CliniCom was an early pioneer in bedside medication verification (BMV) decades ago. This episode shares insights from Don Gilchrist, former VP of Engineering at CliniCom. He recalls key people who supported CliniCom's survival, including Marshall Miller who provided early financing. Shirley Hughes led marketing and Terry Watson drove early sales. Peter Gombrich was the creative founder but was ousted before the company's success. Bill Brehm helped turn CliniCom around. CliniCom delivered innovations like wall-mounted devices, wireless BMV, and capturing vital signs, before others offered similar solutions. They made a real difference in patient care quality. More of CliniCom's story will be shared next time from

1. “H.I.S.-tory” by
Vince Ciotti
© 2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC,
all rights reserved
Episode # 45:
CliniCom
Part 2

2. An InsiderView
• As we saw last week, CliniCom was an amazingly early pioneer of
BMV (Bedside Medication Verification) several decades ago!
• After that episode, I received a fascinating email from an early
CliniCom team member who gives the following insights into what
he remembers 20+ years later from the inside of such a
breakthrough start-up. Here’s the words from Don Gilchrist, VP
of Engineering, himself (followed by my commentary in italics):
• “ One liners from the beginning. People and events that supported
the survival of CliniCom:
- Shoes - Marshall Miller of 'THE MINNETONKA
MOCCASIN CO.' provided extensive early financing
and emergency funding to meet payroll and keep
the doors open. Without Marshal’s support,
ClinCom most likely would not have survived.”
- (so that’s where Peter Gombrich got his funding!)

3. Other Key Players
• “Shirley Hughes - from TDS, Director of Marketing 86 -89 - got
marketing up and going.”
– (TDS was “Technicon Data Systems”, a successor firm to
Lockheed’s MIS, the CPOE pioneer from the 1970s.)
• “Terry Watson - Sales 86 - 92 - key to closing the early sales.”
– (Reminds me of a great quote from a McAuto HIS-tory hero, Ed
Hamilton, VP of Sales & Marketing in the early 80s: “Nothing
really happens until someone sells something!”)
• “Marjorie Rodell - Everything you said and more. Instrumental in
moving software development from start-up to commercial
operation.” (Much more about and from Marjorie later)
• “Peter Gombrich - the creative soul and brains who, like in many
start-ups, was ousted before reaping the payoff.” (So sadly
familiar in HIS-tory, the early founders rarely stay with a firm for
long…)

4. Other Inside TidBits from Don
• “Bill Brehm - Professional Manager who turned CliniCom around.”
– (Damn, just can’t shake this guy! First he pops up at SMS, then
McAuto, then HIS Inc. in Brooklyn. Then he starred at Gerber-
Brehm writing IFAS; now here he is at CliniCom too!!)
• “SMS - Arrogant, not-invented-here company who blew the
chance to partner with and someday purchase CliniCom.”
– (The NIH {Not Invented Here} syndrome plagues many large HIS
vendor development teams: “we can build a better one…” SMS
finally started buying rather than building with Computer
Synergy and MedSeries 4 – amazing they passed up CliniCom!)
• “Emergency move of Sequent sever to St. Francis Topeka, a beta
site, from Boulder in back of pickup to address performance
problems and allow them to continue using the system.”
– (It’s the small start-ups who truly “Partner” with their clients!)

5. And More…
• “M&M's used for testing of Unit Dose
Packaging.”
– (remember med unit doses did not
come with bar-code labels back then –
CliniCom printed and glued them on)
• “In house manufacturing including wave
soldering of printed circuit boards.
• Getting the radios and firmware in hand-
held 'Dust Busters' to work reliably.”
- (Actually, I always thought it looked
more like an iron than a dust-buster)
• “Living in Hospitals and working with Nursing & Pharmacy 24X7.”
- (How many of today’s mega-vendors have implementation
personnel who work in the trenches all 3 shifts and weekends?)

6. Final Thoughts From Don
• “Addition of wall mounted touch screen in every
room years before anyone else offered similar
solution.”
– (Hats off! PCs were just becoming popular {I
bought my first in 1987!) and CliniCom not only
invented wireless BMV, but they pioneered the
wall-mounted devices so common today!)
• “Delivery of 5 rights of drug administration before
anyone else offered similar solution.”
– (Remember, the IOM report didn’t come out until 15 years later!)
• “Capture of I&O, Vital Signs at the bedside.”
- (To be fair, NCR’s PNUT neat them to this by a few years…)
• “Being involved in a product that really made a difference in the
quality of patient care.”

7. An Amazing Ride!
• We’ll wrap-up the CliniCom story next week thanks to input from
Marjorie Rodell, a HIS-tory heroine from their early days, like this
image below from her archives that sums up their first 5 years: