By Raiu Narisetti, DAYTON DAILY NEWS

In the 1970s, Larry Song worked in hospitals at Wichita and Columbus developing patient information systems.

Two decades later, Song is back at it again, this time with a patient information system that involves using optical memory cards, a credit card sized product that can hold up to 2,000 pages of medical data including images from CAT scans and X-rays.

In the 20 years away from hospitals, Song has worked on developing flood forecasting models for the Miami Conservancy District, managed a retail computer store, automated warehouses of Sohio (now BP), developed new cash register technology, owned restaurants and, in the last 10 years, built Blue Chip Computers into a $9.5 million information engineering company.

Song and Blue Chip are technological mavericks on the fringes of a nationwide scramble for a piece of the health care reform market that is expected to boost the need to manage patient records more efficiently.

Seven Dayton-area hospitals recently launched a fiber-optic telecommunications network to move patient records electronically. On a national level, the Austin-based Healthcare Open Systems and Trials (HOST) program is just one among dozens of efforts to develop broad health care information systems. It includes, among others, heavyweights such as Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, 3M and Lawrence Berkeley Labs.

That Blue Chip is a small player doesn't fate Song, an energetic entrepreneur whose spoken words often appear to play catch-up with a constant stream of ideas.

"Different groups of people have different focus," Song said. "No one is taking a strategic look. We are looking at the whole information process (and) we want to accommodate other interest groups in building a whole system."

Blue Chip is teaming with Wright State University, Miami Valley School of Nursing and Miami Valley Hospital in conceptualizing a minimum data set, one that allows a specific set of information to be carried on all patient cards irrespective of the hospital or health care agency involved in the treatment.

Once such a data set has been widely accepted, Blue Chip hopes to be involved in developing information networks and data centers that link various medical organizations in a national integrated information system.

It is an ambitious project for a company that five years ago had a mere $2.7 million in sales and was little more than a computer hardware store.

But Song, whose family fled to Taiwan to escape the Communist regime of China, has used a strong technical background in math and science coupled with a freewheeling technical vision to build Blue Chip into a 52-employee company with a roster of clients that includes AT&T GIS, Bank One, EG&G Mound, British Petroleum and the U.S. Air Force.

Michael Shane, chief executive officer of Cables To Go, a Dayton computer cable company, says even 10 years ago, Song was trying to come up with software solutions for customers.

"What impressed me then was they were so far ahead of their time," he said. "They probably found it tough to do business then."

The retail store is long gone, but the focus on software has helped Blue Chip build expertise in networking and systems engineering. That focus as well as minority company status has helped land several government projects, including a $25 million networking contract from the U.S. Air Force where Blue Chip is lead contractor.

"His success doesn't surprise me at all," says Jim Rozelle, general manager and former colleague of Song at the Miami Conservancy District. Rozelle's outfit and Blue Chip are on the verge of signing a contract under which Song will help complete an automatic flood forecasting system for the Conservancy District.