The National Infocomm Awards (NIA) is Singapore’s highest accolade for infocomm innovation. Now into its 5th year, NIA 2010 is set once again to honour inventive providers of infocomm products or services and the innovative use of infocomm.

The award for Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology - Public Sector is presented to public agencies that have effectively deployed innovative infocomm technology and reaped significant improvements in productivity and overall competitiveness. The finalists this year are the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA); the National University Hospital (NUH) and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in a joint submission; and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

The "One-stop Business Facilitation" suite of systems has enabled ACRA to facilitate the ease of doing business.

ACRA: One-Stop Business Facilitation
ACRA is the national regulator of business entities and public accountants in Singapore and one of the key roles it plays is to facilitate business development.

As a forward-looking organisation, it has embraced the online paradigm to promote efficiency and developed One-Stop Business Facilitation, a comprehensive suite of systems covering online transactions (BizFile), business analytics, one-stop shop services, business data hub and real-time system-to-system Web services.

"ACRA's 'One-Stop Business Facilitation' suite of systems is a realisation of business rules, processes, technology and creative solutions harmonised to deliver value added services to ACRA's customers. Besides achieving savings in cost and time, the implementation of the system - with its built-in validation - has enabled ACRA to facilitate the ease of doing business and to establish a timely and trusted corporate register," said Ms Bernice Quek, Director, Information Resource and Technology, ACRA.

The system incorporates medication barcode packaging and dispensing technology.

NUH and TTSH: Closed-Loop Inpatient Medication Management System
NUH and TTSH are restructured hospitals in Singapore which people depend upon for diverse medical treatments. To enhance their mission, the hospitals have leveraged automation by developing the Closed-Loop Inpatient Medication Management System. This is a comprehensive system comprising medication ordering, review, and supply; medication barcode packaging and dispensing technology with automated cabinets; and medication administration with PDA barcode scanning. The system is believed to be the first closed-loop medication system to originate in Southeast Asia.

"Patient safety is paramount and to provide better patient care, National University Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, in collaboration with Integrated Health Information Systems have implemented the Closed-Loop Medication Management System. Leveraging technology, the system enhances our medication safety process by ensuring that patients are given the right drug with the right dose at the right time. In addition to minimising human errors, it improves efficiency and allows our staff to focus on more patient-centric activities," said Dr James Yip, Chief Medical Information Officer, National University Health System and Senior Consultant, National University Heart Centre Singapore.

SCDF: HazMat Incident Management System
SCDF operates under the umbrella of the Ministry of Home Affairs and provides emergency services to the population in addition to formulating, implementing and enforcing regulations on fire safety and civil defence shelter matters. SCDF is the incident manager for civil emergencies and responds to a wide range of civil disasters and incidents involving hazardous materials, unconventional threats and mass casualty situations. 

The HazMat Incident Management System is a mission-critical command and control system to mitigate hazardous materials incidents quickly.

To enhance its efficiency as a command centre, SCDF developed the HazMat Incident Management System (HIMS), a mission-critical command and control system to mitigate hazardous materials incidents quickly, and minimise physical deaths and injuries. It offers a revolutionary solution that combines real-time sensors data, analytics and predictive modelling processes.

“The HazMat Incident Management System is a mission-critical command and control system that enhances SCDF’s capabilities in assessing, responding to, monitoring and managing HazMat incidents. Utilising state of the art technology, HIMS provides SCDF commanders with a prompt and comprehensive situational picture, thereby enhancing the decision-making capabilities in real-time incident,” said Mr R. Jeganathan, Director, Technology Department at the SCDF Headquarters.