The second round of voting has opened for this year’s Healthcare IT Champion of the Year, with six nominees still in the running.

The Healthcare IT Champion of the Year is a special category of the EHI Awards 2012 in association with BT that is decided by you – the readers of eHealth Insider.

This year, a record number of nominees meant that voting had to be split into two rounds. With well over 2,000 votes already cast, half a dozen names have gone through to the second round. They are:

Christine Walters, associate director of IM&T, The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Enid Povey, associate director, clinical information and development, NHS Direct

Andrew Hooper, head of IM&T, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Amir Hannan, full-time GP, primary care IT clinical lead, and member of the Health Informatics Clinical Advisory Team at NHS North-West

Neil Darvill, director of health informatics, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Anne Cooper, national clinical lead for nursing, Department of Health Informatics Directorate.

If you voted in round one, and your nominee got through to the second round, you cannot vote again, as your vote already counts.

However, if you voted in round one and your nominee did not get through, you can now vote for one of the remaining six.

Linda Davidson, director of eHealth Insider, said: “The Healthcare IT Champion of the Year is always extremely popular, and this year it has been more fiercely contested than ever.

“We received passionate nominations for people at all levels of healthcare IT – from national leaders to GPs and local IT managers who might not otherwise get the recognition they deserve.

“Some have already attracted considerable support, and we wish all the remaining candidates the very best in this second round of voting.”

The second round of voting will close at 4pm on 14 September, with the winner announced at the black-tie awards dinner in central London on 4 October.

The winner of Healthcare IT Champion of the Year will be announced will be announced at a black-tie dinner in London’s Covent Garden on Thursday, 4 October.

The winners of all the categories of this year’s awards will be announced at the event, which will take place in the sumptuous surroundings of the Grand Connaught Rooms. To find out how to book tables and tickets, visit the EHI 2012 Awards website.