A five thousand pound cash incentive is on offer to National Health Service organisations which can demonstrate good practice and innovation in the health informatics field under a new scheme. In this, its first year, the NHS Leadership in Health Informatics Accolade will be on the theme of ‘People’ and it will recognise innovative approaches to recruitment, retention, management, development or motivation of informatics staff to improve ways of working across the NHS and which ultimately benefit patient care.The new annual scheme, being run by the NHS Information Authority will reward initiatives within health informatics which demonstrate innovation and best practice. It will be based on a different theme each year. This year’s has been selected to tie in with the launch of the new human resources strategy for health informatics specialists Making Information Count. The scheme is open to anyone working in health informatics from all sectors and types of healthcare organisations.

Siobhan Roberts, Project Manager for National Health Informatics Development said: “We are looking for innovation in anything from a relatively small project within a department to a large-scale initiative rolled out across an entire health community. There are five awards in the scheme, each with a cash prize of five thousand pounds so whatever the scale or type of project we want to hear about it.”

The deadline for entries is Thursday May 1st and the winners will be formally presented with their prizes at the NHS ICT and Informatics Professionals Conference in November. The judging panel will include representatives from the Department of Health, UK Council for Health Informatics and the NHS Information Authority. Judging criteria will include value for money, originality of the idea, best practice and the benefits to staff and patients. The judges will also want to hear how the prize money will be spent within the winning organisations.