HealthInfoNet at Stockholm Challenge Award

The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet was one of about 60 finalists from around the world that participated in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2001 Final Events, held in Stockholm, Sweden on 23-26 October. The HealthInfoNet was represented by Sandy Angus, Bronwyn Gee and Neil Thomson.

The Stockholm Challenge is an international award that highlights the benefits information and communication technology can bring to people and society, with an emphasis of bridging the ‘digital divide’. The award is broken into seven categories covering major social justice issues. The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet was a finalist in the ‘Health and quality of life’ category.

President of the Stockholm City Council, Lord Mayor Axel Wennerholm, welcomed participants to several days of stimulating events. The first of the formal events was a World Café, a facilitated forum for open discussion between finalists from all the categories. The opportunity to discuss and debate IT issues with people from developing countries (such as Egypt, Uganda, Peru and India) as well as developed countries (like the United States, Canada and New Zealand) was particularly rewarding and memorable. The interaction and networking allowed sharing of knowledge and experiences between people from projects that varied immensely in resources, infrastructure and geographical location.

The Stockholm Challenge Best Practice Exhibition, held the following day, enabled finalists to promote their projects, their culture and their countries. HealthInfoNet staff benefited personally and professionally from being able to network with others across racial, cultural and geographical borders. In the words of Sandy Angus, Indigenous Project Officer with the HealthInfoNet: ‘The experience of attending the Stockholm Challenge Awards provided me with new information to plan IT education and training projects for Indigenous people. It also encouraged me to open my own mind, and to explore creative ways of working in health information in the future. By meeting other finalists I have also made new relationships and developed networks of people that I hope will work towards improving the overall health and quality of life of Indigenous people worldwide. Often Indigenous people working in partnership with non-Indigenous people are not given the opportunity to attend events such as this, so I was appreciative of having an equal part. The experience was one of the most exciting events of my life and one that I shall never forget.’

The winners of each of the seven categories were announced at the prize-giving ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall. The international jury evaluated the projects against four specific criteria: innovation; user need; sustainability; and transferability. The ‘Health and quality of life’ category had joint winners: SUMA, a humanitarian supply management system from the USA that coordinates the distribution of emergency relief to victims of disasters; and TEENEX, a drug prevention and personal enrichment project for young people worldwide that was developed in the UK. The HealthInfoNet congratulates the winning projects from all categories.

The prize giving ceremony was followed with an evening of wonderful traditional Swedish entertainment and hospitality

Staff from the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet were proud to have participated in this international event and to have shared with the wider world the way the HealthInfoNet aims to improve Indigenous health. This small, innovative and creative project, fired mainly on enthusiasm and passion, is recognised as a world leader in the translation of research into knowledge and the use of technology to disseminate this knowledge.

Acknowledgment: The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet is grateful to the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health for a special grant to enable Sandy Angus to participate, and to the Edith Cowan University’s Faculty of Communications, Health and Science for supporting the participation of Bronwyn Gee and Neil Thomson.

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