Innovative eHealth idea wins $10,000

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman has congratulated the winner of a challenge to find innovative IT ideas to improve health services.

“The Clinicians’ Challenge encourages health professionals to find ways technology can solve problems they face in their day-to-day practice and make a difference to the health of New Zealanders,” says Dr Coleman.

This year’s Clinicians’ Challenge has been won by Dr Tom Morton, an emergency physician at Nelson Marlborough DHB, who presented ‘Emergency Department at a Glance’, an information system that displays data for managing patients’ journey through an emergency department.

Dr Tom Morton will receive $10,000 to continue developing his proposal. The award was presented at the Health Informatics New Zealand (HiNZ) conference in Auckland last night.

The two runners-up, who each received $5000, are:
· Dr Allister Williams, a consultant physician and nephrologist from Taranaki DHB. Dr Williams proposed MyKidneys, a web-based smartphone app to give people with chronic kidney disease the advice and support they need to participate in their own care.

· Dr John Garrett, a paediatrician for Canterbury DHB and West Coast DHB. Dr Garrett proposed a tool to electronically record information on clinical consultations about sick children or newborn babies.

“It’s an impressive achievement to win the Challenge in a year when there were a record number of entries (79 in total), and when the quality and the scope of the entries were of such a high standard,” says Dr Coleman.

“I encourage other health professionals who have great IT ideas to continue working on them to help further extend the use of information systems in health.

“We want people living healthier lives away from hospitals where possible and utilising technology will play a key role in this.”

The Clinicians’ Challenge is run each year by the Ministry of Health’s National Health IT Board and HiNZ.

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