Neil Pappalardo

American technology entrepreneur

A. Neil Pappalardo

Nationality| American
Alma mater| Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupations|

* Technology entrepreneur
* Businessman

Known for| Chairman of MEDITECH
Co-developer of MUMPS

Antonino Neil Pappalardo is an American technology entrepreneur and the founder of MEDITECH, a supplier of information system software for hospitals headquartered in Massachusetts.[1] Pappalardo co-founded MEDITECH in 1969, with the original name Medical Information Technology Inc.[2] He was one of the original co-developers of the MUMPS programming language and system at Massachusetts General Hospital.[3]

## Early life

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Pappalardo is a native of Rochester, New York, born to Sicilian immigrant parents.[4] He graduated in 1960 from McQuaid Jesuit High School and in 1964 received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1][2][5] Pappalardo received a Honorary Doctorate degree from Suffolk University in 1996 and an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2007.[1][6]

## Career

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### Early career

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Starting at age 13, he worked summers as a mason before getting a job at Bausch & Lomb designing circuits. Shortly after graduating with his B.S. in 1964, Pappalardo went to work at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts after meeting Dr. G. Octo Barnett, MD during his MIT thesis work. There, he worked in Barnett’s lab within the Laboratory of Computer Science on a “hospital computer project” in conjunction with Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc (BBN), a research and computing consulting firm.[4][7][8]

### MUMPS

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The project at Massachusetts General Hospital would become the MGH Utility Multi-Programming System (MUMPS) and later the Meditech Interpretive Information System (MIIS), developed between 1964 and 1971.[4][9][10] Papplardo is credited with co-development alongside Barnett, Robert Greenes, and Curt Marble. The MUMPS programming language was supported with a grant from the National Center for Health Services Research and a contract from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).[11][12]

### MEDITECH

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Pappalardo cofounded MEDITECH (originally Medical Information Technology Inc.) in 1968 with Barnett, Marble, Morton Ruderman, and Jerome Grossman and opened for business in the August 1969. The company’s first headquarters were located in East Cambridge, Massachusetts; they moved to Westwood, Massachusetts in 1983.[10][13] Pappalardo served as CEO and President until 1994, when he became Chairman.[14] As of 2023[update], Pappalardo serves as Founder, Chairman, and Board Member.

## Personal life

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Pappalardo lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, Jane. They met during his senior year at MIT, and married in 1964. They have four children including Missy, born August 4, 1969, the same day that MEDITECH was launched.[1][15]

Pappalardo is a life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation.[16]

Since 1999, Pappalardo has supported physicists in MIT’s Department of Physics via a postdoctoral research fellowship, the Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics.[17][18]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d "A. Neil Pappalardo EE '64". MIT Physics. MIT. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
2. ^ a b Hollmer, Mark (4 September 2006). "A. Neil Pappalardo: Mass. Production". www.bizjournals.com. Boston Business Journal. p. Executive Profile. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
3. ^ Diaz, Naomi (16 February 2022). "6 things to know about the founder of Meditech". www.beckershospitalreview.com. Becker's Healthcare. pp. Becker's Health IT. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
4. ^ a b c Conn, Joseph (23 May 2016). "Q&A: Meditech founder Pappalardo says invention was 'my overall destiny'". Modern Healthcare. Crain Communications, Inc. pp. Technology. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
5. ^ "Jane and Neil Pappalardo '60". Yumpu. McQuaid Jesuit High School. Fall 2010. p. 11. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
6. ^ "KAIST Foundation Honor Club: Neil Pappalardo, Founder of MEDITECH". giving.kaist.ac.kr. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
7. ^ Versel, Neil (31 January 2017). "Meditech seeks to reinvent itself with Web-based EHR (Q&A)". MedCityNews. Breaking Media, Inc. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
8. ^ Walden, David; Nickerson, Raymond, eds. (2011). A Culture of Innovation: Insider Accounts of Computing and Life at BBN (PDF) (Second Printing ed.). Waterside Publishing. p. 290. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
9. ^ "The Top 100 Healthcare Technology Companies of 2021 | The Healthcare Technology Report". The Healthcare Technology Report. The Healthcare Technology Report. 12 August 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
10. ^ a b "MEDITECH Corporate Timeline". meditech.com. MEDITECH. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
11. ^ Greenes, R. A.; Pappalardo, A. N.; Marble, C. W.; Barnett, G. Octo (10 March 1969). "Design and implementation of a clinical data management system". Computers and Biomedical Research. 2 (5). Laboratory of Computer Science Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Medicine Harvard Medical School: 469–485. doi:10.1016/0010-4809(69)90012-3. PMID 11697375. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
12. ^ Mccaffrey, Peter (29 July 2020). An Introduction to Healthcare Informatics: Building Data-Driven Tools. Academic Press. p. 75\. ISBN 978-0-12-814916-4. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
13. ^ Craig M. Douglas (7 September 2012). "Meditech move underscores strong growth". www.bizjournals.com. Boston Business Journals. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
14. ^ Diaz, Naomi (17 February 2022). "Meet the C-Suite of Meditech: 15 execs to know". www.beckershospitalreview.com. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
15. ^ Elizabeth Chadis (22 January 2021). "Donor Profile: A. Neil & Jane Pappalardo » MIT Physics". physics.mit.edu. MIT Physics. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
16. ^ "A. Neil Pappalardo". The MIT Corporation. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
17. ^ "Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics". MIT Physics. MIT. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
18. ^ Carol, Breen; Elizabeth, Chadis (2010). "10th Anniversary of the Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics" (PDF). News & Events in Physics. MIT Physics Annual 2010.