March 9, 2010: Together for Mental Wellbeing

The Global Accelerator Award™ has been awarded to Together for Mental Wellbeing, a mental health charity in the United Kingdom. The charity is distinctive in its embrace of service users at a local, regional and national level.

The charity has compiled new research which shows that six out of 10 Britons find it difficult to cope mentally. The newly released findings help to promote the charity's annual Mental Wellbeing Week, which takes place this week. Together’s CEO Liz Felton said: "This research shows that mental health and wellbeing is an issue relevant to most people, not just those with diagnosed issues. We hope the results go some way to try and reduce the 'them and us' mentality about the topic that can lead to stigma, and perhaps prevents some people from seeking help, or talking about what they're going through when they need to."

Winners of the Global Accelerator Award are organizations or people who have helped propel into action an idea that holds the promise of dramatically improving patient care and human health throughout in the world. The Accelerator Award is based on an Innovation Cell methodology that analyzes which organizations or people have put an idea or strategy into action that has generated significant positive “buzz” or “chatter” on the World Wide Web – notably, on patient-led blogs and social networking sites.

The Global Accelerator Award is powered by the Health Strategy Innovation Cell based at Massey College at the University of Toronto. The Innovation Cell specializes in making sense of online health conversations around the world. The Cell works to listen to patients online and help launch their ideas into action.

Congratulations to our new winner: Together for Mental Wellbeing.

February 9, 2010: InterSystems TrakCare™, following an announcement by the NHS National Service Scotland, which has selected TrakCare as the new national patient management system for Scotland.

February 2, 2010: Dr. Ruby Umesh Pawankar, president-elect of the World Allergy Organization (WAO), for raising the importance of allergy importance among Indian youth.

January 19, 2010: Mgive, the Mobile Giving Foundation and the Twittersphere for a “new paradigm in charity giving” to help the people of Haiti.

January 5, 2010 Winner:  MMR Information Systems, Inc., and Unis-Tonghe Technology Co. in China

December 14, 2009: NHS 2010-2015: from good to great.

December 8, 2009: WINNER: Yellow Ribbon Campaign in New Delhi, India

November 24, 2009: WINNER: National Parent Forum – a parent-led initiative championed by the government of Scotland.

November 10, 2009: WINNER: 5th International Microinsurance Conference in Dakar, Senegal organized by the Munich Re Foundation and the Microinsurance Network.

November 3, 2009: WINNER: The Legatum Prosperity Index™ – whose 2009 report was released on Oct. 27 – is the world’s only global assessment of wealth and wellbeing. It is published by the UK-based Legatum Institute.

October 27, 2009: WINNER: GE Healthymagination Fund, - an equity fund that will invest in promising healthcare technology companies around the world that will invest in companies that herald innovative diagnostic, IT, and life sciences technologies aligned with the strategic objectives of GE’s Healthymagination initiative.

October 20, 2009: WINNER: Saskatchewan’s Patient First Review, led by Mr. Tony Dagnone

October 13, 2009: WINNER: Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease and a consortium of researchers who recently discovered a retroviral link to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

October 6, 2009: WINNER: The University of Missouri (MU) and Cerner Corporation have been awarded the Global Accelerator Award for their new plans to create the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation.

September 29, 2009: WINNER: US Veterans Affairs for its new “innovation competition”.

September 22, 2009: WINNERS: The Breakthrough Institute and the Third Way for their proposal to create a National Institutes of Energy modeled after the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

THE INAUGURAL WINNER: September 15, 2009

The inaugural winner of the Global Accelerator Award is Te Ao Auahatanga Hauora Māori (Māori Health Innovation Fund) for its new fund that inspires Māori health providers wishing to develop and implement a pilot or new service, share and spread innovative information. The fund was announced by the Hon. Tariana Turia, New Zealand MP for Te Tai Hauāuru and Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, on September 7th.

"A lot of Māori providers have already adopted innovative ways to tailor their services beyond what they are paid to do," the Minister said. "This fund will help them get the resources they need to grow those innovative services or develop new ones that have a whānau ora approach and that will help improve Māori health outcomes."

Our first winner responds:

Congratulations to the Hon. Tariana Turia from the University of Toronto Innovation Cell: Global Accelerator Award

Tena koe Mr Seeman

On behalf of Hon Tariana Turia, Associate Minister of Health, thank you for your email received 18 September 2009 awarding the inaugural Global Accelerator Award to the Associate Minister to her new innovation fund - Te Ao Auahatanga.Hauora Maori - Maori Health Innovation Fund.

On behalf of the Associate Minister of Health we humbly accept this award and thank you for this recognition.

Ngā mihi

Ana Bidois | Health Advisor | Office of Hon Tariana Turia | Parliament Buildings | Wellington

Read the New Zealand Ministry of Health press release here.