Chip Masarie, MD

A physician trained at the University of Oregon, Dr. Masarie moved to Pittsburgh for housestaff training in the early 1980s. The move was fortuitous, because it brought him into contact with Harry Pople, Jack Myers, and Randy Millerís Internist/ Quick Medical Reference (QMR) efforts. The rest is history. He became a fellow in the Decision Systems Laboratory and subsequently joined the research faculty. When QMR was spun off as a commercial activity in 1990, Chip served as chief scientist and cofounder. With the evolution of that company, he became Chief Scientist with First Databank and then, in 1997, joined Medicalogic as its terminology expert, a company that in turn evolved into GE Medical Systems (where he most recently served as Enterprise Terminology Management Architect). He has not, however, abandoned his academic roots and continues to be involved teaching and mentoring students in the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) medical informatics program. Dr. Masarie was one of the first academic informaticians to venture out into the commercial world, attempting to move an informatics-based product (QMR) into more widespread distribution. Since then, he has mentored many physicians and young informaticians regarding opportunities and career paths outside of academic informatics. He has been involved in national standards organizations and has participated in numerous informatics forums at AMIA, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and Toward the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR). He has carried the informatics torch religiously over the past 19 years, staying true to his personal mission to ëëbuild systems that allow clinicians to capture high quality clinical data that is structured and coded such that better clinical decisions can be made.íí He has influenced the directions of companies over the years as they attempt to provide products and services to tens of thousands of clinicians in an effort to provide better care through information technologies. Dr. Masarieís ongoing contributions to medical informatics, as an innovator, industrial leader, and teacher/mentor, make ACMI proud, and his role at national meetings and other forums has been a strongly positive force in building bridges between academia and industry.