H.I.S.-tory by Vince Ciotti

Episode #84: Meditech Part 2

© 2012 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

The people who built the behemoth

My Favorite Vendor CEO!• So who founded this amazingly successful and long lived vendor?

Easily one of the greatest HIS-tory heroes in my eyes. Why??1. He graduated from MIT in 1964 – I applied that very year and got

rejected. And I was no dummy: I won a 4-year full scholarship to Temple U. in Philly, but MIT’s standards were that much higher!

2. He was the son of Sicilian immigrants; my grandparents came over on a boat in 1915; my Dad’s the little 2-year-old in this photo:

3. Meditech’s founder shuns business suits, loves Bob Dylan and even wore an earring until he was about 40 years old – sound like the hippie garb Mr. HIS-talk got me to wear at my 2011 HIMSS presentation?

4. He shuns the limelight, the opposite of many CEOs from other HIS vendors…

(Antonino) Neil Pappalardo • So how did he do it? His fascinating story starts back in the ‘60s: – Neil started was a native of frozen suburban Rochester, N.Y.,

like so many other early HIS vendor founders who had nothing else to do in those frozen northlands: Steve Klick of Dairyland, Frank Poggio of HMDS, and Judy whats-her-name of Epic…

– Neil entered MIT in 1960, where he studied physics but graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. His first job in 1964 was at the Hospital Computer Project at Massachusetts General Hospital headed up by Dr. Octo Barnett, who had been recruited by Homer Warner (of IHC fame) and funded by BBN and the NIH.

– Octo’s team was programming a DEC PDP-1 with an impressive 16K of 18 bit memory, and the ability to support an amazing 5 simultaneous users!

Dr. Octo Barnett’s StudentsIn a pdf file you should Google, Octo describes a promising student:“…one of the most imaginative and productive computer scientists it

has been my privilege to know - Neil Pappalardo. I first knew Neil when he was a student of mine at MIT and did his senior thesis in my cardiovascular laboratory. He…joined me after graduation from MIT as Research Assistant. In about 1965-1966, Neil…tried to persuade me that we could develop a programming system that would support the development of medical information systems at MGH. For some months, I tried to discourage them from what I felt to be a radical and obviously unproductive activity - - after all, what competency and experience did a hospital-based group have…? Neil, however ignored my guidance, as was his usual habit, proceeded with the development of MUMPS, and in a few months, had a system that was exciting and promising.”

Other Octo HIS Pioneers

– You may remember an earlier episode on GE’s early “Medinet” shared system (episode 13 at hispros.com). Here’s Octo’s take:• “At about this time… GE entered the business of time-

sharing computer support for the hospital industry. This new GE subsidiary, known as Medinet, had very ambitious goals - simultaneously to develop time-sharing hardware, a new language and a complete set of hospital information applications. The company never had the opportunity to either succeed or fail, since after about six months GE decided to terminate all of its computer activities…”

Dr. Barnett’s had several other HIS connections:- TSI - Another of Octo’s students was Jerry

Grossman, who was CEO of New England Medical Center, and founder of Transition Systems, Inc. a leading EIS system, later acquired by Eclipsys (Allscripts today).

Medinet/Meditech Connection…• Episode 13A of this HIS-tory series told a fascinating tale that

connects the GE Medinet timesharing project to today’s Meditech- That episode recounts Jim Pesce’s (current VP

of McKesson’s red-hot Paragon) story of his early days at GE Medinet back in 1969:• One of Jim’s night-shift employees at GE was

a youngster named Larry Polimeno, passed over for a supervisor job. Larry then quit to join some flaky start-up HIS firm…

• And what was the firm Larry joined? In 1968, Neil left MGH to launch his own firm after learning his wife was pregnant with their fourth child. Times were tough and Neil talked to many friends, family and potential donors to raise money, eventually finding some local venture investors. The day his 4th child (a girl) was born, he formed:

Management Stability• Remember this chart below? It illustrates the amazing stability of

Neil Pappalardo and Larry Polimeno as senior execs at Meditech.• Only 2 other HIS vendors have had the same people leading their

entire HIS-tory: Cerner’s Neil Paterson and Epic’s Judy Faulkner, although “only” for 30 years each (SMS’ Jim Macaleer also had reigned for 30 years before the Siemens acquisition circa 1999)

• All other vendors have had a steady parade thru their C-Suites…

Other Meditech Execs• In 1975, a young programmer named Howard

Messing came from MIT. Fortunately, his work did not live up to his name, and he worked his way up the organization, promoted to VP of Implementation in 1984, and then CEO in 2010, when Neil hit 68.

• Here’s their smiling C-Suite from the mid-1990s:

Joanne Wood

Howard Messing

Bob GaleRoberta Grigg Barbara Manzollilo

Chris Anschuetz

Ed Pisinski

Other Meditech Mavens• Got to give credit to several other old friends from

Meditech who have greatly impressed me over the years:– Stu Lefthes, VP of Sales, who left McAuto to join

Meditech in 1982; big joke in St. Louis: “Stu Left ‘us!”

- Ken Jasper, Regional Sales Director in the northeast, who was stuck with our firm through dozens of our vendor-brutal “Non-RFP” system selection processes, and won his fair share of them while always remaining a gentleman (so rare in the HIT sales world!).

• Next Week: we delve into the early years of Meditech’s development- An amazing array of non-healthcare systems in the early 70s!- LIS start at Cape Cod hospital that lasted for 40 full years…- Evolution from MUMPS to MIIS to Magic to NPR to C/S to 6.0