The state has selected Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to draw up the details and provide consultancy for the IT implementation part.

Under the project, a patient's record will be stored electronically. Each time a patient visits the hospital, an identification card will help to access his health history instantly, so that he can proceed for diagnosis.

According to TCS consultant Saji Salam, "the project seeks to reduce waiting time for patients and improve patient care. For the hospital, online information will considerably cut down duplication of work and streamline hospital administration through efficient communication."

However, the major benefit of the project will be towards medical research. A central archival server linked to research facilities can provide case studies and earlier test results, leading to considerable saving of time.Research institutes like Hopkins stand to benefit in this case.

The test is likely to begin with JJ Hospital, where the volume of in-patients is about 38,000 per year.

The project could be a trend setter in India, said Salam, adding that the Kerala government was also interested in implementing a similar project, depending on the success in Maharashtra.

The project, to be executed in two phases initially, is likely to cost around Rs 40 crore, according to rough estimates. It will commence once the government approves the final draft from TCS. Phase-I will see computerisation of 16 hospitals and 11 medical colleges across the state. These institutions will be provided with an intranet connectivity, networking, local area network and wide area network.

In the second phase, dental and ayurveda and essential health department divisions are expected to be integrated into the system. It will also include primary health centres, which will be a mammoth task.

According to initial estimates, phase-I willcost Rs 10-15 crore and will take 12-18 months for implementation. This will also include training. Phase-II, in which all other government hospitals including primary health centres will be connected, will be undertaken depending on the success of the first phase.

"In the developed world, most hospitals have been integrated and linked to a central archival server over the Net. In UK, the department of health is working on NHSNet -- a project which aims at having online electronic health records for the entire population. The cost of the project has been estimated at 1 billion pounds," Salam said.

In the US, health maintenance organisations have set up integrated hospital management systems spanning the entire country. In Dubai, the department of health recently commissioned a $12.5-million project to implement hospital information systems.

Each medical college and corresponding hospitals will be connected by LAN and all these in turn will be connected by a WAN. At the hospital counters, PCs will beprovided to attendants which will provide access to information from any of the hospitals or colleges in the link. On the communication part, an intranet will be provided to facilitate electronic messaging among these hospitals and colleges.

The patients can benefit in a number of ways as shown by global projects. TCS will chip in with system study and design, hardware and network configuration, storage and back up data and advise on the implementation plan.