FW: Special Note about A Special Lecture: Health/Biomedical Expert - Dr. Octo Barnett - June 27

[Brenda Smith]

-----Original Message-----
From: wihir at csg.uwaterloo.ca [mailto:wihir at csg.uwaterloo.ca] 
Sent: June 20, 2007 4:43 PM
To: Brenda Smith
Subject: Special Note about A Special Lecture: Health/Biomedical Expert -
Dr. Octo Barnett - June 27


Dear Colleague

Re: The Visit of Octo Barnett to the University of Waterloo on June 27,
2007. 

When I first became involved in the Health Informatics area - then called
"Medical Computing" - in the late 1960s, virtually the first person I
learned about was Dr. Octo Barnett. At that time he was already very
well-known and highly acclaimed for his work in developing MUMPS and his
development of a laboratory dedicated to medical computing at Massachusetts
General Hospital. MUMPS is a programming language, using which many
healthcare information systems have been built. It survives to this day in
the cores of many vendors' products. His Laboratory for Computer Science was
the venue of training of many of the leaders that have emerged in health and
biomedical informatics as well as being the locus of development of what was
probably the first major ambulatory care information system. You may be
familiar with his current work on a well-know clinical decision support
tool, DXplain: See: http://lcs.mgh.harvard.edu/projects/dxplain.html

Over the years we have all followed his work and then the work of his
protégés. His influence has been both wide and deep in our discipline.

Beyond this, he has also contributed significantly to raising awareness
regarding and addressing the needs of persons with dyslexia. He not only
gives freely of his time for his students, but also for the benefit of the
larger society in which he lives.

We are very honored by his visit, as he goes right back to the first
intellectual stirrings that now are the target of billions of dollars and
thousands of professionals: ehealth as we now call it.

Over the years I've been privileged to talk with Octo and exchange many
calls and emails. I've also learned of his sharp wit and wry sense of humor.
He is a truly interesting person and fun to be with.

This note is just to ask you to join us...in person, via webcast, or via
videoconference through Ontario Telehealth Network at 3:00 PM EST on
Wednesday, June 27 (next week...it's hard to believe!). If you cannot
attend, then just send him an email welcoming him to Canada
(OBARNETT at PARTNERS.ORG) and later watch the program on our HI Alive archive.
This can be found at: http://hi.uwaterloo.ca/hi/index.html

He is a great man, with immense wisdom, and a model of achievement.

Sincerely, 

H. Dominic Covvey
Professor, NSERC/Agfa Research Chair in Health Informatics
Director, Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave. West
Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1
Tel: 519-888-4567 ext. 35996
Fax: 519-746-5422
E-Mail: dcovvey at uwaterloo.ca

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://artslist.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/artsannounce/attachments/20070621/c30da788/attachment.html