Rate My Hospital team collect top prize in Venice

In what was a first for E-Health in Ireland, the publishers of Irishhealth.com and Ratemyhospital.ie earlier this week travelled to Venice to be presented with a World Summit Award for excellence in E-Health at a gala event in the Italian city.

Former French Prime Minister Edith Cresson presented the five global winners in the E-Health category of the competition, which included the Danish Medicines Agency, the Guyana Ministry of Health and Ratemyhospital.ie, Ireland's first ever E-Health winner in this prestigous competition organised in conjunction with the United Nations.

 Held every two years, the World Summit Awards (WSA) involve participation from 168 countries around the world. Over 24,000 E-Content projects were reviewed for the 2007 Awards, with a shortlist of 650 nominations examined by the WSA Grand Jury in Croatia in September. From this, 40 winners (five per category in 8 categories) were selected.

Winners in other categories included the Lower House of the German Parliament, the Cuban Science Network, the Mexican Bureau of Planning and the Irish government's Citizens Information portal. 

 WSA chairman, Professor Peter A. Bruck described Ratemyhospital.ie as one of the most innovative and outstanding projects the Grand Jury had reviewed this year, and congratulated the publishers on their achievement.

In its citation, the WSA said: "In line with the best of social software sites, Ratemyhospital provides a single and clear platform for feedback on hospital treatments and services...the site aims to provide patient-centred transparency in the Irish hospital system, leading to improvements in the entire health infrastructure".

Accepting the award on behalf of MedMedia Group, publishers of Irishhealth.com and Ratemyhospital.ie, John Gibbons said that the service aimed at introducing some much needed  accountability into our public health system, and was a step towards putting the patient at the centre, rather than the periphery of the system.

 The MedMedia delegation to the WSA awards included Geraldine Meagan, managing director of publications and Niall Hunter, Editor, Irishhealth.com

"Recent events and the current controversy surrounding breast cancer screening underline once more the vital importance of there being much more openness and accountability in how our hospitals are run", said Mr Hunter. "Rate My Hospital will continue to provide and extend its role as a genuinely independent watchdog on the hospital system", he added. 

Pictured above were: (l-r) Geraldine Meagan, Manar Al-Hashash, WSA, Niall Hunter and John Gibbons, MedMedia Group 

For more, or to have your say, visit www.ratemyhospital.ie

[Posted: Fri 09/11/2007]