Economist: Fujifilm vs. Kodak

Most recently, The Economist magazine had two articles in a row comparing Kodak's woes and Fujifilm's revitalization. They are very much worth of reading. In particular I like the following quotes from the articles, which I specially shared here with the Thinking Space readers.

"...most important, firms must resist looking for a magic wand when hard work in needed."

"It is easy to think that companies can compete by outsourcing production and focus on developing and marketing. But many innovations bubble up from the factory floor. ... Today, as debates rage in America over the degree to which returns on capital exceed those from actual business operations, and the relative merits of employment in manufacturing versus the services sector, the history of Kodak is more relevant than ever."

The links to the original articles:

1. The last Kodak moment?

2. How Fujifilm survived?

Fujifilm Healthcare Solution in iPad

iPad applications are not just for fun. They can be serious.

Recently Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A. (where I work now) announced a prototype of Synapse® Mobility, which allows users remotely access to Fujifilm's Synapse solution. Impressively, users can use their iPad to show the radiology images and the other related medical information anywhere in the world. It significantly improves the quality of patient care by allowing faster decision making and more convenient access to the patient's varied medical records. This is a great achievement to improve the quality of individual healthcare generally.

Besides iPad, I was told that the Synapse® Mobility solution would also be available in iPhone and the mobile devices equipped with the Android™ OS.

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA launched a blog

Called From the Inside Out, the purpose of the blog is to give people yet another way to communicate with FMSU. While designed to be less formal than other means of communication, the blog will allow FMSU to share key messages while ultimately becoming interactive with the customers. The style of writing is a mix of provocative, witty, and even some unusual commentaries. Please check it out if you are interested in the technological achievement in the most frontier of medicine technology, especially the radiologic technology.

Strategic Alliance, FUJIFILM and GE Healthcare in Life Sciences

FUJIFILM Corporation announces that it has entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement with GE Healthcare. The alliance allows Fujifilm to develop, manufacture and supply advanced biomolecular imaging systems for GE Healthcare. The products, however, will be sold worldwide under the GE brand in the life science research and drug discovery markets.

This alliance leverages Fujifilm's strength as a leading device manufacturer and GE's strength as a leading reagent and service provider in the life sciences area. In 1987, Fujifilm was the first company to introduce the revolutionary digital autoradiography device which utilized the Imaging Plate, a radiation detector with sensitivity 100 times greater than X-ray film. In 1923, GE Healthcare introduced the first radio isotope reagents, which initiated the field of biomolecular labeling and detection. FUJIFILM is currently offering scientific imaging systems for chemiluminescent, fluorescent and radioisotopic detection in the life science market. It does not offer reagents/consumables nor applications. The alliance may strengthen Fujifilm's already leading position on medical imaging technologies and device manufacturing.

Join Fujifilm Medical Systems

Some of you may have already known. I am joining Fujifilm Medical Systems USA (FMSU). Headquartered in Stamford, CT, FMSU is a leading provider of medical image and information products and technologies for acquiring, processing, presenting, managing and storing diagnostic images.

My duty as informatic architect at FMSU is to help the company design and produce a cutting-edge, Semantic-Web-compatible service that may eventually lift the present services for the medical devices onto a new level. The project is innovative. (If you regularly follow my blog, you should know when I say one thing being innovative, it is often more than just being innovative.) In few years, I foresee this new service produced at Fuji Medical Systems to be one of the classic examples of the Web-3.0 services.