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Anthony Blake, CEO of the North West Regional Authority. - Highlighting projects aimed at improving citizens' lives, the eighth edition of the President's Award for Innovation in Service Excellence (PrAISE) was hosted at President's House, St Ann's on November 27.
The North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) took home the President's Award in the internal user experience category for implementing its Digital Health Information System.
"This is a win for the patients of the NWRHA and the team that has laboured over this project since 2019," NWRHA CEO Anthony Blake told reporters.
The system aims to transform the nation's paper-based medical records into a centralised platform across hospitals, health centres and community services.
"What we've been able to do with patient records at all RHAs is put project teams towards digitisation. It's a labour intensive process using large scanners.
"We have young people come on as OJTs and work with our medical records personnel to accurately digitise those records and put them into the patient's files."
Blake said the NWRHA is currently working on turning the system into an app that will help patients and medical practitioners alike better track and organise medical information for a more streamlined service.
Another digital platform also won the President's Award in the citizen experience category. The Education Ministry copped the prize for its First Year Infant Registration System, a digital platform which simplifies school placement.
President Christine Kangaloo highlighted the need for such innovation to address the nation's need for public service improvement.
"We cannot improve service culture without rethinking how we operate, engage citizens, and how we empower public officers to solve problems creatively.
"We cannot achieve better outcomes while relying on outdated systems, rigid processes or the way things have always been done. Innovation is required to connect all of these efforts and I could not agree more with this direction."
The audience choice awards for internal user experience went to the Health Ministry's National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Programme's workplace substance use prevention workshop. In the citizen experience category NALIS was awarded for its Marrakesh Project, which aims to improve information access for the visually impaired by making printed information digitally accessible.
The public also got a chance to vote with the people's choice award for internal user experience going to the ministry's Directorate of Women's Health surveillance system for mothers and newborn babies. IGovTT won in the citizen experience category for its AI-powered government information system Anansi.
Speaking of the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) continued support of the awards senior health specialist Ian Ho-A-Shu said, "Throughout this journey PrAISE has consistently provided a vital platform to boost innovation, collaboration and morale in TT's public service. As a development institution, the IDB is committed to institutional strengthening and capacity building and PrAISE has been a clear and powerful expression of these principles in action.”
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