1.Special Announcement

Health IT innovators and researchers win 2008 Don Walker Award for effectiveness of their clinical decision support system

Congratulation to the ACAFE (Asthma Clinical Assessment Form and Electronic decision support) research team for winning the Don Walker Award presented for exceptional contribution to improving health outcomes through innovation. The ACAFE clinical decision support system demonstrated successful use of an innovative technology solution for use inside hospital emergency departments.

2.Study objective

"The objective of ACAFE was to demonstrate the successful development, trial and implementation of a dynamic and interoperable clinical platform. The collaboration involved staff and clinicians from the Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS- includes Canterbury, Concord and Royal Prince Alfred Hospitals) and David Dinh who designed and architected the technology behind the system."

3.Technology

ACAFE integrated information processing, a clinical pathway and quality control into a single interface. The success of this system was measured specifically by its ability to improve and reduce performance variability in clinical documentation, clinical guideline adherence and discharge communication

4.Study team

The research and development of ACAFE ran over 3 years. Clinical staff who played a key role in the development of ACAFE included Dr Michael Dinh (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Trauma Department), Dr Matthew Chu (The Canterbury Hospital Emergency Department), Dr Raymond Kwok (Concord Hospital) and Dr BenTaylor (St Thomas Hospital London). 

5.Award

The award was presented at the gala dinner for the Health Informatics Conference 2008 held in the Melbourne Convention Centre. The conference brought together major health informatics innovators and industry specialists including CERNER, Telstra, DOHAS, Intel and Microsoft. The Don Walker Award was sponsored by Intel.

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