Vishal Bali, Vice President Operations, Wockhardt Hospital receiving
 "Best IT User Award 2004" in the healthcare category from Kiran Karnik, NASSCOM

Wockhardt Hospitals has been awarded the "Best IT User Award 2004" in the healthcare sector, instituted by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the apex body for the software industry.

NASSCOM instituted the IT User Awards with the aim of recognizing excellence in IT usage across industry verticals and these awards are an acknowledgement of the work organisations have done in deploying breakthrough IT initiatives to deliver higher value to the end user of their product or services.

"The award recognizes our commitment to patient centric usage of Information Technology," said Vishal Bali, vice president, Operations, Wockhardt Hospitals Limited.

The IT user awards are based on a P cube I cube assessment model developed by leading research firm IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau) which gauges the deployment of people, processes and technology to improve overall efficiency. Various hospitals in the healthcare sector were gauged through this model and an in-depth study of their IT preparedness, infrastructure and implementation was performed.

Wockhardt Hospitals breakthrough services of e-ICU, virtual family visit, e-payment gateway, CRM and telemedicine services besides the Hospital Information System were found to be initiatives which used Information Technology to provide the patients and their families a unique service experience. "It is the use of IT for initiatives like the e-ICU where our cardiologists can log and monitor their patients in the ICCU from anywhere in the world that has helped us set a new level of service for patients and their relatives," said Bali.

According to NASSCOM the winners of the IT user awards are companies which have adopted a path and model in the area of IT implementation worthy of emulation. The award was presented to Wockhardt at a ceremony held at Mumbai where winners in nine industry verticals were presented the India I.T users award 2004 by Mr Kiran Karnik, president of NASSCOM.