Healthcare leaders and innovators honoured

VANCOUVER – Outstanding Canadians driving better patient outcomes and healthcare sustainability were honoured for their leadership, innovation and excellence at Canadian Health Informatics Awards (CHIA) Gala during e-Health 2014 in early June.

Richard Alvarez (pictured), President & CEO, Canada Health Infoway, won the prestigious Leadership in the Field of Health Informatics Award in recognition of his 30-year career in Canadian healthcare. He thanked COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association and paid tribute to COACH volunteers and leaders in his acceptance speech. “Health informatics has been the name of my game,” he said. “My game has really been about people and about relationships.”

Many CHIA honours, such as the Project Team – Implementation Award, which went to Cerner Canada’s Prince Edward Island Computer Physician Order Entry Project (CPOE), are a tribute to the people behind the technology.

“Cerner’s partnership with Health PEI has helped establish a robust electronic health record for the residents of Prince Edward Island,” said Jim Shave, President, Cerner Canada. “With the implementation of CPOE across all PEI hospitals, caregivers can deliver higher quality care and save time by eliminating duplicative processes. This technology lets clinicians manage care from anywhere and anytime, which boosts patient safety and reduces the rate of medication errors and adverse drug events.”

2014 CHIA Award Winners

Clinician Leadership

Dr. Lynn Nagle

Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, & Founding President, Canadian Nursing Informatics Association

Corporate Citizenship

Major Canadian: Global Village Consulting Inc.

Multi-National: Orion Health Canada

Emerging Leader in Health Informatics

Dr. Manal Kleib

Faculty Lecturer, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta

Excellence in Canadian Telehealth

British Columbia Telehealth Development Committee & Island Health Telehealth

Innovation in the Adoption of Health Informatics

First Nations Panorama Implementation Project

Leadership in the Field of Health Informatics

Richard Alvarez

President & CEO, Canada Health Infoway

Project Team – Implementation Award

Cerner Canada PEI’s CPOE Project

Project Team – Innovation and Care Delivery

Mackenzie Health & McKesson Canada: Clearing up the Clutter – Using Visual Controls to Improve Patient Flow and Quality

Project Team – Patient Care Innovation

Nova Scotia Personal Health Records Project

Steven Huesing Scholarship

Helen Monkman

PhD, Health Information Science (Candidate), University of Victoria

COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association and ITAC Health co-host the CHIA Gala and Awards program. An impartial Adjudication Committee, comprised of leaders in the HI profession, evaluates all nominations and scholarship applications and chooses the award recipient(s). The Gala was held as part of e-Health, Canada’s only national e-Health conference and trade show, for the first time this year.