The British government is poised to announce the first round of major contracts for the development of a nationwide, integrated healthcare informatics infrastructure, a project that will cost billions and could involve more than a dozen companies.

Vendors and industry experts say the initial contract announcements for the National Health Service's National Program for IT are imminent. The NHS is likely to name the team to lead the development of the system's data backbone as well as the groups in charge of wiring providers in London and the north-eastern part of the country.

The bidding process has stretched for much of this year and involved nearly 100 companies seeking to provide service or equipment for either the so-called data spine designed to create a repository of patient data that can be accessed across the country, or one of five regional projects designed to bring the technology directly to doctors and hospitals.

The contracts will be worth £2.3 billion over the next three years, with additional money likely becoming available after that period.

With nearly every major healthcare-IT company involved in the process, analysts said predicting winners was especially difficult. Ryan Stewart, an analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, said that while he had published a report suggesting that IBM could take both the data spine and the London projects, those predictions could easily be wrong.

"At the end of the day, it's purely a coin toss in every region. You can talk yourself into -- and out of -- every possible scenario," Stewart said.

IBM is competing with British Telecommunications to build the spine. Lockheed, initially one of the finalists for that contract, pulled out of the running in September. In London, IBM -- which has partnered with Cerner -- is again competing against BT.

The northeastern contract will be awarded to groups led by either Accenture, Cerner, or Patient First Alliance. Stewart has predicted that contract will go to Accenture and its partners, which include industry giants Microsoft and Siemens.