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H.I.S.-tory byVince Ciotti

2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

Episode # 44:

CliniComPart 1

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It All Started with Dorenfest

I was working for the HIS pioneer Sheldon Dorenfest back in 1984,

when he ran a well-attended annual seminar for hospitals and HIS

vendors that gave a vey insightful review of the HIS industry:

Market size, vendor review, leading products by segment, etc.

One of the many vendor attendees that year was a gentleman

named Peter Gombrich, new to the HIS field, but a verysmartengineer and eager to learn every aspect of the HIS industry.

Peter stayed awake during allof our presentations, even mine

(during which I sometimes dozed)

A few days later, he showed upat our offices in Northbrook in

suburban Chicago and signed a

deal with Shelly for us to study the

idea he had for a radically new

product for the mid-80s.

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Impressive Background

We were just winding down the sale of Sentry Data to CDC, so I got

assigned to the project Peter liked my SMS experience, so

erroneously thought I might help him build an equal success

The more I learned about Peter, the more impressed I was; check

out this background:

BS in Electrical engineering and MBA from University of Denver

Held various sales & marketing positions with Medtronic and

Beckman Instruments, both supply giants in those days

Co-founder ofSt. JudeMedical, one of the largest heart valve

company in the world, back when valves were a daring idea Co-founder and Chairman of the Board ofIntegrated

Microcircuits, an outgrowth of St. Jude from 1980 to 1984

So even though he was turning to us for advice in penetrating the

HIS market, the man knew his stuff!

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Sad Beginnings The roots ofPeters idea for a breakthrough

product are a sad testimonial to all toohuman side of healthcare:

Decades before the 2000 IOM report on

To Err Is Human and medication errors,

Peter had a relative who suffered from, adrug mis-administration in a hospital, and

his product idea was to use the latest in

technology to prevent them in the future.

To appreciateP

eters genius, you have to go back to 1984 andremember how crude medication administration was back then

- The concept of a unit dose had only started to become popular

- Most nurses administered drugs with none of the Med Rec,

eMAR and BMV of today. Indeed, MARs were totally paper.

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A Deceptively Simple Idea In todays high-tech world of ubiquitous Web access via WiFi, its

hard to remember how daring a concept like this was back in 1984:

Ahandhelddevice (decades before PDAs & i-everything)

For nurses (who in 1984, had but a single CRT for Order Entry)

To bar code their ID badge (when UPC copes were just starting)

Then the patients wrist band (which were all typed by hand)

And the Unit Dose med being administered (w/manual labels)

These 3 data elements were then

transmitted via radio frequency to

Plexus Microcomputer in the data

center, where a program checked

what the doctor had ordered,

And sent back a red or green light

to tell RNs if it met the 5 rights!!!!

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Now For The Business Plan

Shelly and I were very impressed by the concept, andwrote a report for Peter pointing out the enormous

potential (which he already knew) and a few drawbacks:

Bar codes were notplaced on Meds in advance by

Pharmaceutical companies back then, so printing

them in the Pharmacy and affixing them on every unit

dose would be an added cost to hospital buyers

I had a hard time explaining to Peter that he needed

to offer installation too: a team of pros to go out to

hospitals and lead them through the whole process. It seemed obvious to me from my SMS background as an ID

Plus the fund a customer service center, training

department, technical writers for documentation, etc.

Again, from my personal contributions to SMS early days

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Product

Launch

Peter charged ahead, and

the ad on the right shows

the amazing splash ad that

graced the pages of HISmagazines back then:

Nurses were thrilledto

finally get a product

designed specifically for

them, and the leads came

flying in, handled by a

team of sales pros like:

Mike Meyer & Brain Higgins

Both of whom from McAuto

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So Whatever Happened?

So did Peter Gombrick strike it rich again?

What ever happened to him after CliniCom

Did anyone buy the amazing new CliniCare?

What became of the both company & product?

Stay tuned for the answers next week when well cover the growthof this amazing breakthrough thanks to a HIS-tory Heroine:

MARJORIE RODELL - an amazing lady as smart & hard-working

as she is pleasant to work with (and look at!), whose consulting

firm SMG provides help to vendors, and who promises to dig

through her archives from when she worked at both CliniComand the HIS vendor that eventually bought it.

Anyone else have any CliniCom stories to tell? Please call or write:

Vince Ciotti: 505/466-4958 vciotti@hispros.com