Health Multimedia for Remote Indigenous Settings wins Queensland Government Industry Prize at VSMM07

Thursday, 4th October 2007

A paper describing the use of innovative information technology to address the gap in health status between Indigenous people in remote areas and the wider Australian community has won the prestigious Queensland Government Industry Prize at VSMM07, the 13th International Conference for Virtual Systems and Multimedia, held in Brisbane last week.

The paper, Pride and Performance: Innovative multimedia in the service of behavioural health change in remote Indigenous settings, was presented by Helen Travers of the University of Queensland in Cairns.

Ms Travers and her co-authors Ernest Hunter, Julie Gibson and Jonathan Campion described the approach taken by the National HITnet Development Program to address both the health needs of remote Indigenous people and the 'digital divide' between Indigenous and other Australians. The program studied the use of touchscreen technology in Indigenous health settings, and how community engagement in the creative process can change behaviours to improve community health and development.

VSMM07 Conference Chair Professor Jeff Jones of QUT said the paper won the Queensland Government Industry Prize for its strong use of cultural heritage technologies to increase the efficiency and relevance of health services in a remote community.

"The HITnet program uses narrative, interactive, multimedia approaches to addressing health behaviours, and has proven that these approaches are suited to further expansion in the area of health and development," Prof Jones said.

"The VSMM07 selectors feel that this program could have global impact, working with remote and disadvantaged communities in developing countries world wide."

VSMM07 was held in Brisbane from 23-26 September 2007. VSMM is an annual, international, peer-reviewed conference for researchers and developers working in virtual systems and multimedia. The 2007 conference explored themes of Virtual Heritage and Virtual Cultures; Virtual Environments and Virtual Experiences; and Applied Technologies and Systems. Approximately 80 papers were submitted to the conference by leading researchers all over the world.

VSMM07 was hosted by ACID (the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design), endorsed by the United Nations through UNESCO's Culture Section, and sponsored by the Queensland Government.

Interviews available.

For more information:
Jason Pickersgill, ACID. T: 07 3337 7929 or 0432 163 886. E: jason@acid.net.au

 
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