RIP Dr. Octo Barnett

[K.S. Bhaskar]

Octo Barnet, MD, died June 30, 2020 at the age of 89. Barnett was the founder and former Senior Scientific Director of the Laboratory of Computer Science at MGH. He is internationally recognized as one of the founding fathers of medical informatics who pioneered the use of computers in patient care.

Dr. Barnett studied mathematics, computer science, and chemistry at Vanderbilt University. He earned his MD from Harvard Medical School and completed his residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Dr. Barnett and his wife, Sarah, also raised three sons: John, Andrew, and Robert.

Barnett understood the needs and workflows of hospital staff and the possibilities and limitations of the technology. He spoke the language of both programmers and physicians and brought a valuable mix of skills that allowed the project to go forward. In 1964, Dr. Barnett was recruited by Mass General to head the Hospital Computer Project, an ambitious plan to implement a large hospital information system. From this project, the Laboratory of Computer Science was born. He remained the director of the lab until his retirement in 2012. Learn more about Dr. Barnett’s work with the Laboratory of Computer Science.

Although he described himself humbly as “just a country doctor,” Dr. Barnett altered the course of the practice of medicine when he suggested, in the 1950s, “We ought to try using time sharing computer systems to improve medical care.” He was co-developer of COSTAR, one of the nation’s first computerized electronic health records, and of DXplain, one of the best known, widely used diagnostic decision support systems. The programming language known as Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System (MUMPS), which remains in widespread use today as the foundation of numerous clinical systems, was invented in LCS under his leadership. He has authored numerous publications in medical informatics with subjects as diverse as electronic health records, medical education, knowledge access and decision support.

Dr. Barnett is a founding fellow and former president of the American College of Medical Informatics and received the ACMI Morris Collen Award of Excellence. He is also a founder and original member of the American Medical Informatics Association. He was an editor of Methods of Information in Medicine and Computers in Biomedical Research. He has served on the National Institutes of Health Computer Research Study Section and the Study Section on Health Care Systems.

Regards

– Bhaskar

[K.S. Bhaskar]

“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

Regards
– Bhaskar

[rrichards]

Thank you Bhaskar. He is a true giant.  We are keeping his legacy alive.

Rafael

On Friday, July 3, 2020 at 5:08:04 PM UTC-4, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:

[iq100]

R.I.P.  What a contribution to all here making a living from MUMPS!
Anyone here know the connection between Dr. Barnett's MGH group, and Digital's DSM?

Did Digital purchase and piggy back on top for Dr. Barnett's MUMPS development efforts, or did Digital start afresh with their DSM effort?

On Friday, July 3, 2020 at 5:08:04 PM UTC-4, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:

[iq100]

Curious as to what language Dr. Barnett's group used to write MUMPS?  What processor/hardware?  I think DSM was written in C?

On Friday, July 3, 2020 at 5:08:04 PM UTC-4, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:

[OldMster]

DSM on VMS might have been written in C eventually, but the original M, and DSM-11 were most likely written in assembly language.  

[K.S. Bhaskar]

My guess: DSM on VAX/VMS was most likely written in BLISS, or maybe PASCAL. On VMS, C was a Johnny-come-lately. Also, the original MUMPS ran on PDP-7 (just like the first UNIX).

Regards

 Bhaskar

[Valerie J H Powell]

Thank you! Valerie

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Valerie J H Powell RT(R) retired, MS, PhD
University Professor Emerita, Computer & Information Systems
Project on Clinical Data Integration (CDI)
Robert Morris University
6001 University Boulevard
Moon Township, PA 15108-1189 USA 

[Roy Gaber]

I think it was BLISS, I recall working with software engineers when there was trouble, and remember looking at the BLISS code.

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[Art]

Thank you for providing this information about such great work

[iq100]

http://71.174.62.16/MDC/faq.htm

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From: Daniel P.B. Smith

Hi, Monika... There is a 16-page article, "History of the Development of Medical Information Systems at the Laboratory of Computer Science at Massachusetts General Hospital" by G. Octo Barnett, MD, in "A History of Medical Informatics," edited by Bruce I Blum and Karen Duncan, published by the ACM Press (Addison-Wesley), 1990, ISBN 0-201-50128-7. I bought it on sale for five bucks at Quantum. It's almost certainly out of print but it couldn't hurt to ask Quantum if they have any more copies kicking around.

