1. H.I.S.-tory- by Vince Ciotti
Episode #123:Epic-ologue
© 2013 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

2. HIS-tory Presentation
• If you’ve been following this HIS-tory series over the past 2
years, you may remember the kind way Judy Faulkner reacted
when I contacted her about the story of Epic (you can find all the
gory details in episodes #95 through 98 at HISPros.com).
• As a rather harsh critic of most vendors, I expected a cold
shoulder, but she surprised me with a warm invite and was quite
the gracious host when I arrived in (warm) Verona last October.
• I’ve since been accused of “drinking the
Kool-Aid,” but I now understand why so
many large AMCs and IDNs have gone Epic
– it’s the opposite of Verona’s climate!
• So I asked Judy if she’d like me to present a
my 2011 HIMSS presentation that launched
this whole series to her staff, she accepted,
and I called my travel agent for a dog sled...

3. A Warm Audience!
• Even more chilling than the weather was the fact that I would be
addressing Epic’s entire employee base of ≈6,000 people! The
largest audience I ever addressed was about 200-300 at various
HIMSS & HFMA meetings over the years – heck, the Metropolitan
Opera House in Lincoln Center NY only seats about 4,000…
• As it turns out, this would be the
first presentation in a brand new
hall Epic just constructed that
holds an amazing 11,000 people,
for future growth as well as their
annual User Group meetings.
• The room is called “Deep Space”
and in typical Epic fashion it was
built in a unique manner: all
underground to not spoil the
lovely view of surrounding farms.

4. Introduction
• So I travelled through the “polar vortex” to Verona last week
where Judy’s staff did its usual excellent job of organizing for the
presentation. You can imagine how much technology Deep Space
employs coming from a leading IT vendor – their only challenge
was to find an overhead projector which I like to begin with to
make the visual point about just how far back the 1960s were!
They found one, and we set it up as a brief “blast from the past.”
• Amazingly, all 6K people found
their way into Deep Space in 15
minutes, another testament to
Epic’s superb planning and
organization. Judy gave a kind
and flattering introduction (that I
had written), and I swallowed
hard as I climbed the steps to
face those 12,000 eyes & ears…

5. Strip Tease!
• I started out in my business suit just like
at HIMSS in 2011 and got a few giggles
about how overhead projectors could do
things PowerPoint can’t, like a “revelator”
– a piece of paper slid under the foil to
reveal only parts at a time - and writing
with an erasable (one hopes!) pen…
• Then the fun began: I told the ladies to avert
their eyes as I was going to show them just
what we looked like in the 1960 by taking
my pants off… I slowly revealed a hippie
outfit under my suit that Mr. HIS-talk
goaded me to buy for the HIMSS shtick in
2011. The ladies roared (while the men
moaned…) as I slowly revealed a pair of
(overly) tight & colorful bell-bottom pants

6. Strip Tease, cont’d
• Next came a flower shirt with 6-inch wide tie
that barely matched, highlighted by a gold
chain. Actually, the one piece of clothing that
really did come from the 1960s is the dark
leather belt which I wore to “D’Scene,” the hot
spot in Philly circa 1969 when I started at SMS.
Of course, I have had to drill many more holes
in it to let it out as I grew & prospered…
• To really set the stage, I then showed them
some of dance steps we did at D’Scene way
back then – amazing my tired old bones
could still do those tricky steps, although
probably with a little less gusto & flair than
when I was in my peak in my twenties. I did
win a dance contest back then, and didn’t
do too bad with the hot chicks in Phila…

7. A Hairy Subject
• Lastly I donned a thick curly
wig to cover my grey temples,
and finally looked just like I
did when Jim Macaleer
interviewed me in King Of
Prussia – I can never figure
out why he ever hired me
(nor I suspect can he…)
• In case you think I’m exaggerating our hirsute
appearance back then, the picture on the left
was taken in 1973 at our apartment near King of
Prussia when I donned one of the early 3-piece
business suits that swept IBM’s “white shirt &
blue tie” uniform off the stage at SMS. The
beard didn’t last as long quite as the suit did!

