Each year, international magazine Computerworld scours the globe to identify organisations whose use of information technology has been especially noteworthy for originality of conception, breadth of vision and significance to society.  Five finalists in each of 10 categories are recognised at a gala ceremony in Washington.

Nominated by global software company, Sybase, Garvan was one of the 2009 finalists in the Education and Academia category for its innovative centralised medical research database.

Garvan Information Technology Manager, Jim McBride, travelled to Washington in June to attend an award dinner and accept a trophy on behalf of his team. “This award acknowledges the imagination, foresight and hard work of many people over a number of years, in particular our database expert Gerard Hammond,” he said.

“We designed our database architecture to make it as simple as possible for researchers to manage their own information. We’ve made it straightforward for them to create their own queries, run reports and pull out data in a way that makes novel associations. It’s all about the immediacy of our solution.”

“Most of the clinical and associated laboratory information for Garvan’s osteoporosis and prostate cancer work is held in database systems that the IT group has designed and implemented. Our prostate cancer data is used in research around Australia.”

Media Contact
Alison Heather
(02) 9295 8128
0434 071 326

a.heather "at" garvan.org.au