The objective of the HELIOS project was to create a Software Engineering Environment to facilitate the development of medical applications. HELIOS comprises a set of Software Components, communicating through an abstract channel called Software Bus, providing services to the application designer, and finally to the application end-user. The kernel comprises three main Software Components, the Information System, the Documentation Facilities, and a component that provides a convenient user interface, the Interface Manager. The Services consist of a collection of toolkits providing the necessary services to medical applications. Up to now, they are represented by an Image Processing Toolbox.

The object oriented paradigm is used both as a methodology for modelling the entities and procedures found in an application and as the basic structure for building the Software Components. Development standards include UNIX as operating system and X Window/MOTIF as windowing environment. The target application for the prototype is the development of a hospital Ward Information System with its Ward Image Manipulation Subsystem.