Innovation

Queens U students win Agfa’s innovation award

WATERLOO, Ont. – Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, has announced the winner of the 2nd annual Agfa HealthCare eHealth Innovation Competition. The prize went to a team from Queens University for an innovative eHealth solution that will benefit expectant mothers.

Kayleigh Roberts and Ben Richards from Queen’s were awarded the 2009 Agfa HealthCare eHealth Innovation Award and a trip to Agfa HealthCare’s global headquarters in Belgium to pitch their proposal to the global HealthCare CEO and Executive Team.

This year, Agfa asked the participating 30 groups of university and college students across Ontario to submit proposals that support Canada Health Infoway’s national eHealth initiative and answer the question, “How can IT enable the exchange of medical records and information among patients and healthcare providers in Canada?”

For one month, teams across a hybrid of disciplines such as: Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Health Informatics, Mathematics and Business students, contributed proposals on how to improve eHealth in Canada as it applies to areas such as aging populations and chronic disease management.

“It was energizing to see so much enthusiasm and participation from students across Ontario, especially given that the topic for discussion is such a vital piece to improving the quality of patient care in Canada,” said Jeff Nesbitt, Head of Government Relations and Strategic Programs, Agfa HealthCare in Canada. “This year, we were really looking forward to extending the program to students throughout the province and, as suspected, so many brilliant ideas were presented that picking just one winner was extremely difficult.”

The winning proposal connects expectant mothers to their personal electronic healthcare records that are housed on a community-based online portal through mobile devices, which enables women to track their own individual healthcare needs during pregnancy. This solution also creates efficiencies and increases effectiveness of delivering proactive care and monitoring well-being for expectant mothers.

“We’re very proud to win the Agfa HealthCare eHealth Innovation Award this year, because we see eHealth as such a critical element to improving the Canadian healthcare system,” said Kayleigh Roberts, Queens University. “To be offered the opportunity to contribute our ideas on how to better enable eHealth in Canada was an absolute thrill, and we’re looking forward to meeting with Agfa HealthCare executives in Belgium to discuss our proposal.”

The annual Agfa HealthCare eHealth Innovation Competition was created to provide Ontario students with the opportunity to help improve the quality of patient care, support the continuation and growth of Canada’s Health Informatics industry, and drive the advancement of healthcare IT solutions.

The top five finalists received an all expenses paid trip to Waterloo, Ontario, to present their ideas to a panel of judges on November 14th. Finalists engaged in personal coaching sessions on pitching strategies with key industry influencers and lead sponsoring organizations including: St. Mary’s Hospital, OpenText, Sun Life Financial, and University of Waterloo, as well as senior software architects from Agfa HealthCare in Canada.

About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and film related products and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa’s headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,401 million Euro in 2006.

About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions, and state-of-the-art systems for capturing, processing and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The company has over a century of experience in diagnostic imaging and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990’s. Agfa HealthCare today employs 5,700 staff members, with sales offices and representatives in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2006 were 1,452 million Euro, accounting for 43% of total group sales. For more information on Agfa HealthCare, please visit www.agfa.com/healthcare.

Posted Nov.26, 2009