AsianScientist (Aug. 15, 2011) – Research helping to save the eyesight of people in the rural and remote areas of Australia has won the top prize at the 2011 national iAwards, the information and communications technology (ICT) industry’s peak awards event held in Melbourne.
The technology, called Remote-i, won the Victorian Government Inspiration Award in the e-health category, which was presented by the Governor of Victoria, Alex Chernov.
With Remote-i, CSIRO’s ICT experts developed a low cost, high quality eye screening system that gets around the problem of specialists traveling to the bush or patients trekking to the city. The technology includes a web-based system that captures images from an easy-to-use camera and sends them to a central server using encryption techniques for transmission of patient data.
The offline system is useful for data collection in areas with no immediate Internet connection, and combines an automated system to analyze captured images with support decision making by screening staff and medical specialists.
Dr. Ian Oppermann, Director of CSIRO’s ICT Center, commented on the award:
“Our ophthalmology technology team, led by Dr. Yogi Kanagasingam, is part of CSIRO’s Preventative Health Flagship. Remote-i is already helping people in WA’s Pilbara region and is a prime example of the technologies that are possible once Australia has a broadband network.”
CSIRO also collected the following awards:
- Sustainability and Green IT – for a next-generation catchment management system that is improving sustainable allocation of fresh water. CSIRO brought many different kinds of sensors and sensor systems into a sensor web and integrated them with flow forecasting models and made everything available through an easy-to-use web portal.
- e-Learning – a merit award for the AEHRC’s surgical simulator that is helping teach medical specialists how to perform a colonoscopy, a difficult procedure currently taught on real patients.
The complete winner’s list can be found here.
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Source: iAwards; CSIRO.
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