HAMMOND | Two years ago, several people died at St. Margaret Mercy's hospitals in Dyer and Hammond because of ventilator-assisted pneumonia.

In 2006, though, a team of about 15 people working for St. Margaret Mercy and the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services introduced a practice that has saved the lives of at least a dozen VAP patients, officials say.

On Thursday, St. Margaret Mercy was honored for its lifesaving technique as it shared the first Chanute Prize for Team Innovation with Team Hammond Robotics at the third annual Society of Innovators Induction Ceremony.

"In Hammond, we have virtually eliminated the incidence of VAP," said Jamie El Harit, a business transformation specialist at the Hammond hospital, after the award was handed to St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers President Thomas Gryzbek at Horseshoe Casino. "In Dyer, we have totally eliminated it."

VAP is a common disease that affects about 15 percent of patients on ventilators nationwide. El Harit and Kristina Dimoski, the manager of the intensive care unit in Hammond, estimated that the disease kills up to 50 percent of its victims.

"We've saved at least a dozen lives," El Harit said. "And we've prevented complications in many more people than that."

The Chanute Award is named after Northwest Indiana pioneers who designed airplanes before the Wright Brothers flew. It was added to awards that were presented by the Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana. On Thursday, the society inducted 29 people and named six of them Fellows -- Shirley Caylor, Roman Dziarski, Bill Keith, Johnny Mathis Jr., Ivan Nesch and Emerson Spartz.

Roy Evans, Society of Innovators chairman, called the awards "our Nobel Prize." The winners received a plaque and a $500 check.

In accepting Team Hammond Robotics' Chanute Prize, Bill Beatty, of team sponsor Beatty International Inc., praised Hammond students who have won four first-place awards in 12 annual international robotics competitions.

"It's fantastic what this team has accomplished," said Beatty, who said his team includes six students each from Clark, Gavit, Hammond and Morton highs as well as local teachers and advisers from several area companies. "There will be a lot of smart people. It's the innovative people who will make society grow."

Each year, the students and their advisers design a 130-pound robot that performs a variety of tasks at competitions. Last year, the team finished second out of 1,325 participants.