This document provides an overview of the origins and early history of HBO, a healthcare IT company. It discusses how HBO was founded in the 1970s by Walter Huff, Bruce Barrington, and Richard Owens at OSF Healthcare in Peoria, Illinois. They created early systems like CRASH (Centralized Real-time Accounting System for Hospitals) and SHIS (Shared Hospital Information System). The systems were later commercialized under McDonnell Douglas and became HFC (Hospital Financial Control) and HPC (Hospital Patient Control). Bruce Barrington then left to develop his own systems using Four Phase minicomputers, helping form the basis for what would become HBO. The document provides background on the key players