On Monday 24th March 2003, the Isabel team received a second place award for the 'Best example of technological innovation award' at the Healthcare Effectiveness IT Awards held in Harrogate from Sir John Pattison, Director of Research, Analysis and Information, Department of Health.

Eight finalists were put through their paces in November 2002 by the Awarding Consortium Judging Panel to prove how their ICT system or process has improved the delivery of patient care. "All the projects delivered a clear message for the national programme. Technology is only an enabler. It is the attitude, commitment and willingness to change of those using IT that will deliver real improvements in efficiency and most importantly, patient care. Frontline users must feel that they own the programme if it is to be the success that the NHS, and the country, need." Charles Ward, Chairman of the Awarding Consortium Judging Panel; and Marketing Director, Intellect.

The judges praised this team for a well thought out and innovative approach to a difficult issue, by designing a system that is sensitive to clinicians' process of diagnosis and provides only decision making support and help. The project has also been successful in involving a large and disparate number of clinicians.

This project came about as a result of the mis-diagnosis of three-year-old Isabel Maude in 1999 and subsequent months of intensive treatment. A need was identified for relevant clinical knowledge at the bedside to aid decision making and three years on, following the establishment of the Isabel Medical Charity in April 2000 and much work by St Mary’s Hospital, there now exists a free, Internet-based paediatric decision support system for the use of any registered medical professional. This system starts to help the clinician in their workflow by assisting with the initial steps of a clinical assessment and then carries on to aid their further decision making by textual corroboration, images to aid pattern-recognition, guidelines to manage various conditions and importantly, lessons learnt from other clinicians. Take-up has been strong: in March 2003 the Isabel system had over 9000 registered users and received more than 65,000 page requests per month.



Link:Healthcare IT Effectiveness Awards 2003