On the 1st of June, the International Children's Day, North-West Telecom opened a telemedicine centre in the Regional Children's Hospital of Kaliningrad.

This event continues the joint project of OJSC North-West Telecom and the Administration of Kaliningrad Oblast for creating a telemedicine network in Kaliningrad Oblast . The agreement on creating such centers was reached between Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast V. G. Yegorov and General Manager of OJSC NWT V.A. Akulich in November last year 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.

On the 5th of May 2005 two telemedicine centres were opened: in the Regional Hospital of Kaliningrad and in the District Hospital of the town of Chernyakhovsk (see the Press Release of OJSC NWT dated 05.05.05). All telemedicine centres have been connected to the resources of the Medical Centre of the Administrative Department of the RF President.

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 K?nigsberg.

At the ceremony of opening the telemedicine centre in the Children’s Regional Hospital of Kaliningrad, a video communication session was held, during which sick children undergoing therapy in the Regional Hospital of Kaliningrad and the District Hospital of Chernyakhovsk were given medical advice by specialists of the Moscow Centre of Pediatrics and Surgery under the supervision of Professor Boris Kobrinsky and by leading researchers of the Moscow Institute of Pediatric Oncology under the supervision of Professor Igor Kapranov. The specialists from Moscow   gave some recommendations to the doctors who were in charge of the children , and one of them, the six years old Igor Ivanov who is reared by his great-grandmother, was offered a course of therapy at a specialized clinic in Moscow. As pediatricians emphasized, only that would save the child's life.

Physicians of the District Hospital of Chernyakhovsk especially rejoiced in the opening of the centre against the background of the lack of highly skilled specialists. As A.V. Andreyev, the regional director of the branch Electrosvyaz of Kaliningrad Oblast, noted at the centre opening ceremony , "for us, the communication people of NWT, it is both interesting to participate in such a new project , which is so far among rare ones in Russia, from the professional point of view, and pleasant to make our own contribution to such an important and noble cause. And when we speak about the most defenseless, our children , who make our future, any help to them is particularly pleasant. For, with the development of telemedicine, doctors become able to consult researchers of the leading medical institution s of the country and to provide a more professional and efficient aid to those who need it."