Researchers from University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and the University of Birmingham have secured the top spot in a national competition.

A video produced by a team examining the importance of information technology in patient safety won first prize in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Media Competition 2013.

The aim of the competition, which was open to all NIHR-funded researchers, was to create a video to enthuse people about research.

The film’s narrator, Dr Jamie Coleman, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Education at the University of Birmingham and UHB, describes how research is tackling the challenge of keeping track of patients’ data on a daily basis and explains how it covers a broad spectrum of healthcare improvement and innovation.

Fellow researchers Gochi Nwulu, Hannah Brooks, Suzanna Richardson, Sarah Thomas, Dr Sarah McDowell, Dr Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar, Dr Lorraine McFarland and Sheila Hall also played starring roles by taking the viewer on a journey through the hospital to demonstrate how IT is crucial throughout the prescribing process.

The team, part of the NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Birmingham and Black Country (CLAHRC-BBC), said: “We are really pleased to have won and are delighted that our team effort has been recognised.”

The six-minute film, which is entitled ‘Improving patient safety with information technology’, was filmed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.