According to the article, the first implementation, of a language called MUMPS, by Neil Pappalardo, was on a PDP-7. Not a PDP-15 or a PDP-9, a PDP-7.

He traces its origins from JOSS through BBN's Telecomp and StringComp.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Dennis J. Brevik

The original platform was a PDP-9. When the MGH version was picked up by DEC it was productized onto the PDP-15. A couple years later it was rewritten by DEC for the PDP-11. The systems were standalone. The date that DEC officially picked up a magtape of MUMPS (PDP-9) from LCS at MGH was October 3, 1970. It was a pleasant fall day. The PDP-15 MUMPS system was installed at its first site (Health Data Management Systems of Denver) in May 1971. It took two hours to install, amazing everybody on the site, who were expecting a week or two effort.

Dr. Octo Barnett was in charge at the Laboratory of Computer Science at MGH. Neil Papalardo and Bob Greenes were major contributors. Neil went on to form Medical Information Technology (Meditech), Greenes was a medical doctor as well as holding a PhD in computer science - both degrees awarded simultaneously from Harvard. Bob went on to be President of Automated Health Systems of Wakefield MA and Burlingame CA.

In a Boston meeting in Fall 1972 Bruce Waxman of NIH told the audience in no uncertain terms that if they wanted to get NIH money for their computer projects they damned well better be using MUMPS, that NIH was not interested in reinventing THAT wheel, thank you. MUMPS took off.

I was the original product line and technical leader on MUMPS-15 at DEC. Paul Stylos was the technical leader for MUMPS-11. Evelyn Dow was the original Marketing representative. And let us not forget Dave Ensor of Scotland, who made significant technical contributions. The DEC executive who originally saw the value in MUMPS was Stan Olsen. Sam Moulton was also on the technical side.

Respecfully,

Dan Brevik"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I remember (I think, LOL) that MUMPS-11 used a different persistent storage order that today's MUMPS.  Rather then depth first, MUMPS-11 stored all nodes at a higher subscript level together.  Then nodes at a deeper subscript level.  I think Paul Sylos may have been instrumental in understanding the considerable advantage of 'common character counts', provided by a depth first, node storage arrangement.

Where is the original code?  Whether in assembler, JOSS, Bliss, or C? Did someone burn these original magnificient efforts?

On Friday, July 3, 2020 at 5:08:04 PM UTC-4, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:

[r...@rcresearch.us]

I started as a Marine Biologist and had been working in Physical
Oceanography for Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in
1976, but was offered a job with Shared Medical Systems in King
-of-Prussia, PA once I had graduated FAU in Boca Raton. So I
was a late comer to MUMPS and had most of my computer experience
in FORTRAN, Basic, APL, Snobol, and a little language called L5
from Lincoln Labs. String handling wasn't strange to me, but
MUMPS was kind of an odd duck. It was like Basic on steroids.
It had some weird but useful features that I learned to love.
Having worked in FORTRAN on Digital, Data General, and Univac
it was strange working with a programming language that was
the database and the Operating System as well. I went up to
KOP and took the Digital MUMPS Class taught by Mr. Baker and
learned the ACCESS system that SMS was using in their hospitals.

