IHIS is a project funded in part by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Hellenic Ministry for Development and is laid within the EPET II (Operational Programme for Research and Technology) framework. The main objective of the IHIS project is to develop and enhance autonomous clinical information systems for the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and its Assisting Radiology and Biochemical Laboratories, together with their functional integration, so that all the above information systems are allowed to work consistently within a unified, homogeneous and integrated environment, as far as multimedia data acquisition, management, and information exchange for the ICU support is concerned. Participants of the IHIS projects were, apart from the Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, as well as the Intensive Care Unit of the University of Athens, Greece. The project begun in July 1995 and its duration was two years. For the achievement of the above mentioned objectives the following targets have been set:

• development of a system for bed-side monitoring for the Intensive Care Unit, capable of handling all the required patient data, including medical images and bio-signals
• development of a system for the management of data collected in the Assisting Biochemical Laboratory of the ICU
• development of limited functionality picture archiving and communications (PACS) information system that allows for the acquisition, management and exchange of medical images, customized for computed tomography (CT) scans and bio-signals related to the ICU
• the functional integration of all the above mentioned autonomous information systems, through a unified healthcare record allowing the availability of information when and where it is needed.

Within the project framework, all the necessary information systems have been developed, as well as all their interconnection drivers with the sources of medical information (CT, blood gas analyzers, monitors, etc). In addition the design of the architecture that allows the functional integration of the individual information systems, keeping primary information near the source of production. Finally the information system that allows for the remote scheduling of laboratory examinations and report distribution has been developed too.