LONDON, October 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Who packs the most megabytes into their work for patients? Who would win gold if health informatics was an Olympic sport? It's time to vote for the strongest link!

Voting started on 10th October for this year's Healthcare ICT Champion, a special part of the BT e-Health Insider Awards. Sponsored by Microsoft, the category is judged by a popular vote not by the judging panel. Readers and admirers of the nominees can cast their vote online at http://www.ehealthawards.com/champions

Nominated candidates for the title are (in reverse alphabetical order this year): - Sue Rushbrook, head of systems and network services, York Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust - Manpreet Pujara, National Clinical Lead for General Practice, NHS Connecting for Health - Matthew Miliffe, Information Solution Architect, Cerner - Mary Hawking, GP, Bedfordshire - Darren Holmes, director of ICT, St Barnabas' Hospice, Lincoln - Mike Denis, director of ICT, South London and the Maudsley NHS Trust. - Rob Chesters, i-health manager, Medilink West Midlands - Phil Browne, director of Informatica Systems and author of Front Desk.

Citations on the website tell voters about the candidates' achievements and the reason for their nomination. To cast a vote, simply click on the name of the person you favour and enter your e-mail address. A confirmatory e-mail will be sent to your inbox and clicking the link contained in the e-mail message will activate your vote.

Last year, 1000 votes were recorded and organisers hope for even more this year. Editor, Jon Hoeksma said: "The Department of Health's recent Informatics Review stressed the need to invest in and help promote health informatics professionals, E-Health Insider believes recognising champions is a vital part of this ambition. This is a great opportunity to highlight the achievements of the nominees and pick the people's Healthcare ICT Champion."

John Coulthard, director of healthcare, Microsoft UK commented: "Healthcare ICT is all about people not technology, the Champion of the Year award is a great way of acknowledging those that are leaders in this field. As the NHS seeks to transform health services to meet the needs of citizens and patients leaders are in even greater demand. I hope that people will be inspired by the nominees and hope in some way to emulate the winners."

Media enquiries to Linda Davidson, +44(0)20-7785-6904 or +44(0)77-1470-4840, e-mail Linda@e-health-media.com