Two MAHCP members receive health innovation award

Winnipeg (4 Jan. 2010) - Two members of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP) are among the first winners of a new provincial award that recognizes and celebrates local initiatives that foster innovation in health care.

Chad Harris, a medical devices technologist, and Richard Driedger, a nuclear electronics technologist, both from CancerCare Manitoba and both members of the MAHCP, recently received the first Enid Thompson Award for Health Care Innovation.

They designed and installed a specially shielded DVD player, protected from the radiation, and an adjustable mobile stand to give children something else to focus on during their radiation therapy treatments. This simple act benefited these children dramatically, helping treatments go more smoothly by reducing anxiety, stress and the need for anesthesia during treatments. The project has since been expanded to the burn and nuclear medicine units at Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg.

In mid-2009, the government of Manitoba announced it was creating the Enid Thompson Award for Health Care Innovation to recognize and celebrate good ideas that improve patient care. The award is named in honour of a lifelong public employee, Enid Thompson, who was responsible for several innovative changes that have had lasting impacts in Manitoba including the introduction of the first comprehensive, universal home-care program in North America. The award recognizes an outstanding change that has had a positive effect on patient care in the publicly funded health-care system.

"We’re really blessed to have members like Richard and Chad who are bringing new and creative ideas forward that improve patient care and foster a culture of innovation in health care," said Wendy Despins, MAHCP president. "Their creative idea, which required a simple change, has made receiving radiation therapy less frightening for children and their families. We’re really proud of the difference they’ve made."