The Princess Alexandra Hospital Telehealth Team have been named 2018 Innovators of the Year at the University of Queensland’s Faculty of Medicine Excellence Awards ceremony.
The award recognises individuals or teams whose work is an example of innovation that has resulted in significant tangible improvements, change and success within the Faculty.
The team included staff from the UQ Centre for Online Health (COH) and Metro South Health (MSH).
MSH Senior Telehealth Coordinator Karen Lucas said the team had worked tirelessly to ensure patients across Queensland had easier access to specialist care.
“It’s fantastic to see the value and impact of telehealth services and the evidence-based research supporting them recognised,” she said.
“I hope this award will inspire more clinicians and health care providers to integrate telehealth into their current practice.”
COH Director Professor Anthony Smith said the award highlighted the passionate approach taken to introducing new telehealth services in a very complex healthcare environment.
“Our engagement with clinicians and patients is very important – it improves our understanding of telehealth applications, and the processes needed for services to become operational,” he said.
“The partnership between the service providers and the research team is unique and very productive.”
The Telehealth Centre at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) opened in 2012 as a partnership between UQ’s COH and PAH.
The Centre has facilitated more than 15,000 telehealth consultations for dozens of medical, nursing and allied health speciality areas across PAH and Queensland.
The Centre works in collaboration with clinical departments throughout MSH to support the ongoing development and expansion of sustainable and innovative telehealth services.
