HIMSS Europe today delivered its annual Leadership award to Steiner Pedersen, MD, a Norwegian internationally renowned IT health professional "for having created Europe’s first Research and Development Centre for Telemedicine and for making Tromsø, Norway, the centre for development of Telemedicine.”
Steinar Pedersen is a medical doctor (ENT) and today he is the CEO of Tromsø Telemedicine Consult – formerly a leader of the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine in Tromsø.
The centre serves as a WHO collaborating centre for telemedicine and eHealth.
He was responsible for the research and implementation activities for approximately 110 research fellows.
The centre was in June 2006 appointed by the Norwegian Research Council as Centre for Innovation based Research. Under his leadership the centre has had seven spin-off companies.
Steinar Pedersen has been a member of numerous committees of inquires within the EU and WHO system. He served as a member of The Norwegian Minister of Government Administration and Reforms advisory board for the future ICT policy in Norway.
He was a member of The British Telecom Global Advisory Board. He was the founding President of The International Society for Telemedicine. He is an advisor to the Catalonian Minister of Health through the TicSalut Scientific Council, Barcelona, Spain.
The HIMSS Europe Award for eHealth Leadership recognises an individual who, in the judgement of the HIMSS Europe Governing Council, has demonstrated significant leadership in promoting the use of information technology in healthcare in Europe.
This is the third time the award has been given – having been presented for the first time in 2010 in Barcelona to Danish Dr. Niels Rossing and last year to English IT professional Dr. Jean Roberts.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a cause-based, not-for-profit organisation exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare.
Founded 50 years ago, HIMSS and its related organisations have offices in Chicago, Washington, DC, Brussels, Singapore, Leipzig and other locations across the United States. HIMSS represents more than 35,000 individual members, of which more than two thirds work in healthcare provider, governmental and not-for-profit organisations.
HIMSS also includes over 520 corporate members and more than 120 not-for-profit organisations that share the mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems.
HIMSS frames and leads healthcare practices and public policy through its content expertise, professional development and research initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to improving the quality, safety, access and cost-effectiveness of patient care.