GENEVA ― Eastman Kodak Company's Health Group was awarded a contract for KODAK CARESTREAM Radiology and Enterprise Information Management Solution platforms for East-Tallinn Central Hospital in Estonia, a key link in the innovative Baltic e-Health Project.

The Baltic e-Health project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and covers the Baltic Sea Regions. The aim of the project is to encourage e-Health as an effective means of enhancing access to high quality health care services in rural areas and thereby counteract rural migration. This will be achieved by creating a large transnational IT infrastructure for e-Health called the Baltic Health Network. It will be the first cross-border health data network of its kind across the Baltic countries connecting over 200 hospitals and 6,000 general practitioners.

In the initial stages of the project, Kodak will deliver PACS, remote reporting and archiving solutions to the East-Tallinn Central Hospital to facilitate participation in two pilot projects in the fields of radiology and ultrasound. The eRadiology pilot will link the East-Tallinn Central Hospital, the Funen Hospital, Denmark and the Vilnius University Hospital, Lithuania. During this pilot, radiologists from Estonia and Lithuania will test electronic communication and the network infrastructure by remotely reporting on studies from the Funen Hospital. The eUltrasound pilot will test communication between East-Tallinn, Norrlands University Hospital, Sweden and the St.Olavs Hospital, Norway.
Success of these two pilot projects is central to the overall implementation of the Baltic e-Health Project. The introduction of cross border telemedicine is complex requiring integration and interoperability with different country healthcare systems with different standards and laws. To manage the project and meet the overall objectives, Kodak will work with Danish company Medical Insight A/S, who specialize in systems for managing and distributing patient images and healthcare data across disparate and complex technology environments.

"We chose Kodak because of its leading market position and wealth of experience in national and regional e-health projects," said Dr Peeter Ross, Director of R&D, East-Tallinn Central Hospital. "Here in Estonia we are innovative and forward thinking and required a supplier who could match our aspirations to participate in the wider European e-Radiology market. Kodak demonstrated an ability to meet our needs in every respect and readily shared their experience of e-health. This was very important to us."

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