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+--- Thread: The job of a lifetime - Blog by Howard Messing, Chairman of the Board, MEDITECH (/showthread.php?tid=2308)
The job of a lifetime - Blog by Howard Messing, Chairman of the Board, MEDITECH - RMcCarthy - 06-05-2026
The job of a lifetime
When I first joined MEDITECH as a programmer in 1974, I thought maybe I would stay for a year or two before heading back to grad school. (Ha.)
I was young and ambitious, a proud “computer nerd” with a degree in electrical engineering from MIT and a plan to get my PhD. Last month, after five decades with MEDITECH, I was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors. I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone by and how far technology has progressed in my lifetime. I can still remember when computers were the stuff of science fiction; something groovy we saw on “Star Trek.” Today, they’re fully enmeshed within all of our everyday routines — including our healthcare.
A few months ago, the man who hired me for the job of a lifetime, MEDITECH’s longstanding CEO and Board Chair, passed away at 83. When I first met him, Neil Pappalardo was best known for co-developing MUMPS, the revolutionary programming language he and fellow informatics pioneer Curt Marble first implemented at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1966. I was impressed by his journey from upstate New York to MIT, which laid the foundation for what would eventually become the Health IT industry.
Read the full blog post here.