The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has won a prestigious FutureGov 2012 award recognising excellence in government ICT achievements in the Asia-Pacific region.
The award, for AIHW's development of the MyHospitals website (www.myhospitals.gov.au), was announced in Chiang Mai, Thailand, over the weekend.
The Institute won the Connected Government category, 'recognising excellence in intra-agency and inter-agency workflows'.
'Working in close collaboration with all levels of government and with private sector partners in developing useful and accessible statistical information products is something we are particularly adept at-so it is very pleasing for the AIHW to be recognised in this way', said AIHW Director and CEO, David Kalisch.
'These connected processes also lead to best use, for other public reporting purposes, of the information provided to us by governments and the private hospitals.'
'We were also shortlisted finalists in the E-Government and Government Organisation of the Year categories of FutureGov 2012.'
'This year's award follows our success at FutureGov 2011, when we won the Information Management award for our METeOR metadata online registry product.'
The MyHospitals website was developed by the Institute for the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Work began in February 2010, with the site being launched in December that year. The website complements AIHW's national reporting on Australia's hospitals, through its Australian hospital statistics products.
'From the start, our aim with MyHospitals was to provide the community with clear, comparable and user-friendly information about services and performance in Australia's public hospitals and many of its private hospitals', Mr Kalisch said.
'We delivered a website that not only reported accurate information about hospitals, but was easy to use and understand from the community's point of view.'
'It also needed to accurately reflect technical data that would be used by professional and clinical groups, and peak bodies such as health consumer organisations.'
'The AIHW process drew on expertise across the organisation, from hospital information statisticians to communication and governance professionals and ICT experts, supported by key external business and technical consultants.'
The National Health Performance Authority assumed responsibility for MyHospitals in July this year as part of national health reform measures, and will release its first hospitals report on the site later this year. The AIHW continues to develop the site under contract to the NHPA.
FutureGov is a communication and research organisation specialising in modernisation and the public sector. Its headquarters are in Singapore. The FutureGov awards are open to government, education and healthcare organisations and city administrations in the Asia-Pacific region. Over 1,200 entries were received in 2012.
Canberra, 24 October 2011
Further information: Alison Verhoeven, 02 6244 1089; 0403 282 501.