Premier Pat Binns and Summerside Mayor Basil Stewart recently visited Kodak Canada’s Summerside office to congratulate the company on a planned expansion that will create 20 new jobs.
Kodak Canada secured $2 million in project funding under the latest round of support announced through the Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF). The company plans to further develop its worldwide radiology information system (RIS) application to assist the health care sector and will hire 20 new software engineers as a result of this project.
“Kodak has been doing great things since opening operations in 2001 on Prince Edward Island. With the development of this project, the company will once again be at the forefront of an ever-evolving industry,” said Premier Binns. “This company clearly demonstrates how major companies in the IT sector are succeeding here. We have a highly-skilled workforce that is strongly motivated to create success and companies are pleased with the results.”
“I am so proud of our Summerside team and what they have achieved. There are already 40 people working here and, with this new funding, we can add 20 more software engineering positions,” said Susan Mey, President of Kodak Canada.
“I am very pleased to have companies such as Kodak grow in downtown Summerside,” said Mayor Stewart. “To see these high-quality jobs being added to Summerside is such a great boost to our local economy. We have the skilled labour and infrastructure to attract companies like Kodak, and we couldn’t be more proud to have them call Summerside home.”
RIS technology allows radiologists to review x-rays and dictate into a device where speech recognition software translates it into a text report. The patient’s physician is notified by email when the report is ready, and billing information is automatically forwarded without any added administrative steps.
Leigh Dyment, a Kodak software engineer, says, “Typically installation of a RIS in combination with a PACS (Kodak's Diagnostic Image Viewing software) will reduce turnaround time in the radiology department by 50%. We have seen cases where as much as 90% of the time can be trimmed from the time it takes to receive the request for an exam to the time the exam is completed, the report is issued and all administrative functions such as billing are complete. A RIS/PACS combination can mean complete turnaround time for an exam may be less than 1 hour for emergency cases.”
The Radiology Information System (RIS) software was developed by Kodak’s Summerside team and is now installed at 150 locations in more than 20 countries and operating in 14 languages. The Summerside office is the top tier in the support chain for the RIS application, receiving support requests from local service teams around the globe.
Kodak’s Health Group Division, with 2005 revenues of $2.65 billion, is a world leader in supplying the medical and dental professions with advanced healthcare products, services and information technology solutions. Its broad portfolio includes picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), healthcare information systems, computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) systems, laser imagers, mammography and oncology systems, x-ray film systems, dental imaging products, and a range of consulting as well as repair and maintenance services.