A company working towards combating a potentially deadly infection has won a prestigious innovation award.
Gessit picked up the Industry Innovation Award at the Northern Territory Export and Industry Awards in Darwin last month.
The award was sponsored by the Northern Territory (NT) Government’s Department of Trade, Business and Innovation.
Gessit is developing HealthElink, a cloud-based chronic disease e-health platform that helps to increase the uptake of treatment for hepatitis C.
HealthElink is a communication tool for patients, their GP and specialists to create an individualised treatment plan, and manage patients with electronic referrals and prescriptions, patient scheduling and reminders.
It helps the co-management of chronic diseases between GPs and specialists, enabling a GP to treat hepatitis C in the community, hence bypassing hospital waitlists and minimising stigma.
If successful, this model could be used to manage other chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
Gessit received a Business Innovation Support Initiatives grant from the NT Government to develop the tool.
The grants, which are administered by the Department of Trade, Business and Innovation, help businesses undertake research and development that could lead to new products, processes or services.
Under the program, an innovation voucher provides up to 60% support for eligible projects; each voucher is worth up to $25,000 exclusive of GST.
Monsoon Aquatics, which sells live coral and tropical fish overseas, was named Exporter of the Year at the awards ceremony.
The company, which was established by scientist Daniel Kimberley in 2008, has an Aquarium Fishing Licence to collect sustainably coral and marine fish, land hermit crabs and an extensive range of clams and marine invertebrates for the Australian wholesale market and international export market.
A full list of the winners can be found on the Chamber of Commerce website.