November 14th through November 17th:

• ImproveHealthCare - Changing Physician Education - Improving medical students understanding of health policy.
• Life as a Healthcare CIO: Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom - Interesting system to support accurate imaging ordering
• Jay Parkinson + MD + MPH » Blog Archive » The Cancer vaccine and me. - Interesting discussion of HPV vaccine. The $360 charge is 65% profit.
• Enterprise 2.0: Using Social Media in the Workplace - Don’t be scared of Web 2.0 in the workplace. Nice webinar for enterprise audiences.

As the subject of the post states, these awards, what some consider the Oscars of e-Health, have been published.

In the interest of creating the best person/user/patient/consumer experiences, the awardees listed provide a nice reference point for those looking to talk with organizations who serve their customers well online.

Three of the partners of the PCHIT Initiative, Group Health Cooperative, Kaiser Permanente, and California Healthcare Foundation were distinguished with Platinum and Gold Awards in several categories.

I know that both organizations spend a considerable amount of effort in involving their members in the usability of their web sites, and caring that they are usable. Maureena Moran is the Executive Director of Web Services and Enterprise Information Management at Group Health Cooperative, and she allowed me to share the kudos she gave teams at Group Health:

Kudos to the entire web team, including Web Services and ISD’s Web Development and Systems Integration Groups, in particular, for their undying commitment to defining, designing, and developing the best online services for Group Health’s customers!

We also won the top design award — Best Site Design — for a Medical Practice/Clinic. Kudos to Judy Hucka and her team, including our lead web designer Stacy McCauslin, and the entire User Experience team for their commitment to using the best internet design standards for ease-of-use and simple navigation.

I think having a web services team of any size is one of the most potent drivers of patient-centered care processes across all aspects of a practice. The skill and talent they bring to understanding what patients want when they are physically present as well as when they are not is priceless.