2. Now Where Were We…
• We’re just finishing up the mini vendors who
dominated HIS sales in the 1980s:
– HBO, Meditech, DCC, Gerber/Alley, etc.
• Upsetting the dominant shared systems like:
– SMS, McAuto, GE, Tymshare and the many
Blues…
• We’re down to the last few “mini” minis:
– AR/Mediquest and JS/Data, both running on IBM
• Who, although they didn’t dominate in terms
of number of $s, made fascinating HIS-tories:
– Remember what “AR” in AR/Mediquest is for?
• So whatever happened to JS/Data?
– Click right to find out!
3. Hidden HIS-tory Heroes
• John Sacco, founder of JS/Data, and Ron Young, his COO, were
kind enough to give credit to some of the many hard-working
employees behind the scenes who made JS/Data succeed, like:
• Bev Frascati, top right, who installed
systems at many of JS/Data’s clients, and is
still working today at Roger Williams
Hospital
• Becky Magee – (no picture, sorry) who John
stole away from AR/Mediquest: “I hired
Becky Magee away from them and she
became a super salesperson for us.”
• Sue Cohen, bottom right, according to Ron
Young: “one of the best technical writers in
the industry. She wrote and typed every
single user manual for JS/Data by herself, an
4. Exeunt, Stage Right
• So what happened to JS/Data?
Check out this cover of
Healthcare Computing and
Communications circa 1984,
that features many of the key
players in JS/Data’s fate (from
left to right):
– Rick Adam – the boss at
Baxter Travenol Laboratories
– Frank Russo – who headed
up StonyBrook systems
– Steve Dougherty – who
headed sales at DCC
– John Sacco – JS/Data CEO
– Ron Young – JS/Data COO
5. Baxter/Travenol/AHS
• Like DCC, JS/Data was acquired, by Baxter in 1984 (who
themselves had merged with Travenol and American
Hospital Supply), creating an offering of 3-tiers of HIS:
– JS Data – on IBM’s Sys36, called “Alpha” for <100 beds
– Dynamic Control – running on IBM’s Sys 38, which
they called “Delta” and sold to mid-size sites of 1–300
beds
– “Stony Brook Systems” = IBM “PCS/ADS” mainframe
software for large AMCs and IDNs named “Omega.”
• So Baxter/Travenol now covered the
waterfront, with products for every size
hospital, and JS Data was their stellar
“low-end” option, targeted to small,
under 100 bed community hospitals.
6. Internecine Warfare
• Steve Kilgus points out the problem Baxter hit:
– The line between Alpha (JS Data) and Delta (Dynamic Control)
was a rather thin one as, in fact, JS Data had a number of
hospitals at or over 100 beds, just like DCC had many under!
– Baxter allowed prospects to chose between them, running
demos and giving bids for both so the hospital could pick…
• Sounds magnanimous, but it drove Baxter sales people crazy in
that they were basically competing with each other!
– Let alone R&D programmers at HQ who were loathe to share
product development with the “enemy” in the next cube…
• Isn’t it wonderful how much progress we’ve made today:
– Leading vendors like McKesson, Siemens, Meditech, etc.,
have learned to offer but a singlesingle product to concentrate all
their sales and R&D on… no product overlap for them!
7. Merger-Mania Continued!
• Baxter reached ≈300 hospitals on JS-Data, making it one
of the best-selling small-hospital systems of the 1980s.
• Since all 3 of the supply giant’s products ran on IBM,
(Alpha on Sys 36, Delta on Sys 38, and Omega on mainframes)
• Their next move was predictable: “partner” with IBM!
• What do you call the combination of IBM and Baxter?
• Why: IBAX of course, the “next big thing” in 1989 HIS,
who immediately re-named their 3 acquired products:
• JS Data/Alpha became Series 3000
• DCC/Delta became Series 4000
- Mainframe/Omega = Series 5000
- Got it? Good because it’s all gonna
change with the next merger…
8. One More Time…
• IBAX grew to 800 employees, and was headquartered in
Hauppage, Long Island, close to Stony Brook Hospital, the
site of mainframe software “Omega’s” development.
• CEO of the new firm was Frank Russo
– Former CIO at Stony Brook University Hospital
– Who built Omega using IBM’s “PCS/ADS”
– IBM’s tools for “roll your own” mainframe sites,
– Which evolved from the “Duke/Parkland” System.
• Needless to say, IBAX too was open to offers…
– And in 1994 HBOC bought them and their ≈600 clients!
– JS Data (Series 3000) was “merged” with DCC (4000) to make
“Series 2000,” later shortened to just “Series,” in which pieces of
JS-Data’s RPG code still runs in hundreds of hospitals today!
9. The HIS “Family?”
• So what’s with all the paisans at HIS vendors:
– Frank Russo at Baxter
– John Sacco & Bev Frascati at JS Data
– Bob Pagnotta at MDS and Tymshare
– John DePierro ay Gamut & MDT
– Neal Pappalardo and Larry Polimeno at Meditech
• As for SMS, well it might as well have been
from Palermo as King of Prussia:
• Tony Sammartino
• Sam Ziviello
• Rick Folino
• Vince Ciotti
• Bob Romani
• Tony Mirigliani
• Peg Micelli
• Ah well, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence…
10. And Where’s John Sacco Today?
• Working hard! Check out this amazing coincidence:
– My daughter made a major mistake, and followed in her Dad’s
footsteps into healthcare, first as a Travelers Nurse…
– She travelled all over, & got nice experience using various HIS-es,
– Then took a job at UCLA Medical Center
on an “epic” Epic implementation.
– So who was her Project Manager at UCLA?
– You guessed it:
– John Sacco!
– John has since retired, and is moving
to the south of France:
“Vive La Provence!”
- John, save me some vino!!
11. What’s Next?
• Here’s some interesting ideas from recent emails:
– Cornelius Mcloughlin – from NYU - Cornelius.McLoughlin@nyumc.org
• Are you planning on reporting some of the first Laboratory Systems?
• I am familiar with Clindata from BSL, Berkeley Scientific Labs, 1970.
• Also: Spear (Sperry-Rand?) and DNA (Diversified Numeric Analysis)
• Those of us still around from the late 60s-early 70s would be interested!
– Walter Tanenbaum - Walter.Tanenbaum@mcgladrey.com
• Why don’t you do one on consulting firms. That would be a kick!
• I was CIO (or whatever it was called then) at Montefiore in 1970;
• Was recruited by KPMG in 1980 at the beginning of their HCIT practice;
• Recruited back to Montefiore in 81/ 82; went back to KPMG in 1987;
• Founded my own firm, The FLEX Group, in 1987
Thanks also to many others who have sent in encouraging emails
on their HIS experiences. Keep those cards & letters coming in!
• Please send any contributions to: vciott@hispros.com
