Kodak announces mammography archive partnership

Kodak has announced a partnership with the US-based National Digital Medical Archive (NDMA) to create new solutions enabling hospitals to better manage, archive and process images and information related to mammography screening.

The aim of the collaboration is to “support the European mammography market’s transition from analog imaging to digital imaging and information technology.” The partnership will also see the introduction of myNDMA, a health portal which will provide patients with personal health record management tools.

Kodak will be taking its existing Carestream solution – which stores medical images and provides clinicians with the images and other information wherever they are – with NDMA’s data and image management tools. These comprise analytical tools required for quality assurance and compliance, as well as visualisation tools dedicated to streamlining the often-complicated workflow processes involved with mammography.

Kodak’s director of eHealth in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Ian Marron, said: “The solutions that evolve from integrating Kodak and NDMA products will enable healthcare facilities to collect, retrieve, store and distribute digital images and information on demand, thus helping enhance workflow efficiencies, increase revenue and improve patient care.

“Our Carestream Information Management Solutions coupled with NDMA’s solution-layer architecture, post-processing analytics and consumer health portal, provides a never-before seen approach to comprehensive mammography screening in healthcare.”

Kodak believe myNDMA will be the first ‘Citizens Health Portal’ of its kind to be made available to mammography patients.

myNDMA will provide patients with personal health record management tools to securely upload and store their digital medical images and electronic health records into a private web site. The program allows patients to identify a service bureau to digitise mammography films; store prior mammograms from previous healthcare providers; locate digital imaging facilities; and link to healthcare provider records stored in myNDMA.

NDMA’s president, Derek Danois, said: “The Citizens Health Portal enables women, who are undergoing screening mammography exams, to link to myNDMA and see that their studies are safely secured and manage the corresponding medical records in the personal file folders.

“More importantly, myNDMA ties a physician and patient together for the patient’s entire life, including self-populated family history and self-breast examination logs.”