Pursuit
of Excellence: MEDITECH Looks Back on 40 Years of I.T.
Innovation
(9/2/2009)
 The year 1969 marked a
tumultuous end to one of the most transformative
decades in American history. We saw the communal
optimism of Woodstock and a wondrous moon landing
transposed against the social upheaval of the Vietnam
War and the grisly Charles Manson murders. It was a
difficult time, marked by uncertainty, contradiction,
and change—in some ways much like 2009. But the
last year of the Sixties was also when a young MIT
graduate named A. Neil Pappalardo established the
health care software company known as Medical
Information Technology, Inc., or MEDITECH.Computers were very different then. Compared to the ubiquitous portable accessories of today, they were gigantic, brontosaurus-like machines with mysterious powers, sometimes portrayed as sinister foils to the heroes of science fiction movies. But to Pappalardo and company, they represented a new path for health care—a way to make medicine more efficient by storing data electronically, rather than on flimsy paper charts. Setting the Pace for the HCIS Industry It was unchartered territory, the concept that computers could improve health care, and furthermore, become the basis for a flourishing business. MEDITECH effectively jump-started the HCIS industry with just the basics: a Laboratory application written in MUMPS—the programming language Pappalardo and colleague Curt W. Marble designed for the production of multi-user, database-driven applications. MUMPS soon gave way to a new adaptation, MIIS, in the early 1970s, as MEDITECH began to develop other software products for medical environments. "In the beginning we had no great and far reaching plan. Each event, every decision, a success here, a mistake there, would take us another step forward," says Pappalardo, who also recalls working on many non-health care-related systems during those tenuous first years. "We'd program anything. None of these were viable markets for us, but the efforts drove our software to higher levels." Despite these early experiments, health care innovation was always at the forefront of MEDITECH's endeavors, as evidenced by the creation of our Microbiology, Pharmacy, Admissions, Billing/Accounts Receivables, Accounts Payable, Anatomical Pathology, and General Ledger products. MEDITECH began as a pacesetter, starting with interactive time-sharing on mini-computers, at a time when the industry was dominated by batch processing on mainframes. Our software was based on high-level, interpretive languages when everyone else used compiled code like Fortran or Cobol. Then, in 1979, a breakthrough: we celebrated our 10th anniversary with the release of MAGIC—a comprehensive, integrated platform still widely in use by many of our customers today. Building a Reputation for Quality MAGIC was a solid, dependable platform for the 1980s and early 1990s, as MEDITECH endeavored upon a virtual explosion of software offerings, while also becoming a strong international presence in Canada, the UK, and even South Africa. Back at home, as familiarity with computers became more integrated into the mainstream culture (thanks in large part to the video gaming industry, and later, the World Wide Web), MEDITECH's products also reflected an increasingly complex health care industry which required an equally integrated approach to data management. MEDITECH's adoption of the industry standard, Client/Server technology in 1994 signified a huge step forward in giving clinicians more user-friendly, intuitive views of patient data. Just two years later, we also became the first health care vendor to implement an Enterprise Medical Record, which would become the central electronic hub from which all caregivers could see the latest lab results, vital signs, and orders. The concept of being able to administer top quality care to any patient, from any where, at any time, was starting to take shape—as we began the 21st Century by venturing beyond acute care walls for the first time, and into the realms of home health, behavioral health, emergency room care, and practice management. Customers Take Center Stage The 2000s turned our attention even more closely to the challenges of our user community, as we used the new Internet to offer more personalized service to our customers than ever before, via our company Web site. Our software products were also becoming more tailored to clinicians' experiences, as the Physician Care Manager product offered caregivers CPOE capabilities and role-based desktops—making it easier to see, use, and share crucial patient information. Likewise, point-of-care documentation and handheld technologies offered physicians and nurses more flexibility to administer the best care, without ever leaving the patient bedside. And, our Interoperability suites highlighted new possibilities to extend seamless medical services beyond the boarders of networks, states, even countries. As this decade comes to a close, new government regulations (including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) are putting even more pressure on providers to use I.T. in their daily practice. Again, MEDITECH has stayed ahead of the curve, with the release of 6.0—a streamlined platform designed to suit a wide range of health care environments and roles with flatter, faster user interfaces. With 6.0, caregivers have tools which exceed the reliability of yesterday's paper charts, while employing the necessary trending and reporting capabilities to respond to today's diverse health care needs. Coming Full Circle: A Time of Great Promise Reaching our 40th anniversary, MEDITECH is facing a world perhaps just as chaotic and fluid as it was back in 1969. But President and COO Howard Messing believes that, along with the turmoil, there is also great promise, as we've seen many of our 2,200 customers achieve both clinical and financial success during the toughest of times. "Our hospitals are what keep us motivated, 40 years later, to continue our journey of innovation as the health care industry undergoes its latest sea change," he says. "From our very first customers, to our newest signings—they represent the best of our past, as well as the potential of our future." MEDITECH: 40 Years
in Photos |
