2. From BDP to IDS
• As we saw last week, Hoehl& Tarrant weren’t
the only ones helping MDs with “open item”
accounting: turns out a competitor in nearby
Boston was using daring DEC minis to do
what BDP was doing on their shared monster
IBM 360 series mainframes: “Interpretive
Data Systems” (IDS), formed in 1974 by:
– Paul Egerman(below left), who would
eventually be IDX’s COO under Tarrant.
Paul later formed eScription Inc., and sold
it to Nuance in 2008 for $340 million!
- Terry Ragon(right) who earned his
physics degree from MIT, but he did
not join Meditech! Instead, he went
on to found his own InterSystems
Corp. in 1978 (Mmmmm.. a cliché?)
3. BDP + IDS = IDS, Inc.
• BDP and IDS merged in 1978 to form
Interpretive Data Systems, Inc. An IDS
office was established in Boston and
the “Systems Group” was created to
serve small group practices on minis.
• The old BDP group stayed on their
mainframes for larger practices, and
expanded their market to hospitals,
with an integrated system for both
ambulatory & acute care, part of the
“managed care” craze of the 1980s.
• They even offered an “Electronic
Medical Record” (though hardly one
by today’s MU standards) in 1984,
which was later re-named as IDS’
Clinical Repository System (CRS).
4. Growth and Acquisitions
• IDS followed both Meditech’s self-developed approach
to building their own systems like the CRS, as well
asGE Healthcare’slater penchant for growth through
acquisitions, resulting in phenomenal numbers, viz:
– ’85 revenue $20M, 200 FTEs; ’93: $91M, 500 FTEs!
• In 1986, IDS Inc. changed its name to “IDX” per this ad:
• A major acquisition in 1991 was “DEC-Rad,” an RIS
pioneered by DEC and the Radiology Information
System Consortium, which they re-named “IDX-Rad.”
• Revenues continued to grow over the next 10 years:
5. IPO!
• BY 1995, IDX revenues had grown to $128.1 million with over
1,000 employees. In November of that year, the company went
public. Dr. Henry Tufo, who if you remember was among the
company's first healthcare clients some 20 years earlier, was
named COO. In the June 1998 issue of Business Digest, CEO
Richard Tarrant commented on how going public affected them:
– "Going public helped us focus," he explained. "One of the best
parts… was that, while I had heard all the bad things about
dealing with Wall Street and stockholders--the pressures,
quarterly numbers, all the stuff that's hard--what nobody ever
said is that they will ask great questions. Wall Street analysts
ask great questions. They are very smart people. They focus on
an industry. They study the competition. They really make you
answer the tough questions.”
– CEO-speak for “They can really break your chops!”
6. More Rare Candor
• Rich Tarrant goes on to make some extremely frank comments
that are so uncommon in the rarified air of vendor C-suite circles:
– "An entrepreneur kind of manages everything him- or herself,
knows where everything is, can do everything. Entrepreneurs
can do a job better than someone they're going to hire, but
they need someone to help them. I pride myself on having
made the transition to professional management, where the
people who report to me are better at what they do than I
could ever be. I couldn't do any of their jobs. In fact, I don't
even manage day-to-day stuff. That's the chief operating
officer's stuff. As the CEO, I'm responsible for strategy,
direction, Wall Street, the investors and waving the flag when
we're dealing with big customers. You know, a lot of times,
with a CEO, if you just show up, it means something.”
• Keep that in mindnext time a vendor CEO visit yourhospital!
7. Biggest Catch of All
• By far, the biggest acquisitions IDX ever
made was in 1997, when they acquired
one of the pioneering EMRs in HIS-tory.
• And don’t just laugh at the fishy picture, thisacquisitionreally did
have its roots in the sea, keeping track of Seattle sailors’ charts...
• Meanwhile, here’s a time line of the GE/IDX HIS-tory to date:
