Kuwait houses Carestream Health's 'Center of Excellence' to implement state-of-the-art digital medical imaging systems

For the Middle East, the site is hosted by Kuwait's Al Sabah Hospital.

"These organizations were specifically chosen because of their commitment to be on the leading edge of healthcare technology and patient care," said Michael W. Jackman, President, Healthcare Information Solutions, Carestream Health. "We will work closely with these healthcare providers to design, develop, test and implement our next generation of powerful digital solutions to enable operational efficiency as well as an enhanced patient experience."

The Center of Excellence sites in North America can be found at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach, CA; Queensway Carleton Hospital, Ottawa, Canada; Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY; University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY; and an Imaging Center at Borg Imaging Group, Rochester, NY.

In Europe and the Middle East, the sites are Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden; Hospital Fondation Saint Joseph, Paris, France; Florence Nightingale Krankenhaus Kaiserswerth, Düsseldorf, Germany; Grupo Hospitalario Quiron, Madrid, Spain; USL Ferrara - Lagosanto Hospital, Italy; Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, Reggio Emilia, Italy; and Al-Sabah Hospital, Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Hospitals and health services in Asia Pacific include Hunter New England Health, NSW, Australia and Kansai Medical University Hirakata Hospital, Osaka, Japan.

"It's very important for us to tailor the Carestream Health solutions to the specific local needs of our customers. Having a Center ofEexcellence in the Middle East will help us capture the voice of customers in this area and offer them the latest technologies simultaneously with the rest of the world. Al-Sabah hospital is a flagship healthcare institution in the Middle East known for their commitment to be on the leading edge of healthcare technology and patient care. We're proud of our long relationship with them and very happy to have them as our Center of Excellence site in this part of the world," explained Mirna Bassil, Marketing Manager -Middle East & Africa.

In addition to hosting visits for other healthcare providers who want to see products from Carestream Health in action, these facilities have agreed to collaborate on future innovations in digital medical imaging and healthcare IT. By providing clinical test environment and expert insights, these organizations will help the Carestream Health develop products tailored to the unique needs of healthcare customers around the world.

The Center of Excellence facilities have implemented systems from the company's CARESTREAM Solution portfolio that includes:

•KODAK CARESTREAM radiology information system (RIS) which enables more efficient scheduling, ordering and billing of patient imaging exams;
•KODAK CARESTREAM picture archiving and communications system (PACS) which provide radiologists with immediate electronic access to medical imaging exams and will enable faster and more efficient distribution of radiology reports and images to referring physicians and patients;
•KODAK CARESTREAM information management solutions (IMS), which equip healthcare IT staffs to more efficiently manage information stored in a variety of systems across an enterprise, region or country. These scalable solutions help reduce expenses by providing intelligent, automated management tools and by equipping facilities with centralized management of decentralized storage systems.
•KODAK DIRECTVIEW digital x-ray systems that capture patients' medical imaging exams digitally, instead of on radiographic film. These systems offer rapid results and reduce the need for retakes.

Carestream Health is an independent company with more than 8,100 employees serving customers in 150 countries around the world. Carestream Health will continue to use the Kodak brand with its products. It now owns all former Kodak Health Group sub-brands such as Carestream, DirectView, DryView, Softdent, Industrex, X-Sight and PracticeWorks to name a few.