8. How Fears Can Fade away…
• It’s funny how the absolute terror I first felt at the thought of
standing in front of 6,000 people evaporated almost instantly
with their first laughter, and as I preceded into the content that I
knew so well: 6K or 6, once you get going, it’s a moot point…

9. HIS-tory Histrionics
• Just like we “green IDs” at SMS way back then, Epic hires mostly
bright, young folks and teaches them the “Epic” way. So the
audience was pretty young – an average age of about 30. I then
proceeded to regale them with tales from the HIS-tory crypt that
occurred decades before many of them were even born, like:
– Lockheed’s “MIS” pioneering CPOE & EMRs way back in 1967
– Mike Mulhalls’ IBM “HIS” project introducing scribes in 1968
– NadaCom’s“REACH” EMR system started in the late 1960s
– Walt Huff’s “CRASH” system from 1963, and “SHIS” from 1970
– Malcolm Gelser’s“PHAMIS” EMR system started in 1975
– SMS’ “Unifile” pioneering data base system from the mid 70s
– NCR’s PNUT bedside patient monitoring system from 1984
– CliniCom’shand-held, bedside BMV system from 1985…

10. Attentive Audience
• To their credit, the youngsters
seemed to stay awake and paid
attention – maybe our younger
years really are our best years,
and our minds are far less open
to new info as we age?
• They enjoyed Epic-related
stories the most, for
example, how Neal
Pappalardowas one of
Judy’s mentors when she
first started “Human
Services Computing” in
1979, and out of respect for
him, she only sold to large
hospitals, AMCs and IDNs.

11. Surprise During Q & A Session
• After an hour of these tales from HIS-tory, a Q&A session started
and I was stumped by a question raised by an “EPIC-curean:”
– “This review of the past was very informative, thank you, but
tell us, what do you see for the future of HIS systems?”
• Wow, I was stumped: after giving this session to ≈300 CIOs at
HIMSS, the IT staff of a large hospital and dozens of vendor reps
at a sales kickoff meeting, let alone all these 122 episodes on
HIS-talk with hundreds of resulting emails, no one ever looked
forward. I actually had to stop and think for a minute (a rare
event for those who know me…). Best I could come up with were
some platitudes and generalities – I really had never thought
about it myself. Maybe that’s the best point to leave a HIS-tory
series with – where is all of this marvelous technology taking us?
What will the HIS industry & systems look like in 5 or 10 years??

12. Gracious Hosts
• Many of you will recognize Judy
Faulkner, but her President, Carl
Dvorak, on the right deserves
recognition too as not only a
super-bright techie ( he showed
me things PowerPoint can do
that I hadn’t known about for 30
years!), but as a very pleasant
and charming person to boot!
• They both joined us for dinner
where we had a fascinating
conversation comparing answers
about the future of HIS systems:
I wish I had it tape-recorded it to
see how our prognostications
will have fared by 2024…

13. Final Episodes
• So thanks to Judy’s team at Epic, I’m gonna add a few last
episodes on the “take-aways” from HIS-tory: just what is it that all
these stories about the roots of HIS systems tell a CIO today?
• Starting with tactical issues that hospitals face today like:
– How long to stay with your “legacy” HIS, versus taking the
plunge with a modern but relatively untested replacement?
– Am I safer with a larger vendor firm than with a start-up?
– Who can you trust to give advice when planning/selecting?
– Are the rewards worth the risks when being a pilot site?
• Strategic questions over 5-10 years are tougher, so I welcome
thoughts from readers: I’ll give you all due credit (or blame!).
• And if you’d like to have my HIS-tory presentation (and costume)
at your next staff meeting or regional HIMSS session, call or write
– Vince Ciotti at: 505.466.4958 or vciott@hispros.com