Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health, and HIMSS Asia Pacific have announced the finalists of the sixth Asia Pacific HIMSSElsevier Digital Healthcare Award 2018. This award recognizes outstanding achievements and innovations globally in the implementation and usage of health information and technology.

Since its inception in 2013, the award has received 218 submissions in six years across 30 countries and 120 unique organizations globally. This includes the 22 Asia Pacific submissions this year from Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, and Singapore for two categories: Outstanding ICT Achievement and Outstanding ICT Innovation.

The finalists are: Outstanding ICT Achievement Category

 Metro South Health, Australia – Metro South Health Digital Hospital Project

 Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia – The RCH ViCTOR EMR Project

 Sydney Local Health District, Australia – Oncology and Haematology Management Information Systems (OHMIS) Project Phase One Sydney Local Health District

 Xuanwu Hospital Capital Medical University, China – To Save Faster and Better: Combine AI and Rebuilding ED Process to Improve Efficiency and Quality of Stroke Emergency Care

Outstanding ICT Innovation Category

 Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited, India – A Multifactorial Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Tool Using Machine Learning for Indian Population

 Aravind Eye Hospital-Pondicherry, India – Low Cost Technology Coupled with Electronic Medical Record to Tackle Needless Blindness in Rural India

 Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, India – Overcoming the EHR Gap in the Outpatient Department without Changing Clinician Behaviour or Existing Workflows

 Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia – TeleHealth (Video) Visits Optimization

It is interesting to see that though no Indian Healthcare provider made it to the outstanding ICT category, three of them have made it to the finals of the ICT innovation category. This clearly shows that while we have lots to do in the case of achieving excellence, but with innovation and adoption of emerging technology, a lot can be achieved and we can bridge the gap to provide better care at economical rates.

The winners will be revealed at the HIMSS-Elsevier Award dinner reception at the HIMSS AsiaPac18 Conference & Exhibition on November 5, 2018, in Brisbane, Australia.

Nominated in both categories, John Stanway, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Children’s Hospital Australia said, “Our RCH ViCTOR EMR and TeleHealth (video) Visits Optimization Projects have resulted in numerous benefits since roll-out. We have seen an increase in the rate of Medical Emergency Team (MET) calls and a 14 percent increase in hospital admissions since the EMR implementation. This has correlated with the trend of lower in-hospital mortality.

“EMR implementation has also enabled the number of scheduled TeleHealth visits per quarter to increase 450 percent. The TeleHealth innovation has also resulted in major service growth with great benefits for our more distant patients and their families.”

“I would like to congratulate all participating organizations. As a fourth-time judge for this award, I have witnessed the increased efforts in this region to adopt ICT to improve care outcomes. Organizations who are repeat participants have also shown that innovation is a continuous process. Some of the submissions are improvements on previous submissions and this is truly demonstrative of a committed effort over the years to provide better care delivery for patients,” said John Daniels, Global Vice President, HIMSS Analytics.

Wishing all participants for the finals and looking forward to updating the final winners when it would declared on the 5th of November.

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