Messrs. Yuriy Shevchenko, the Russian Federation Minister of Public Health, and Victor Maslov, Governor of the Smolensk Region, took part in the videoconference. The Health Ministry leader, also head of the National Therapeutics and Surgery Center, greeted direct from Moscow the participants in the research and applied medicine conference on complex treatment of the venous disorders, which was held in Smolensk.

Best surgeons from the constituent regions of the Central Federal District assembled at the medical scientists and practitio-ners forum. Technical facilities of SmolenskTelecom, a constituent company of PJSC CenterTelecom, were used to conduct the videoconference. Top-new telecommunications services being provided by the said constituent entity, videoconferencing first and foremost, considerably amplify the scope and practical potentials of the medical doctors cooperation in the constituent regions.

On thanking the Minister for the credence given to the Smolensk Region, the Governor noted a special social significance of the subject being discussed. It was for over two years already, he said, that the Smolensk doctors in cooperation with the Smolensk telecommunications men had been enjoying a possibility to widely use videoconferencing services in order to familiarize themselves with advanced methods and procedures applied by specialists at other medical institutions, hold consultations, and to exchange experience on-line during sophisticated surgical operations.

SmolenskTelecom, a PJSC CenterTelecom’s constituent company, provides subscribers with the entire spectrum of up-to- -date communications services inclusive of videoconferencing, high- -speed access to Internet, IP-telephony, multimedia services, etc. In addition to the medical institutions, the Region’s large-scale enterprises and organizations, as well as higher education centers are the consumers of SmolenskTelecom services.

26.06.2003