Their mistake was sending me to Louis Weise Hospital in Chicago in
January of 1977. I got the feeling I had not been to Chicago
but found where it was buried. I came back to Philadelphia and
found a South Bound company, Singer-Link at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston Texas. Even though I was back in FORTRAN,
I was still intrigued by MUMPS. I found out about the MUMPS
Users' Group and their annual meeting in San Diego and I signed
up to attend. This is also where I got my first taste of the
MDC and I met Octo Barnette there for the first time. I stayed
on the edge of the MUMPS community and bought a DEC Pro 350 and
STS MUMPS to run on it. My techno-gypsey travels took me to CSC
at NSTL, National Space Technologies Lab in Bay Saint Louis,
Missisppi and they needed a MUMPS programmer out at the Naval
Weapons Center at China Lake, California, still with CSC.
It turned out that I was only 1 of 13 people in CSC who
knew what MUMPS was. It was the fastest transfer I ever witnessed
and I was out there for nearly 3 years before I was recruited
to work as a consultant to SAIC in San Diego. That was an
area that I had visited before and fell in love with. I was
recruited to work on the proposal for CHCS for the Department
of Defense hospitals across the world. I was stil happy with
MUMPS still being the Operating System as well as the programming
language and the Database, but that changed when we worked with
DSM on VMS and MSM on SCO Unix. We started with DSM-11 on PDP-11
and DSM on Vax VMS, then we were migrated from the PDP-11's to the
Vaxes and Alphas, but the military wanted even cheaper configurations,
so we migrated to MSM on commercial PCs. When CHCS wound down in
the late 1990's I was offered a post at Beth Israel and Deaconess
Hospitals in Boston on contract to help them migrate from Octo's
system to Cerner. Having studied and read the reviews of the
unhappy customers of Cerner, it was easy to see that the hospitals
were being walked down the path of Vendor Lock-in by Cerner.
I warned them and they developed a web front end for Octo's system
and they kept it for a good long time later, (maybe still).

Chris Richardson

>> <http://www.mghlcs.org/50th-anniversary>

>>
>> Although he described himself humbly as “just a country doctor,” Dr.
>> Barnett altered the course of the practice of medicine when he suggested,
>> in the 1950s, “We ought to try using time sharing computer systems to
>> improve medical care.” He was co-developer of COSTAR, one of the nation’s
>> first computerized electronic health records, and of DXplain, one of the
>> best known, widely used diagnostic decision support systems. The
>> programming language known as Massachusetts General Hospital Utility
>> Multi-Programming System (MUMPS), which remains in widespread use today as
>> the foundation of numerous clinical systems, was invented in LCS under his
>> leadership. He has authored numerous publications in medical informatics
>> with subjects as diverse as electronic health records, medical education,
>> knowledge access and decision support.
>> Dr. Barnett is a founding fellow and former president of the American
>> College of Medical Informatics and received the ACMI Morris Collen Award of
>> Excellence. He is also a founder and original member of the American
>> Medical Informatics Association. He was an editor of Methods of Information
>> in Medicine and Computers in Biomedical Research. He has served on the
>> National Institutes of Health Computer Research Study Section and the Study
>> Section on Health Care Systems.
>>
>> Regards
>> – Bhaskar
>>
>

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[Kevin Toppenberg]

I saw him briefly at the $H mumps clock rollover party in MA years back.  I wish I could have spoken with him.  He has had an amazing impact on the world.  RIP.

Kevin T

On Friday, July 3, 2020 at 5:08:04 PM UTC-4, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:

[M. Susaanti Follingstad]

Hi, all.  Sad to hear.  Thought I’d mention an old MUMPS funny story I heard from somewhere involving Dr Barnett.  I think it was from the early days of COSTAR, the MUMPS-based ambulatory medical record system.  He and a programmer were having an argument about the need to clear out some patient data.  They were on an elevator in the hospital with other people and the programmer said “but Dr. Barnett, you just can’t kill all those patients!” (of course referring to the Kill command in MUMPS).

 

Always wondered what the other folks on the elevator did after that (get off and call the cops?).  Anyone know (or able to verify the story)?

 

Well wishes and take care,

Marianne

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[Wolfgang Giere]

Thank you Chris, that was interesting. We probably met first a San Diego.

Wouldn't it be a good idea for the hardhats to collect autobiografic stories "How I got in contact with Mumps" in honor of Octo? I would volonteer to collect an edit them using LaTeX as a booklet.

Wolfgang

PS: My own stry of learning Mumps from Octo on a napkin at the airport of Dubrovnik 1972 is published, I could repeat it.

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Betreff: Re: [Hardhats] Re: RIP Dr. Octo Barnett
Datum: 2020-07-07T01:58:22+0200
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An: "hard...@googlegroups.com" <hard...@googlegroups.com>

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