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Kodak Selected as Main Supplier in Top Finnish e-Health Project


WEBWIRE

Northern Finland’s RATU Project Integrates Medical Imaging and Information Systems of Five Hospital Districts

HELSINKI, FINLAND, October 18 -- Eastman Kodak Company’s Health Group has been selected as the main supplier of the RATU e-health project in Northern Finland. This extensive project is funded by five hospital districts and the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Kodak will provide a community radiology solution that includes KODAK RIS 2010, KODAK DIRECTVIEW PACS System 5 web clients and a KODAK CARESTREAM Information Management Solution—powered by KODAK Versatile Intelligent Patient Archive (VIParchive) software—to efficiently manage medical images and related patient information.

The new digital system will centralize patient information while improving information sharing and workflow with the goal of enhancing patient care. Kodak is the software and systems delivery supplier of the 2.7 MEUR project. Systems integration is carried out by Mawell Ltd. (a Finnish IT company). In addition, the Lausuntotori e-portal enables inter-regional delivery and consultation of x-ray images over the Internet.

With the RATU project, the hospital districts’ appointment bookings, consultations and x-rays can be transferred using a centralized system. The first phase of the project is to be completed during the first quarter of 2006, when all the Northern region’s central hospitals and four pilot health care centers will be connected.

With the new system, participating hospitals—and later all healthcare centers that join this initiative—are able to store, download and view patient images irrespective of place. The Lausuntotori portal makes it possible to carry out consultations over the Internet, providing a forum for specialists in the region to view and consult patient images, irrespective of their location.

“With RATU phase one, all radiological examination bookings and examination information will be automatically transferred to the right place at the right time. Lausuntotori is also an important feature; with it, coordinating the utilization of specialist resources within the entire region becomes possible. Kodak’s role as the RATU main partner is total system integration, administration and maintenance—including all data center components, servers and software. Of the potential partners, Kodak possessed the most extensive offering, and also topped the list when comparing price and quality,” comments RATU Project Manager, Kari Alatalo.

“Northern Finland has always been an IT pioneer in Finland. RATU is the largest e-health project in the Nordic countries on a geographical scale. It combines the functionality of the hospital regions’ information systems, improving healthcare information sharing across traditional borders, and thus speeding up the whole treatment process. It creates a regional information system, which in the first phase will enable all patient images from the public sector to be collected. Hospital districts can acquire new systems, but are able to use their existing ones too,” says Pekka Hännikäinen, Country Sales Manager of Kodak’s Health Group.

“The system is open and any site can join in a later phase. Our security and connectivity are key advantages. Earlier examples include Kodak’s national projects within the NHS National Programme for IT in UK and Scotland,” he said.

The RATU project is a pilot project for the country, aiming at creating a total solution for the five hospital districts for the production, processing and archiving of patient information. The Northern region’s entire image, biosignal and text data of patients is stored in a central archive. This project is an important step towards a national Finnish patient record archive.

About the RATU Project

RATU is a service product for the administration of imaging with one single database located in a data centre for the whole region. The Lappi Hospital District originated the predecessor of RATU in 1997. The RATU includes the hospital districts of Lappi, Länsi-Pohja, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, and Keski-Pohjanmaa, as well as Kainuu County. The region consists of 69 health care centers, and will produce over 700,000 exams annually with more than 8000 registered web users and 1000 concurrent users. RATU project is budgeted at 2.7 MEUR.

About Kodak’s Health Group

Kodak’s Health Group, with 2004 revenues of $2.68 billion, supplies the medical and dental professions with traditional and digital imaging and information systems. Its portfolio includes picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), IT solutions, clinical information solutions, computed and digital radiography systems, laser imagers, mammography and oncology systems, x-ray film systems, and dental imaging products. Its services portfolio includes everything from repair and maintenance, to professional services encompassing integration, storage and archiving, secure e-mail services – and much more.

Kodak’s other major businesses include: Graphic Communications – providing customers with a range of solutions for prepress, traditional and digital printing, and document scanning and multi-vendor IT services; Digital & Film Imaging Systems – providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services; and Display & Components – supplying original equipment manufacturers with imaging sensors as well as intellectual property and materials for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and LCD display industries.
For more information about Kodak (NYSE:EK) contact your Kodak representative or visit www.kodak.com.
Note: KODAK, CARESTREAM and DIRECTVIEW are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company.



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