NIH Clinical Center Medical Information System Development Collection

In 1973, Gerald Macks teamed with Dr. Thomas Lewis to justify, specify, acquire, install and operate the first computerized medical information system (MIS) for the NIH Clinical Center. The MIS system was a novel effort in a medical research setting and one of only a few such systems in hospital settings. The core system handled charting, clinical orders, and retrieval of results for all NIH inpatient and outpatient visits. It was expanded by accretion with the addition of ancillary systems (to exchange information with the pharmacy, diagnostic radiology, laboratory testing, the blood bank, etc.). Its data warehouse component connected to the NIH Division of Computer Research and Technology (DCRT) which allowed NIH investigators to re-use the patient data for research. The commercialization of the MIS software allowed it to become a model for hospitals across the country, and it remained operational at the Clinical Center from 1976-2002 until it was replaced by the Clinical Research Information System (CRIS).