Clinicians enabling whānau and community – 2024 CiLN Award opens

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The Clinical Informatics Award is back in its sixth year and is promoting the value that clinicians bring to whānau and community by providing data and digitally enabled clinical care.

The 2024 award is open to anyone with a clinical background and an interest in clinical informatics: this can be an individual or a clinical team, so get nominating today!

Accenture is sponsoring the award and have generously provided $5000 to provide further education for the winner or to fund resources to progress the initiative outlined in the submission. The prize also includes a year’s membership to HiNZ.

CiLN’s Clinical Informatics Position Statement, details five key areas in which clinical informaticians bring value to the sector; expertise, clinical leadership, stakeholder engagement, competence and capability, and communication. 

Nominees must be able to show how the care they provide meets at least one of these areas and all nominations will be judged by an expert panel to select the three finalists. 

The 2024 judges are; national chief clinical information officer and 2020 award winner Lara Hopley; 2023 award winner and allied health clinical informatics lead, Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury and Te Tai o Poutini West Coast, Charlene Tan-Smith; and general manager of community and innovations at Moana Connect, Amio Matenga Ikihele.

Hopley says the judges are looking for everyday heroes who quietly go about their business. 

“Grassroots people—people in the community who brave the odds, face adversity, and still somehow manage to do health informatics,” she says. 

“This includes those who just help people around them, capably and competently sharing their digital nous and health informatics skills. 

“You must know somebody who fits this picture. If you do, give them a shout out as a leader or future leader who has helped you and your team,” Hopley says. 

Tan-smith says receiving the 2023 CiLN Award was unexpected and exciting.

“In practical terms, the award not only facilitates the showcasing of NZ clinician-developed technology on an international stage but has been a conversation starter regarding informatics and technology in Allied Health, opening doors to present at multiple events and lifting the profile of clinical informatics in NZ,” she says. 

“Seeing the award’s broader focus this year is exciting, opening it up to any clinician doing great work in the innovation and informatics spaces.”

Jacqui Lunday, chief allied health, scientific and technical at Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora encourages allied health professionals to apply and nominate others for the 2024 award.

“People do not necessarily get excited by data, but they do get excited about telling the story of how they have delivered change and it is so important that we show how clinical staff are leading change at the point of care,” she says.

“Allied health staff might not see themselves as ‘clinical informaticians’, but  they are often leading data driven improvements and I am a great believer in the need for us to tell and celebrate our stories.”

Accenture Aotearoa managing director health, Will Reedy, says Accenture looks forward to seeing the nominations for 2024 as clinicians across the motu continue to reimagine healthcare to enable better access, experience and outcomes.

"The theme for Digital Health Week 2024 is Navigating the Future NOW and despite the many challenges in the health system there could not be a better time for clinical leaders to shape the future of health and wellness in Aotearoa bringing together care, compassion and digital health innovation," he says.

Nominations close on 25 September 2024. A public vote will decide the winner, who will be announced at Digital Health Week 2024 this December in Hamilton.

The Clinical Informatics Leadership Network, (CiLN) partnered with Health Informatics New Zealand (HiNZ) to launch the Award in 2019.

CiLN is supported and funded by HiNZ. Anyone with a clinical background and an interest in data/and or digital can apply to join by filling in this online form.

Nominate yourself or your deserving ‘everyday hero’ in clinical informatics here.

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