Three candidates handed in the necessary documents to participate in the public procurement for the construction of a national electronic healthcare portal and the introduction of a personal electronic health record for 40 000 employees of the State Administration, a media statement from the State Administration Ministry said on November 19.

The three candidates were OBS-BG, the Health Information Technologies consortium and the Bulgarian Electronic Health Dossier consortium - Phase 1, the media statement said.

The public procurement had been announced by the State Administration Ministry and Health Ministry on October 5 2007. The deadline for expressions of interest to participate was November 16.

The Strategy for the introduction of an electronic healthcare system in Bulgaria, which has been accepted in December 2006, aimed to orientate the healthcare system toward the end-user, to deliver full patient-information to specialists, provide for effective information between specialists and to build a integrated information environment, the media statement said.