Clinicians' Challenge 2012
The winners of this year’s Clinicians’ Challenge have been announced.
The annual Challenge connects health professionals and IT vendors to identify solutions to real life work-related problems.
Dr Jo Scott-Jones, a GP from Opotiki and chair of the rural GP network, won for the best entry submitted by a clinician.
His winning entry looks at how improvements can be made to standing orders which allow nurses to have a greater role in patient care, such as administering routine medicines. View Dr Jo Scott-Jones entry here (87.2KB,PDF).
The current standing order is regarded as cumbersome. Dr Scott-Jones would like to see the documentation process streamlined for the supervising doctor and additional online support provided for nurses.
Clinical case joint runners up were:
- Using new e-pad technology to improve ward rounding within hospitals, entered by Angus Turnbull, a registrar at Hutt Valley DHB, and
- Streamlining chronic kidney disease referrals supporting integrated care and self-care, entered by Hawke’s Bay DHB nurse practitioner – renal, Rachael Walker.
The winning vendor is CSC for its proposal on using new e-pad technology to improve ward rounds within hospitals.
Vendor case joint runners up were:
- Clinical Knowledge Solutions for their proposed solution to improve the effective delivery of health care in a rural environment, entered by John Henderson, and
- HSA Global for their proposed solution to streamline chronic kidney disease referrals, entered by Matt Hector-Taylor.
Clinicians from around New Zealand submitted 55 day-to-day work-related problems which they thought would benefit from innovative use of information technology.
The winners were announced at the Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ) conference in Rotorua on 8 November.
Dr Scott-Jones is entitled to funding of up to $10,000 to be put towards his professional development and to further investigate an IT solution to the problem he entered. The winning clinician and vendor could choose to use the funding to further develop specifications for the proposal, to view a solution in action, attend a related conference or to do further research or study. The funding may also be used to provide locum cover if required.
The two runner-up clinicians and the winning vendor are each entitled to up to $5000 for their professional development. Each clinician and the winning vendor received HINZ membership for two years, registration and accommodation for the 2013 HINZ conference, and the opportunity to present their findings back to HINZ in 2013.
Each of the prize winners will submit a proposal supporting their study before receiving their funding.
The Clinicians’ Challenge is part of the NHITB’s aim to improve the integration and effectiveness of health IT systems to benefit patients, and is also supported by Health Informatics New Zealand and the New Zealand Health IT Cluster.
Janet Liang, an intensive care specialist from North Shore Hospital, won last year’s Clinicians’ Challenge. She provided an update on the work she has done to develop a language interpreter system to improve communication with patients, particularly in emergency situations when there isn’t time to organise interpreters.
The NHITB encourages clinicians to start thinking of their entries for the 2013 Clinicians’ Challenge. Entries will open in June and close in August.
For more information about the Clinicians’ Challenge or the HINZ conference, visit www.hinz.org.nz or email enquiries@ithealthboard.health.nz.
Refer to the Frequently Asked Questions here
Read the article "Country GP tops Clinicians' Challenge 2012" from the Rural General Practice Network - Friday 9 November 2012
