Skip to main content

Govt building

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure access Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Octo Barnett papers

 Collection
Identifier: HMD MS ACC 2006-017

Abstract

UNPROCESSED COLLECTION. Barnett was Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Senior Research Director, Laboratory of Computer Science Massachusetts General Hospital. 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.

Dates

  • Creation: 1962-2005

Extent

7.5 Linear Feet

Creator

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. National Library of Medicine.

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Access Restrictions

Unprocessed collection. Access is restricted. See Reference Librarian for information regarding access.

Copyright and Re-use Information

Donor's copyrights were transferred to the public domain. Archival collections often contain mixed copyrights; while NLM is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. It is the user's responsibility to research and understand any applicable copyright and re-publication rights not allowed by fair use. NLM does not grant permissions to publish.

Privacy Information

Archives and manuscript collections may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in any collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications for which the National Library of Medicine assumes no responsibility.

Biographical Note

Barnett was Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Senior Research Director, Laboratory of Computer Science Massachusetts General Hospital. He was a cardiologist that went into medical informatics. Founder and former Senior Scientific Director of the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and was recognised world-wide as one of the founding fathers of Medical Informatics who pioneered the use of computers in patient care. In 1964, Dr. Barnett was recruited by MGH 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. 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.

Barnett died June 30, 2020 [https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/loss-of-a-pioneer-in-medical-informatics-dr-octo-barnett/]

Abstract

UNPROCESSED COLLECTION. Barnett was Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Senior Research Director, Laboratory of Computer Science Massachusetts General Hospital. 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.

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. National Library of Medicine.

Provenance

Gift, Octo Barnett, 5/2/2006, Accession 2006-017, 2006-049.

Title
Finding Aid to the Octo Barnett papers, 1962-2005
Status
Unverified Partial Draft
Author
Derived using MARCedit
Date
March 2013
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English
Edition statement
1.0

Collecting Area Details

Part of the Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collections Collecting Area

Contact:
8600 Rockville Pike
Bldg 38/1E-21, MSC 3819
Bethesda MD 20894 US
1-888-FINDNLM (1-888-346-3656)