13 October 2004 Lincoln University Background to Two Members of Asian Innovation Awards Silver Medal Team

Two of the five members of the silver medal winning Christchurch Hospital team in the Far Eastern Economic Review's 2004 Asian Innovation Awards, announced in Singapore today (13 Oct. NZ time), have Lincoln University connections.

The five-member team, representing the hospital's Ophthalmology Department, is led by Dr Rudi Hidajat, who graduated from Lincoln University with a PhD (doctorate) in Microbiology in 1983, and his son, 17-year-old Ray Hidayat, also a member of the team, will complete a degree in economics and applied computing at Lincoln University this year. Ray started his university career doing Lincoln papers through its Regional Education Programme when he was 11 and a third-former at Papanui High School.

Dr Rudi Hidajat was in Singapore for the awards but Ray had to stay at home to prepare for final exams at Lincoln which start on Saturday.

The other members of the Christchurch team are medical technician Jan McLay, Associate Professor Mark Elder of the Christchurch School of Medicine and medical physicist David Goode.

Their entry was the development of a new fast system for reporting the results of a standard colour vision test (the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue colour vision test) used to detect problems in the optic nerve, diabetes related retina problems and glaucoma.

The team won the Canterbury District Health Board's inaugural Quality and Innovation Awards in August 2003 and Dr Hidajat and son Ray won the Individual Category of the Ministry of Health's New Zealand Innovative Awards in June this year.

From the Singapore competition the team's entry now goes on to the Wall Street Journal's Technological Global Innovation Awards in New York in November.

There were 12 finalists in the competition and the gold and bronze medal winners were both Singapore entries. The gold was for a biodegradable plastic mesh to patch holes in the skull after surgery, a cheaper and safer alternative to titanium; the bronze was for a new, highly efficient, energy and water saving air-conditioning system.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

(Note: difference in spelling of surname between father and son is correct as given here)