Health Technology Excellence Award

The Health Technology Excellence Award is presented each year to recognize innovative and effective initiatives undertaken by member healthcare institutions to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.

Applicants must represent a healthcare facility or health system that is a current member of any ECRI service or program.

The submission deadline has passed for the 2024 Award, but it’s not too early to submit your application for the 2025 Award.

What the winner receives

• Honorary award for prominent display in the winning institution
• Formal presentation of the award to your organization
• Feature article and promotion on ECRI's website
• Publicity in ECRI press announcements

In addition to honoring the award winner, ECRI acknowledges award finalists through its publications, online services, and promotions. See a list of previous award winners to read about their accomplishments and view their submissions.

How we choose the winner

Submissions will be reviewed by members of ECRI’s staff, who will select the top applications for additional review by a panel of independent judges. Judges will consider qualities such as innovativeness, extensibility to other institutions, and impact on factors such as:

• Safety
• Cost
• Performance
• Delivery of care

How to apply

Submit a short essay (about 1,000 words) describing an initiative undertaken at your facility that demonstrates excellence in the field of health technology management.

Initiatives may relate to any health technology management endeavor, such as patient safety, technology selection and service, resource allocation, hazard and recall management, staff training, and accreditation.

Essays should follow the structure outlined below, providing relevant details for each of these sections (sample prompts to consider are listed):

1. The Challenge. What was the problem you were trying to solve? What was the ultimate goal for your project?
2. The Context. Describe the situation in which the challenge developed. Help us understand the circumstances you were facing.
3. The Process. What methods did you use to address the challenge? What actions did you take?
4. The Results. What did you achieve? What was the outcome? What was the impact? Provide evidence of improvement, if available (e.g., measurements of performance before and after implementing the solution). The more information you can provide about what was accomplished, the better we can judge your submission.
5. Key Takeaways. What did you learn? What key points or lessons learned might be useful to your colleagues at other healthcare facilities?
6. Intellectual/Financial Disclosure Statement. At the end of your submission, please disclose any potentially relevant intellectual, proprietary, or financial relationships/conflicts by responding to the two statements listed in the next section.

By submitting an application, you grant ECRI permission to use information from the application essay in published materials.

Disclosure statements

ECRI has strict conflict-of-interest rules and accepts no grants, gifts, finder's fees, or consulting projects from, and our employees are not permitted to own stock shares in, medical device or pharmaceutical firms. ECRI does not require that applicants for the Health Technology Excellence Award adhere to the same conflict-of-interest rules that apply to its own staff. Nevertheless, information about an applicant's business, financial, or professional relationships pertaining to the initiative described in your submission will help us put the application in the proper context and assist with identifying any potential conflicts.

Please respond to the following statements within your submission:

• Statement 1. State whether the applicant (healthcare facility) or any of the individuals involved in the project currently have, previously had, or expect to engage in any activities that would give them a financial interest in, or help them derive a benefit from, a commercial product or service that is used in the project described within the application for the Health Technology Excellence Award. Examples include: being employed by, having a consulting arrangement with, or receiving (or expecting to receive) funding or other financial considerations from the supplier/manufacturer of a medical device or service that is described in the application.
• Statement 2. State whether any third party owns, or retains rights to, any of the materials or information that you have provided as part of your submission, and whether there is anything that would restrict ECRI from sharing or distributing the information provided in your submission.

If no such relationships exist, applicant should state that: “No third-party financial relationships or restrictions exist" to certify that no such relationships exist. If a real, or potential, financial relationship or restriction exists between the applicant and a third party, please describe this relationship(s) in detail.

ECRI reserves the right to request additional information about financial relationships or potential conflicts of interest at any time during the application process and after an award is made.