EHI Awards 2015: Connecting Care wins

A shared care record scheme in the South West of England was the overall winner of the EHI Awards 2015, held in London last night. 

The Connecting Care Partnership won the award for ‘best use of IT to support integrated healthcare services’ and was also crowned overall winner.

Connecting Care shares real-time patient data between GPs, community providers, local authorities and three acute trusts via an Orion portal.

The programme went live in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire in December 2013 and aims to reach 10,000 users over the next five to seven years.

Director of informatics and business intelligence at South West Commissioning Support, Andy Kinnear, said last night that winning was really motivational for this team and they all felt "high as a kite."

"We are chuffed to bits: I'm so proud of my team," he added.

More than 600 people attended the award ceremony hosted by BBC gameshow Pointless presenter Alexander Armstrong and held in the ballroom of the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in Central London.

Director of informatics services and chief information officer for health at NHS Wales Informatics Service Andrew Griffiths took the ‘healthcare IT champion of the year’ award, decided by the readers of Digital Health News.

This year’s EHI Awards, organised by Informa Life Sciences, received almost 300 entries. Head of events at Informa Neil Hadland said the EHI Awards help innovative NHS organisations “tell their story”.

“All the finalists and winners represent the very best in healthcare innovation and we, as event organisers, can help to champion their great work,” he said.

Award winners

• Rising Star 2015, sponsored by Elsevier Clinical Solutions: Felix Vaal at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Best use of IT to support healthcare business efficiency, sponsored by Lexmark Healthcare: Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Best use of IT to support clinical treatment and care, sponsored by General Dynamics: NHS Kernow
• Best use of IT to support integrated healthcare services, sponsored by EMC: Connecting Care Partnership
• Best use of technology to share information with patients and carers, sponsored by Microsoft: Patients Know Best
• Healthcare IT product innovation, sponsored by Servelec Healthcare: Big White Wall
• Excellence in mobile healthcare, sponsored by Dell Healthcare Solutions: Horizon Strategic Partners
• The CCIO award for clinical informatics leadership, sponsored by InterSystems: Mike Fisher from Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust
• Best use of a social media to deliver a healthcare campaign, sponsored by Highland Marketing: Diabetes.co.uk
• Digital NHS trust or health board of the year, sponsored by CGI: Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Best use of IT to promote patient safety, sponsored by IMS Maxims: Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and Nervecentre Software
• Excellence in healthcare business analytics, sponsored by Caradigm: NHS Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group.