On the 5th of May, as a result of implementing a joint project of OJSC North-West Telecom and the Administration of Kaliningrad Oblast, the first Telemedicine Centres were opened in the Regional Hospital of Kaliningrad – Kaliningrad-Moscow – and in the District Hospital of the town of Chernyakhovsk – Kaliningrad -Chernyakhovsk. The Centres have been connected to the resources of the Medical Centre of the Administrative Department of the RF President.

The opening ceremony was attended by Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast Vladimir G. Egorov, Deputy Governor s Galina S. Yankovskaya and Igor V. Krasnyansky, Mayor of Chernyakhovsk Andrey O. Vinogradov, Deputy General Manager of OJSC North-West Telecom Oleg A. Semanov, Regional Director of the branch Electrosvyaz of Kaliningrad Oblast of OJSC NWT Alexandr V. Andreyev and representatives of the city and oblast veterans’ councils.  

In Moscow, the telemedicine session in the Main Medical Department (the former 4th Department) was attended by Sergey P. Mironov, Deputy Administrator of the President of the Russian Federation Yury P. Gribunov, chief pathomorphologist of the Central Clinical Hospital of the Administrative Department of the RF President, Director of FGUP GlavNIVTs of the Administrative Department of the RF President Radik A. Elchiyan and a group of leading physicians.

Chernyakhovsk was the first to establish connection with Moscow. A piece of advice was given to Nikolay M. Firosov, a disabled veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Then three war veterans from Kaliningrad received recommendation s on the required therapy.

For the first time the idea of the project was discussed by Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast V. G. Yegorov and Chiev executive officer of OJSC NWT V.A. Akulich when they signed the Agreement of Cooperation in the Field of Communication s Development in Kaliningrad Oblast .

In the framework of the project , NWT has undertaken to acquire and install telemedical hardware and software complexes in three medical institution s of Kaliningrad Oblast. The equipment for the Kaliningrad Regional Hospital was acquired using federal funds. For two other medical institution s – the Children’s Regional Hospital of Kaliningrad and the District Hospital of Chernyakhovsk telemedical equipment was purchase d and installed for own funds of North-West Telecom . The company contributed about ? 40,000 to the project . This is a gift to residents of Kaliningrad Oblast in the year that is of special significance for them – the year of the 60th anniversary of the Victory, the 60th anniversary of Kaliningrad and the 750 th anniversary of Kenigsberg. The Telemedicine Centre in the Children’s Regional Hospital will be opened on the Children's Day .

Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast Vladimir G. Yegorov established a contact with General Manager of OJSC NWT V.A. Akulich directly from the Regional Hospital and thanked him sincerely for the present dedicated to the city’s and region’s jubilee.

The first and foremost task of telemedicine is remote diagnostics. The telemedical equipment is interconnected via the convergent network of OJSC NWT and will make it possible to conduct training of Kaliningrad ’s and its region’s medical personnel and will enable a two-way audio and visual patient-doctor contact. During a communication session, the video image will be transmitted in the real-time mode, which will make it possible to control the procedure s, to see the results and to attain a “virtual presence” effect. A high-class specialist from the capital will be able to diagnose a patient promptly on the basis of data received by e-mail via Internet (X-ray photo images, computed tomography scan, electrocardiogram or other data of laboratory or instrumental testing ).

Besides telemedicine, the convergent network of North-West Telecom used in the project is also applied to create   virtual private networks of state institution s and private companies ; distributed databases, information and teaching systems (telelearning); video conference s, etc. Such services , including telemedicine, can be provided both within one region and between points of different regions of the Northwestern Federal District , and, in interaction with convergent networks of other interregional companies , throughout the country .