To Morris F. Collen: Happy Ninetieth!:

Dr. Morris F. Collen credits his mother with having endowed him with an auspicious birthday: 11–12–13, one that might have put him on a track toward exceptional numeracy. But looking back from the perspective of his ninetieth birthday, that endowment certainly amounted to much, much more. We may be tempted to claim Dr. Collen for us as one of the fathers of medical informatics, but that would diminish his true phenomenal legacy. Dr. Collen is a statesmanlike leader who reshaped modern health care in a fundamental way. He is a world-class scientist, an advisor to American presidents, and a profound humanist, who started out as an exemplary clinician. Dr. Collen's qualities put him from the start in the midst of an environment rife with innovation and opportunity, and marked by other giants.He started out as a clinician in 1942 when he was selected by Dr. Sidney Garfield, a surgeon, to join him as an internist in his group practice—right after Dr. Collen had completed his residency in internal medicine at Los Angeles County Hospital. Since the thirties, Dr. Garfield had provided health care to large concentrations of industrial workers at remote work sites, including the Colorado River Aqueduct, a project providing water to Los Angeles, and the Hoover Dam on the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon. For this, Garfield had established a then-novel group practice, as well as an even more revolutionary prepayment health plan. This was provided mainly for workers in the employment of Henry J. Kaiser, a prominent industrialist and touted as the father of modern shipbuilding. Henry Kaiser built over 1,500 cargo ships, know as “Liberty Ships” during World War II, created scores of companies involved in public works, such as the construction of dams, tunnels, and roads, and left his mark on the automobile …