HELSINKI, FINLAND, October 18 -- Eastman Kodak Companys 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 Solutionpowered by KODAK Versatile Intelligent Patient Archive (VIParchive) softwareto 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 regions central hospitals and four pilot health care centers will be connected.

With the new system, participating hospitalsand later all healthcare centers that join this initiativeare 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. Kodaks role as the RATU main partner is total system integration, administration and maintenanceincluding 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 Hnnikinen, Country Sales Manager of Kodaks Health Group.

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