Morris F. Collen, MD, Director Emeritus

Sixty-six years as physician, researcher, and medical informatics pioneer--and still going strong

From his time as a young doctor administering to Henry J. Kaiser's shipyard workers in Richmond, Calif., in 1942, to his present day work in research and medical informatics, Morris F. Collen, MD, has made many important contributions to Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research (DOR), to the field of medical informatics, and to the public's health.

As founding director of the Department of Medical Methods Research, today's DOR, Collen grew the fledgling research operation, which opened in 1961, into a research institution renowned today as a trailblazer in drug safety, risk factor epidemiology, health services, and genetics research, among other areas.

Early Focus on Medical Informatics

In November 2008, Collen celebrated nearly 47 years with the DOR. A physician and electrical engineer by training, Collen says his greatest influence was his friend, mentor, and colleague Sidney R. Garfield, MD, founding physician of Kaiser Permanente.

"Dr. Garfield had great vision. He wanted Kaiser Permanente to not only provide good, high-quality care that members could afford, but he also said research, education and training were important," recalls Collen. "He told me 'we need to use computers to help physicians give better care to our patients.' In the 1940s, he asked me to start a resident training program and in 1961 the Department of Medical Methods Research."

One of the primary goals of the research program, says Collen, was to conduct research focused on the application of computer technology in the clinical care setting.

Multiphasic Health Checkup

Morris F. Collen, MD, with open binder, explains potential uses of the computer in medical care to a visiting delegation from Washington, D.C. in 1966.During the 1950s, with a postwar shortage of physicians, one of Collen's first major achievements was the development of the multiphasic health checkup, a series of procedures and tests given to thousands of Kaiser Permanente members that screened for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

The tests were revolutionary in that they not only saved physicians' time but also constituted a significant experiment in preventive care. Collen eventually automated the multiphasic health checkups, moving them onto a punch card system in 1964.

An early computer-based patient record and database followed using the multiphasic health checkup records. From this first computerized database, large-scale population research was born at the DOR. Under Collen's leadership, Kaiser Permanente became one of a handful of places in the world to start this pioneering work in medical informatics.

Over the next 40 years, the multiphasic database alone provided material for more than 500 papers published in more than 75 medical journals.

Kaiser Permanente's early electronic health record system became internationally known because of Collen, who predicted the computer would probably have "the greatest technological impact on medical science since the invention of the microscope."

Collen has written five books on medical informatics and was honored by the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) in 1993 with the highest honor it bestows, the Morris F. Collen, MD Medal for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Medical Informatics.

Building a National Research Database

Although semiretired, Collen, age 95, continues his work today. He is currently working with his longtime colleague Joe Terdiman, MD, PhD, director of information technology, to create a national research database that will merge 13 million Kaiser Permanente Northern California electronic health records, going back to Collen's multiphasic health checkups, into one database.

Once complete, Collen is particularly interested in the potential to detect adverse events associated with the use of multiple drugs in the elderly. "You can do so much now with pharmacy data.

Currently, there is not an adequate early warning system. But the beauty of our program is that we have access to all the data from our electronic health record and our pharmacy systems," notes Collen.

"I keep saying to all the young people, you just have to live long enough and you will see wonderful things happen. I just don't want to let it go because it is so exciting," he says.

Reflecting on nearly seven decades of service to Kaiser Permanente members, Collen sums it up as this: "I have traveled the world and seen health care programs in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, and if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I am going to come back and be a Kaiser Permanente doctor."