Lawrence Weed

Weed was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in May 1972 and would later receive the Gustav O. Leinhard Award from the Institute of Medicine for his contribution of the problem-oriented medical record to the field of medicine. He was a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

He also helped develop PROMIS, a computerized medical information system based on the problem-oriented record, which used a touch screen; introduced in 1969, that system was one of the earliest versions of an electronic medical record. He launched a company PKC, which developed methods for clinical information management systems. In 2012, the firm was purchased by Sharecare.

He first published about the problem-oriented medical record in 1964, but a 1968 article published by the New England Journal of Medicine introduced the concept to a broader audience. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he gave lectures at medical schools around the country, and published a book that described the problem-oriented medical record in more detail.

Born in Troy, New York, he graduated from Hamilton College and, later, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1947 and pursued a career in academic medicine. He retired as an Emeritus Professor of the University of Vermont.

Lawrence Leonard Weed (December 26, 1923 – June 3, 2017) was an American physician, researcher, educator, entrepreneur and author, who is best known for creating the problem-oriented medical record as well as one of the first electronic health records.