: EMIS Web, EMIS, and: Biodose Total Medication Management System, Protomed.
• Excellence in healthcare information management, sponsored by EHI Intelligence: Nursing Metrics, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
• Excellence in major healthcare IT development, sponsored by Oracle Healthcare: The UK Haemophilia Informatics Strategy, Medical Data Solutions and Services, and: Improving patient care using the RiO community and mental health electronic patient record system, London and Southern Programme for IT.
• Best use of telehealth and telecare, sponsored by the BCS Primary Health Care Specialist Group: Telemedicine to deliver 24/7 stroke thrombolysis, NHS East of England.
• Innovation in healthcare interoperability, sponsored by InterSystems: Image Exchange Portal, Department of Health, NHS Connecting for Health and Burnbank Systems.
• Healthcare IT champion of the year, sponsored by E-Health Insider: John Thornbury, ICT Director, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
• Overall winner, sponsored by BT: Cab based terminal, Scottish Ambulance Service.

Clay Van Doren, president of Global Health for BT, said: "It has truly been a pleasure to be part of the awards this evening. They shine a light on this important part of the health service which often doesn’t get the visibility it deserves.

"As one of the largest suppliers of ICT to the NHS, BT knows, if properly harnessed, ICT can help deliver the efficiencies and productivity gains the NHS needs to make over the coming years."