Nominate your Healthcare IT champion

Nominations are now open for the Healthcare IT Champion of the year; a special category of the EHI Awards 2011 in association with BT that will be decided by you – the readers of eHealth Insider. 

The award, which this year is sponsored by iSoft, recognises an individual who has worked tirelessly to promote healthcare IT – through individual practice, the education system, professional organisations or the healthcare system itself.

Jon Hoeksma, editor of EHI, said: "This really is the people’s choice award. Last year, it was so popular that we had to have two rounds of voting, with the two six nominees joining as at the awards ceremony in central London."

If you would like to nominate somebody for this award, then please send an email to Emma Corbett (emma@e-health-media.com), naming your champion and saying why they should win.

Support your email with a 300 word statement, outlining their contribution and giving specific examples of their excellent work.

What makes them special? How have they gone above and beyond what might be expected of them? What obstacles and challenges have they overcome? What innovation or change have they achieved?

The deadline for nominations is 22 July. After that, we will approach nominees to see if they are happy for their names to go forward. Then, voting will start in August.

The winner will be unveiled at this year’s awards dinner, which will be at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden, London, on 6 October.

Previous winners of the awards have included Mike Bainbridge, clinical architect of NHS Connecting for Health, Sue Rushbrook, head of systems and network services at York Hospitals NHS Trust, and Andy Inniss, a control training supervisor in South Western Ambulance NHS Trust’s control room in Exeter.

Last year’s winner was John Thornbury, ICT director at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. He said: "The EHI Awards were a great experience right through.

"Winning the IT Champion Award in 2010 has brought with it the opportunity to meet and build relationships with members of the NHS I would not have made contact with previously, and the prestige of being associated with the sector’s thinkers and trailblazers.

"Finally, internally, it has raised the profile of the ICT team across Worcestershire at the right time during change and innovation needed to address the economic challenge bringing ICT to the forefront of delivering this."

Adrian Stevens, managing director of iSoft, said the company was pleased to continue its association with the awards, "which remain the only formal means of paying tribute to the vital work done by NHS IT professionals."

He said iSoft was particularly pleased to sponsor the Healthcare IT champion of the year, because "this recognises the major contribution of the individuals that are driving innovations, improvements and changes that can make a real difference to the quality of patient care."

The EHI Awards 2011 in association with BT seek out and reward outstanding work within the UK healthcare IT sector. Entries are open now on the dedicated awards website, and will close on 3 June at 4pm.

This year’s awards will be presented on Thursday, 6 October at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden, London. For more information or to reserve a table, please visit the awards website.

To find out more about previous winners of the awards, visit our case studies showcase.