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The goal of this work is to consider possible variants of a project for complete automation of a central municipal hospital. The purpose of the project is to combine the information flows created as a result of examination and treatment of a given patient in various departments of the hospital.To automate this process, information input devices should be installed in all departments involved in diagnosis and treatment. These devices should provide options for information viewing and editing.Hardware designed to automate medical information acquisition, processing, and storage arbitrarily fall into the following four groups.1. Monitor (color/monochrome), a device designed to display information. 2. Keyboard, a device designed to input information and to control the cursor and the imaging mode~ 3. Processor, a device designed to process information and provide its display. 4. Network devices, devices designed to provide interaction between individual computers and other pieces of hardware and to provide their integration into a local network.According to specific goals of the project, the hardware can be simple or rather sophisticated. It is obvious that certain complicated problems cannot be solved using only simple methods and devices. Sometimes, complicated problems can be divided into comparatively simple steps, although this requires both time and efforts.For example, hardware complexity is determined by: 1) memory volume allocated for a given process; 2) possibility of division of a process into simple operations and their parallel (simultaneous) solution; 3) predictability of the sequence of these operations (streamlined processing); 4) possibility of data packet assembly; 5) ability to process several tasks simultaneously; 6) accessibility of resources required to solve necessary problems; 7) the number of simple operations solved per unit of time; 8) separation of information processes into processes of transportation and computation, their independent solution, etc.Sophisticated hardware that meets all these requirements is rather expensive. In addition, their use, maintenance, and service require personnel of sufficiently high skill.The maintenance and service of these devices include hardware and software installation and support, control of resources, maintenance of viability, etc.As the number of sophisticated devices in a medical organization increases, the problem of their service and maintenance becomes increasingly difficult. On the other hand, simple devices are not able to solve many necessary diagnostic and therapeutic problems.The project of complete automation of a central municipal hospital discussed in this work provided an opportunity for reaching a compromise solution by combining use of simple and sophisticated devices and arranging them as a pyramidal structure (Fig. 1).1. The base of the pyramid is formed by simple devices which do not require the most highly skilled personnel. The list of problems solved at this level includes viewing and editing of medical data entered at the sites o...