The Arizona Telemedicine Program (ATP) - an organization whose use of information technology has been especially noteworthy for originality of conception, breadth of vision & significance to society - has received the 21st Century Achievement Award (the top award in the Education & Academia Category) from International Data Group’s Computerworld Honors Program. The ATP is headquartered at The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, with facilities in Phoenix, as well.
This year’s honorees were acknowledged earlier this month during the Gala Awards Evening at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Gail P. Barker, PhD, director of the Institute for Advanced Telemedicine & Telehealth (T-Health), a division of the ATP, headquartered at The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University in Phoenix, accepted the award on behalf of the ATP & T-Health.
For 2 decades, the Computerworld Honors Program has recognized individuals & organizations that have used information technology to benefit society.
Nominated by TANDBERG - a leading global provider of telepresence, high-definition videoconferencing & mobile video products & services - in the Education & Academia category, the ATP was selected for its T-Health facility & educational programs in Phoenix. As an educational institution designed to expand & enhance health care & distance education throughout Arizona, T-Health incorporates both telemedicine & telehealth -- distance learning & health-care delivery -- using a wide range of technologies, including real-time videoconferencing, electronic transmission of digital medical images & data, and the Internet.
“Without the integration of voice, video & data in place, our T-Health Institute would not exist,” said Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, co-founder and director of the ATP. “We are honored that our innovations in telehealth & high-quality telecommunications services are being recognized nationwide.”
Established in 1996 by Dr. Weinstein & State Sen. Robert L. Burns & the Arizona State Legislature, the ATP is recognized as one of the premier telemedicine programs in the nation for its distance health-care services, education & research, provided over a network of more than 170 sites across Arizona.
“Each year, the Computerworld Honors Program seeks to recognize organizations from a variety of sectors for their ongoing efforts to utilize technology in order to benefit society,” said Ron Milton, chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation & executive vice president of Computerworld. “We are proud to provide a platform to publicly acknowledge these contributions.”
T-Health’s state-of-the-art facility is housed at the UA College of Medicine - Phoenix in partnership with ASU in 1 of 3 renovated historic buildings of the original Phoenix Union High School, built in the early 1900s. The multimedia interactive conferencing center includes an auditorium, classrooms, videoconference rooms & media control rooms. Video walls, private teleconference rooms & individual computers bring together medical students, faculty, health-care professionals & patients who are hundreds of miles apart, allowing individual & group interactions. T-Health is the “nerve center” of this new direction in health-care education, which allows medical students to learn medicine throughout Arizona & beyond while remaining on campus; health-care professionals to continue their medical education without leaving their home towns; & physicians, pharmacists, nurses & other health-care professionals to learn to collaborate as more efficient & effective health-care teams for the benefit of patients.
Every year, members of the Computerworld Honors Program Chairman’s Committee - a group of 100 chairmen & chief executive officers of global information technology companies - nominate individuals and organizations from around the world whose visionary applications of information technology promote positive social & economic progress. Each is invited to contribute a case study &, after review & qualification to meet strict selection criteria, key case studies are granted Laureate status & recognized publicly at a historic medal ceremony in Washington, D.C. Among the Laureates, selected finalists & a select group of 21st Century Achievement Award recipients also are identified & recognized at a separate formal gala ceremony on the same day. Case studies & other primary source materials for all organizations & individuals recognized by the program (including oral histories, conference proceedings, publications, video tapes/DVDs & other records) are preserved, protected & made available to scholars & the general public at, cwhonors.org. They also are made available to more than 350 affiliated universities, libraries & research institutions around the world.