Technology Timeline

  • Period: to

    ENIAC

    Development of industrialized computer system that runs at electronic speeds while not lagging due to mechanical parts; created by Army physicist John Mauchly for military purposes while conducting research at the University of Pennsylvania
  • Period: to

    ENIAC's Effect

    Enormous amounts of computations conducted by revolutionary system, perhaps as many as humankind will ever accomplish; rendered inert by 1955 lightning strike
  • Medicare and Medicaid

    Founding of government healthcare projects introduce electronic health records to the medical industry; first used by 73 hospitals nationwide.
  • Period: to

    Seventies' Storm

    Lockheed creates physician ordering system Eclipsys, 1971; University of Utah, 3M, and the Latter-day Saints Hospital establish a clinical decision support system; Mass. Gen. and Harvard create the Computer Stored Ambulatory Record COSTAR; Regenstrief Institution of Indianapolis creates namesake Medical Record System, 1972
  • Period: to

    Eighties' EHR Evolution

    1982; Dragon Systems invents first voice recognition prototype for medical dictation; late 1980's, personal computers and Windows-based software manifest in clinics and hospitals for billing and scheduling purposes; graphic user interfaces and networking technologies yield the first data interchange protocol, HL7; DRG's deal a funding blow to EHR popularization
  • ARRA and HITECH Acts

    Legal steps taken to issue economic stimulus also bring health information technology back into the spotlight; incentivizes EHR usage, bolsters privacy and security of PHI, and fortifies existence of such EHR's for the purpose of meaningful use