500+ votes for the Healthcare ICT Champion of the Year - and counting
More than 500 votes have already been received in this year’s ICT Healthcare Champion of the Year competition. Less than two weeks after voting opened on 13 October, 579 votes have been cast.
Jon Hoeksma, editor of the E-Health Insider website said: “This is a fantastic response. Last year, just over 1,000 votes were cast over six weeks, so this suggests the award is going from strength to strength and that people do want to recognise the great work that the often unsung heroes of healthcare IT are doing.”
The Healthcare ICT Champion of the Year is a special part of the BT e-Health Insider Awards. Sponsored by Microsoft, it is judged by a popular vote, not by the voting panel.
The winner of last year’s Healthcare ICT Champion of the Year award was Dr Mike Bainbridge from NHS Connecting for Health. He scooped the prize for his work advocating IT since the 1980s and for his support of the Common User Interface programme - the work led by Microsoft to make IT easier to deploy and easier and safer to use.
This year, the potential champions cover a wide range of healthcare IT activity, from leading national programmes to designing systems to implementing them at local level. In reverse alphabetical order they are:
- Sue Rushbrook, head of systems and network services, York Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust
- Manpreet Pujara, national clinical lead for General Practice, NHS Connecting for Health
- Matthew Miliffe, information solution architect, Cerner
- Mary Hawking, GP, Bedfordshire
- Darren Holmes, director of ICT, St Barnabas’ Hospice, Lincoln
- Mike Denis, director of ICT, South London and the Maudsley NHS Trust.
- Rob Chesters, i-health manager, Medilink West Midlands
- Phil Browne, director of Informatica Systems and author of Front Desk.
Helping to launch the award, John Coulthard, director of healthcare, Microsoft UK, commented: “Healthcare ICT is all about people not technology and this award is a great way of acknowledging those who are leaders in this field.
“As the NHS seeks to transform health services to meet the needs of citizens and patients, leaders are in even greater demand. I hope that people will be inspired by the nominees and hope in some way to emulate the winners.”
Read more about the candidates’ achievements and the reason for their nomination and vote for your favourite on the E-Health Insider website.
To cast a vote, simply click on the name of the person you favour and enter your e-mail address. A confirmation e-mail will then be sent to your inbox and clicking the link contained in the e-mail message will activate your vote.