TORONTO – SELA Canada announced it has won the 2014 Microsoft Humanitarian Response Citizenship Award. The company was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft Corp. partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“We are deeply honored to receive the 2014 Microsoft Humanitarian Response Citizenship Award for the hard work our team put into building the ‘My Baby and Me’ Infant Passport Mobile App for St. Michael’s Hospital,” said Eran Barlev (pictured), Director of SELA Canada. “At SELA Canada we have a proud history of investing in community and charity-based work and each year we prioritize a project where we can use technology to build better communities by serving people at most risk and need.”

The Passport Program consists of an electronic health record: the passport; a series of “incentives” that are advertised and provided at each prenatal visit; comprehensive care; and collaboration with community agencies to ‘fast track’ women into care.

The goals of the program are to improve maternal and child health outcomes by motivating pregnant women to attend regular prenatal appointments and to advance communication and coordination of patient care among hospital staff and community agencies.

The Passport functions as a diary for young pregnant women who, along with their healthcare providers, record tests performed, test results, progress of the pregnancy, appointments, and other information about pregnancy, labor and baby care.

It includes resource information, documents milestones during pregnancy and early infancy to promote early maternal infant attachment, promotes continuity of care and provides caregivers with a variety of online teaching opportunities.

“The My Baby and Me Infant Passport Program was created in response to the need for coordinated care for young, precariously housed pregnant women,” said Marisa Cicero, a social worker with St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “Consistent prenatal care has been shown to improve the health of both mothers and newborns, however, many barriers and obstacles exist which make comprehensive care for this population difficult.”

“The Passport Program attempts to tackle some of these barriers by increasing access not only to prenatal care, but also to community services,” added Amanda Hignell, a social worker with the hospital.

Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 3,200 entrants from 112 different countries worldwide.

“This year’s award winners were among some of the best and brightest our partner ecosystem has to offer, so it came as no surprise that SELA Canada was included in that group as this year’s winner of the 2014 Microsoft Humanitarian Response Citizenship award,” said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp.” “We congratulate SELA Canada on this amazing achievement and its continued dedication to providing innovative solutions that drive results for our mutual customers.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year.

SELA Canada, a subsidiary of SELA Group, is a global leader in delivering top level training, consultancy and software development to Fortune 1000 and government clients. SELA was established in 1981 and has been a Microsoft partner since 2000 and with several Microsoft Gold competency designations, SELA offers more than 300 courses delivered by over 65 senior trainers.

Their award-winning Technology College offers a robust curricula and wide variety of certifications for the IT industry. SELA has over 800 clients including Microsoft, SAP, Intel, BlackBerry, Nokia, Motorola, HP, BMC Software, ECI, Comverse and IBM among others. Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.