Clinical Informatics Award 2024 – enabling whānau and communities

The Clinical Informatics Award is back in its sixth year, promoting the value that clinicians bring to whānau and community in providing data and digitally enabled 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 further the initiative outlined in the submission.

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

CiLN’s Clinical Informatics Position Statement, details five key areas in which clinical informaticians bring value to the sector, which are; 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. All nominations will be judged by an expert panel to select the three finalists.

The 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 Canterbury and 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.”

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.

Nominate yourself or a deserving colleague today.