Whoohoo! Look who won two awards (6 photos)

So many technological innovations are part of Group Health Centre’s new medical records system that it may take years before patients benefit from all of them.

But the judges decided GHC doesn’t have to wait to reap praise for its handling of the massive upgrade.

The Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre handed GHC and its vice-president of information services each a trophy on Friday at the 9th Annual SSMARt Innovation Awards.

Ralph Barker, GHC’s vice-president of information services, said he thinks the real value-added benefits of the new system are yet to come.

“It’s such an advanced set of tools,” said Barker. “The crude example I give is that it’s like us purchasing a cellphone 10 years ago when we didn’t know we were going to be able to text, didn’t know we were going to be browsing the Web on there. That functionality is in there. We just haven’t figured out how we’re going to use it and make our services better for the community.”

The upgrade came about after GHC learned its previous electronic medical records system was being discontinued.

GHC is the first community site in Canada to install and implement the 2014 version of the particular EMR software it chose to replace its old system.

The new system allows health population management, best practice advisories, exchange of records, the development of a patient portal and anytime/anywhere access on smartphones and tablets.

The four-year project affected 200,000 patient records and was completed with minimal interruption.

That’s particularly important when you’re dealing with confidential medical records and information pipelines that need to be maintained, said Barker.

“We here at Group Health are not necessarily the largest organization in Canada, but certainly the scope of the project was as complex as any that might happen,” said Barker. “We’ve got data feeding back and forth from laboratories, pharmacies, X-rays, diagnostic imaging.”

GHC wasn’t the only organization to take home more than one SSMARt Award.

Insightworks Learning and Development , an SSMIC incubator company that provides web-based training modules for the healthcare sector, won both Innovation Company of the Year and Innovation Web and Social Media.

Algoma University professor Jody Rebek-DiCerbo was named Innovation Educator of the Year for a novel approach to teaching that uses innovative means, such as social media forums and in-classroom games, to connect with her students and make learning fun.

Dr. Robert Fleming, of the Great Lakes Forestry Centre, was hailed as Innovation Researcher of the Year, with a particular emphasis on his worth with long-term soil productivity.

The award for Innovative Youth of the Year went to St. Mary’s College graduate Daniel Lance who now helms his own video production company.

(PHOTO: Ralph Barker, Group Health Centre, holds his SSMARt Innovation Award for Innovation Leader of the Year. Michael Purvis/SooToday)