The Morris F. Collen award is reserved as the highest honor our profession can give to an individual who has contributed to it throughout his or her professional life, in multiple ways, which may involve research, teaching, mentorship, leadership, and service to the profession. An awards committee of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) considers nominees for the award, and the selection of the committee is forwarded to the ACMI Executive Committee for approval. ▶
Figure 1.
I now have the honor to present this award to an individual whom I have known for 32 years. I had the privilege to meet this person while I was a medical student at Harvard, when he came to the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to run a large hospital information system implementation project called the Hospital Computer Project. It is an honor to present The Morris F. Collen Award to G. Octo Barnett, MD.
Octo was named after his father. The possibly apocryphal story is that his father was the eighth son, born on the eighth day of the eighth month, in 1888.
While anyone who knows him would think Octo is a native of Alabama, he was actually born in Chule Vista, California, and moved to Greenville, Alabama, at age six. Octo found his way a bit closer to the Mason Dixon line when he learned—while sitting in a barber chair—that scholarships to college might be available at Vanderbilt. Octo then progressed north to Boston for medical school at Harvard and residency in medicine, with a specialization in cardiology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
Octo spent his early scientific years at the Brigham pursuing cardiovascular physiology research, where he became involved with information technology. Around that time, across town, an ambitious project at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) was being undertaken in conjunction with Bolt Beranek & Newman, Inc. (BBN), supported by the National Institutes of Health. This project was being led by BBN; after some of the early enthusiasm died down, it was clear to the leadership at MGH that this project needed physician direction. Octo was recommended by one of the early site visitors, Homer Warner, who knew of his work with computers at the Brigham, and he was recruited to MGH to run the project. The Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) was thus born.
The technology of the early Hospital Computer Project is interesting—a PDP1 computer, with one of the first time-sharing systems, at the same time as Project Mac at MIT. User terminals initially were not video display devices but KSR teletypes, outputting on paper.
Octo headed a very dynamic laboratory in those days of the late 1960s, with new projects underway to automate much of the hospital's activities, including ADT, the clinical laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, and other functions. The design and programming of this system represents one of the first comprehensive hospital information systems using modular definition as the specification paradigm.
Around that time, Octo made the key decision to encourage dissemination of MUMPS by providing a nocost license to DEC to reimplement and market the language. Other companies also followed suit, including Meditech, Intersystems, IDX, and since then, of course, many others. Now known as M, MUMPS continues to be the most widely used programming language in medical applications. ▶, ▶
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
As Harvard Community Health Plant (HCHP) was being formed, the LCS took on the development of a computer-stored ambulatory record. This first system led to the development and national dissemination of COSTAR—a comprehensive and widely used automated ambulatory medical record system. ▶
Figure 4.
Back row, left to right: Robert, Andrew, John; front row: Octo and Sarah.
Other work on medical student education and casebased learning formed the basis for development of a large library of medical education programs (primarily computer-based patient simulations) which are marketed nationally by Williams & Wilkins medical publishers.
The LCS continues to make important contributions under Octo's vision and leadership, including the diagnostic expert system DXplain. and the national dissemination of this system on personal computers and via the Internet.
At the present time the LCS provides clinical information support to MGH and has active research programs in the application of computer technology to computer-based medical record systems, physician workstations, clinical problem solving, expert systems in medical diagnosis, knowledge management, medical education, and clinical research.
Octo's lab has a remarkable history as a crossroads for a large number of the people who work in this field, including:
Robert A. Greenes, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiology, Brigham Women's Hospital. Director of the Decision Systems Group, BWH. Coordinator of Harvard-MIT-NEMC NLM Training Program
Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, Associate Dean for Information Resources & Technology, Stanford Medical School
Jerome H. Grossman, MD, former President and CEO of New England Medical Center
Anthony Gorry, PhD, Vice-President for Information Technology, Director of the Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning, Professor of Computer Science at Rice University
Richard B. Friedman, MD Professor Medicine, Director of Medical Informatics, U. Wisconsin Medical School, former Director, Lister Hill Center
Donald Studney, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Director Division of Internal Medicine, Vancouver General Hospital, U. British Columbia (Director, Multiple Sclerosis Central Data Base Activity using derivative of COSTAR)
A number of other people have worked with Octo in various capacities, among them:
Neil Pappalardo, Chairman of Board Directors, CEO, Meditech
Paul Egerman, Senior VicePresident, IDX ▶
Michael Somad, MD, Medical Director, Henry Ford Health System, Dearborn MI
Peter Katona, PhD, Whitaker Foundation
Bart Harmon, MD, MPH, Chief of Medical Informatics, Walter Reed Medical Center
Jim Cimino, MD, Associate Professor of Med and MI, CPMC; Director, CPMC MI training program
Henry Lowe, MD, Assistant Professor Medicine, Acting Co-Director, Section of Medical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh
Figure 5.
Octo and his wife, Sarah, have three sons: John, now married and living on Long Island; Andrew, married and living in Melbourne, Australia; and Robert, living in Falls Church, Virginia. Octo is now the proud grandfather of Elizabeth, daughter of John and Sheila, and now one and one-half years old.
Octo has done much in the way of organizational service—as a member of the Board of Directors of SCAMC, of AMIA, and of ACMI, and as past president of ACMI.
Octo's aphorisms are well-known:
“Use the proper tense in describing your accomplishments.”
“There's no such thing as `FREE text.”'
And... “I'm just a country doctor.”
If there is anyone who truly embodies the “work hard, play hard” ethic, it is Octo. He has had a prodigious output in papers, talks, projects, grant requests, etc. When he is not doing this, he is whitewater canoeing, sail fishing, cross-country skiing, hiking, mountain biking, playing tennis, or playing volleyball.
I can think of no one who more richly deserves the recognition and affection of his colleagues than does Octo. I present to you my valued friend, the 3rd honoree of the Morris F. Collen award, Guy Octo Barnett.