At first glance, Salayang Hospital in the suburbs of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur is no different from most other medical institutions. Comfortable room, sterile environment, doctors and staff in snow-white robes. At the same time, the clinic has 1200 stationary and 66 portable computers, 300 printers, 150 decoders. There are more computers in the hospital than doctors and nurses.

Salayang is the first hospital in Malaysia, and perhaps in all of Southeast Asia, to operate without paper and documentation. There is no medical history in its usual form, X-rays are not filed. Admitting patients, unless, of course, they are admitted to the hospital as a result of emergency circumstances, is practically the same as staying in a well-equipped hotel. The nurse enters health information into the central computer and puts a personal code bracelet on the patient. Everything that happens to him during the treatment process is also recorded in the computer. Doctors have personal portable computers on which they can read the medical history, test results, diagnoses of related specialists, etc.

The Ministry of Health invested $ 157 million to build the hospital between 1997 and 1998, at the height of the Asian crisis. The clinic has been operating since 1999, and next year an additional seven departments will be put into operation, which means an increase in hospital beds by one thousand. According to the project organizers, significant investments will pay off with subsequent benefits, which are measured not only in money. Due to efficiency, the problem of shortage of medical personnel, which is quite acute for Malaysia, is partially reduced. There are only 6.6 doctors and 11.3 nurses per 10,000 inhabitants. For comparison, in the neighboring Philippines, where the per capita income is three times lower, there are almost twice as many doctors per 10,000 inhabitants.

Salayang Hospital has not just simplified the procedure for familiarizing specialists with the state of health of patients. The speed of data entry and processing increases the chances of saving someone's life in an emergency. The procedure of X-ray examination and blood analysis is fully computerized. It takes no more than 15 minutes from blood collection to receiving laboratory analysis data. Significant savings are made by not having to display X-rays on film.

Of course, not everything went smoothly. There were many skeptics, at the first stages there were computer failures, medical personnel experienced difficulties when working with equipment. According to the creators of the project, the most difficult task was to introduce specialists to new methods of work. Sometimes it was absurd: some doctors, preferring to work in the old-fashioned way, recorded everything on paper, and then instructed nurses to enter data into the computer.

The hospital is part of a nationwide government program designed to modernize medical services. In the "Multimedia Corridor" being created in the country under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the Ministry of Health has reserved capacity to create a system through which doctors can monitor the health status of millions of Malaysians living in remote areas. Salayang Hospital is the first step in this direction, it is a kind of creative laboratory for the subsequent modernization of the entire health system. Within 10 years, it is planned to create 13 more such hospitals. The national information system will integrate hospitals, laboratories, and databases. Centralization of the healthcare system is seen as the key to the success of the planned program.

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