Talk:Warner Slack

suggested edits

1. Early life and education, current line 126:

Warner Vincent Slack was born in 1933 in East Orange, New Jersey. He received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1955, where his senior thesis research in biology was published in Science. He graduated from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1959.

2. Military service, current line 131

After his residency training, Slack served in the United States Air Force in the Philippines, where he held the rank of captain.

3. University of Wisconsin, current line 136

At the University of Wisconsin, Slack worked with G. Philip Hicks and other colleagues to develop and evaluate an early computer-based medical history system. In 1965, they programmed a LINC computer to conduct an interactive dialogue with patients, displaying questions and explanations and using patients' responses to determine subsequent questions.

The results were published in 1966 in The New England Journal of Medicine as "A Computer-Based Medical History System." The study found that computer-based histories could provide detailed clinical information and helped establish patient-computer dialogue as an area of medical informatics research. Yqbos (talk) 15:17, 1 October 2026 (UTC)

4. First computer based medical history, current lines 137 to 138

At the University of Wisconsin, Slack worked with G. Philip Hicks and other colleagues to develop and evaluate an early computer-based medical history system. In 1965, they programmed a LINC computer to conduct an interactive dialogue with patients, displaying questions and explanations and using patients' responses to determine subsequent questions.

The results were published in 1966 in The New England Journal of Medicine as "A Computer-Based Medical History System." The study found that computer-based histories could provide detailed clinical information and helped establish patient-computer dialogue as an area of medical informatics research.

5. Add Judith Faulkner and the origins of Epic

While at the University of Wisconsin, Slack taught a course on computing in medicine that was taken by computer science graduate student Judith Faulkner. Faulkner subsequently worked with Slack and his team and developed a system for tracking patient information over time. According to CNBC, that work became the kernel of the software that later developed into Epic Systems, which Faulkner founded in 1979.

6. Recruitment to Harvard, current line 139

In 1970, Howard Hiatt, then chairman of the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, recruited Slack to Harvard Medical School. Slack subsequently worked closely with Howard Bleich, with whom he served as co-chief of the Division of Clinical Computing at Beth Israel.

7. Hospital wide clinical computing, current lines 139 to 140

In 1976, Slack and Bleich began developing an integrated hospital-wide clinical computing system at Beth Israel Hospital. Their design emphasized point-of-care data entry, immediate availability of information throughout the hospital, reliability, protection of patient confidentiality, ease of use, and a common patient registry.

By 1982, the system provided clinicians with access to admissions and outpatient histories, laboratory results, radiology reports, pharmacy information, electronic messaging, medical literature searches, and computerized clinical advice.

8. Correct the history of the Center for Clinical Computing, current line 140

After Harvard's Departments of Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital were consolidated, Slack and Bleich expanded their clinical computing work to Brigham and Women's Hospital. They formed the Center for Clinical Computing as a nonprofit corporation, with support from Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, to conduct teaching and research and provide clinical computing services to Harvard teaching hospitals.

9. Add evidence of system adoption

Use of the Beth Israel system grew substantially. During one week in 1988, 1,737 clinicians used its functions 58,757 times, including more than 40,000 clinical and laboratory data lookups and more than 13,000 electronic messages.

10. Patient empowerment, current line 141

Patient empowerment was a central theme of Slack's work. He argued that patients should be given meaningful opportunities to participate in medical decisions, particularly when those decisions involved individual values and preferences. He developed this argument in his 1977 article "The Patient's Right to Decide" in The Lancet.

Slack also advocated for patient privacy, patient access to medical information, and greater patient control over health records. His approach later became associated with the concept of "patient power" and patient-centered computing.

11. Editorial activities, current line 146

Slack was active in academic publishing and served as editor-in-chief of M.D. Computing from 1989 to 1998. He also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Medical Systems, Computers in Human Behavior, Computers in Psychiatry/Psychology, and Methods in Psychiatric Research.

12. Social justice, current line 147

Slack was also active in civil rights and social justice. During the 1960s, he and psychiatrist Maxie Maultsby Jr. worked with the University of Wisconsin football team on tensions related to racial integration. In 1965, Slack traveled to Alabama for the Selma to Montgomery march led by Martin Luther King Jr., where he was prepared to provide medical assistance to injured marchers. Later in life, he traveled to Honduras with Cape Cares to provide medical care in remote communities.

13. Death and legacy, current line 158

Slack died on June 23, 2018, at the age of 85. He was remembered as a pioneer of medical informatics, electronic medical records, patient-computer interaction, and patient empowerment.

14. Correct “Fellowship” to “Scholarship”

The Warner Slack Scholarship for Clinical Informatics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was established to support students in medical and clinical informatics.

15. Add the BIDMC oral history videos to External links

• "Dr. Warner Slack Videos". Division of Clinical Informatics. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Retrieved October 1, 2026.

16. Consolidated Academic career section

Academic career

Slack undertook residency training in neurology at the University of Wisconsin in 1960–1961. After completing military service with the United States Air Force in the Philippines, he returned to Wisconsin on a research fellowship.

At the University of Wisconsin, Slack worked with G. Philip Hicks and other colleagues to develop and evaluate an early computer-based medical history system. In 1965, they programmed a LINC computer to conduct an interactive dialogue with patients, displaying questions and explanations and using patients' responses to determine subsequent questions.

The results were published in 1966 in The New England Journal of Medicine as "A Computer-Based Medical History System." The work helped establish patient-computer dialogue as an area of medical informatics research.

While at the University of Wisconsin, Slack taught a course on computing in medicine that was taken by computer science graduate student Judith Faulkner. Faulkner subsequently worked with Slack and his team and developed a system for tracking patient information over time. According to CNBC, that work became the kernel of the software that later developed into Epic Systems, which Faulkner founded in 1979.

In 1970, Howard Hiatt, then chairman of the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, recruited Slack to Harvard Medical School. Slack subsequently worked closely with Howard Bleich, with whom he served as co-chief of the Division of Clinical Computing at Beth Israel.

In 1976, Slack and Bleich began developing an integrated hospital-wide clinical computing system at Beth Israel Hospital. Their design emphasized point-of-care data entry, immediate availability of information throughout the hospital, reliability, protection of patient confidentiality, ease of use, and a common patient registry.

By 1982, the system provided clinicians with access to admissions and outpatient histories, laboratory results, radiology reports, pharmacy information, electronic messaging, medical literature searches, and computerized clinical advice. During one week in 1988, 1,737 clinicians used its functions 58,757 times, including more than 40,000 clinical and laboratory data lookups and more than 13,000 electronic messages.

After Harvard's Departments of Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital were consolidated, Slack and Bleich expanded their clinical computing work to Brigham and Women's Hospital. They formed the Center for Clinical Computing as a nonprofit corporation, with support from Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, to conduct teaching and research and provide clinical computing services to Harvard teaching hospitals.

Patient empowerment was a central theme of Slack's work. He argued that patients should be given meaningful opportunities to participate in medical decisions, particularly when those decisions involved individual values and preferences. He developed this argument in his 1977 article "The Patient's Right to Decide" in The Lancet. He also advocated for patient privacy, patient access to medical information, and greater patient control over health records.

References