Virtual Medical Centre awarded top marks for Western Australian innovation

Western Australian born medical website Virtual Medical Centre (VMC) has taken out top honours in the online category of the 2008 Western Australian Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards (WAITTA).

The online award recognises excellence in the use of IT and telecommunications to provide information and services delivery to clients in both the public and private sectors.

The VMC was acknowledged for its innovation and as an easy-to-use resource providing information online to health professionals, their patients and the general public.

The VMC is a free resource with two levels of information – one level for the general community and a password-secured level for health professionals. It is supported by more than 1,100 national and international medical specialists serving on the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB).

VMC Founder and Medical Director, oncologist Dr Andrew Dean said that while the VMC team was already fulfilled knowing the service the website provides, they were very proud of the recognition.

"As a Western Australian company we are so proud of this achievement and stand as a representative of many innovative companies, services and individuals developing endeavours in our state," he said.

"Thanks to the experience and expertise of our EAB, in only seven years we have been able to expand from our initial vision of a hospital intranet resource for cancer patients, to becoming Australia’s number one health resource [according to Hitwise] providing the latest research and information to Australians."

VMC receives, on average, in excess of 550,000 unique visitors each month who download more than 5.5 million pages. To name but a few of the popular areas, visitors access news articles, medical videos, 3D animations, a range of disease and lifestyle information, and interactive tools.

The demographic breakdown of the traffic to VMC is 85% from within Australia and 15% international. Of the Australian visitations, 80% are general public, 15% consist of allied health professionals such as nurses and other health professionals, and 5% are medical practitioners.

For more information, visit www.virtualmedicalcentre.com or contact Tom Maher (General Manager) on (+61) 08 9388 0344 or 0404 795 880.

VMC General Manager Tom Maher receiving the award.