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Kodak develops faster, safer X-ray film
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Eastman Kodak Co. is rolling out a higher-speed X-ray film that can halve a patient's exposure to radiation without blurring image quality — and might provide a financial cushion as the world's biggest film manufacturer refocuses on digital technology. The Hyper Speed G medical film is the first X-ray film in a generation to offer a 50 percent or better drop in radiation dosage, according to company researchers who also say it lessens the need for retakes.
"The last time a change this significant was made was about 20 years ago when the marketplace converted from a 200-speed system to what has become the standard 400-speed of today," said Eileen Heizyk, manager of the film systems unit in Kodak's health group. "There are certainly health risks with exposure to radiation," she said. "How much and what is the risk is debatable but I think there's universal agreement that less is better." Kodak is betting its future in the digital arena. But its conversion to a world of photography without film could hinge on its ability to stretch out profits from a century-old cash cow that hit a downward trail in 2000. In Kodak's health business, which accounted for $2.7 billion of the company's $13.5 billion in revenues last year, digital products and services grew 11 percent in the fourth quarter while traditional film sales fell 4 percent. Kodak already controls more than half of the worldwide market in X-ray film, analysts say. "It is arresting the decline by taking market share away from others" — and the new film could provide extra armor, said Ulysses Yannas of Buckman, Buckman & Reid in New York. Kodak says the film's cost is similar to high-performance X-ray systems already in the marketplace. And hospitals would save money "by reducing the load on their X-ray tubes, which are quite expensive to replace" and through reduced retakes "because we're going to have a lot less patient motion" on printouts, said Phillip Bunch, a medical physicist at Kodak who co-invented the film. Kodak shares fell 49 cents to close at $33.38 in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $24.25 to $35.19.
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![Kodak research associate Phillip Bunch looks over the new X-ray film he and co-inventor Robert Dickerson developed, which cuts a patient's radiation exposure by about 50 percent, while in an office in Rochester, N.Y., Wednesday, March 9, 2005. [AP]](xin_190302101014209135542.jpg)
