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Key Events in the History of Epi Info™
1976 The beginning of flexible computing in public health. Auditorium A at CDC, converted to a war room for the Swine Flu crisis, is filled with epidemiologists and a Digital Equipment PDP 11 minicomputer the size of a refrigerator. A program called SOCRATES, written in FORTRAN by programmer Rick Curtis, allowed an epidemiologist to define questions, enter data, and summarize the results in tabular form without the aid of a programmer. 1978-84 The Epidemiologic Analysis System (EAS), a more flexible version of SOCRATES, was written in BASIC by Anthony (Tony) Burton of CDC and set up on a minicomputer for remote access by the Georgia state health department. 1978-84 The Conference (now Council) of State and Territorial Epidemiologists formed a Computer Working Group, and, together with Drs. Keewhan Choi and Stephen Thacker of CDC, developed a five-point plan for development of epidemiologic computing. 1984 Dr. Andrew Dean, Chairman of the CSTE Computer Working Group, served as President of CSTE and then was invited by Dr. Howard Ory to come to CDC and develop software for epidemiologists. He produced plans for a series of programs called EPI-AID to assist epidemiologists in outbreak investigations. Dr. Andy Dean, State Epidemiologist of Minnesota, became frustrated with the lack of flexibility of computer resources in the mid-1970s and vowed to join the microcomputer revolution.
Although, as Director of Disease Prevention and Control,
he was unable to commit daytime hours to the effort, he built and programmed
an IMSAI computer in the evening. After several years, the project
began to approach the useful stage. At about the same time, he
was invited to come to CDC and produce software for epidemiologists.
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![]() Privacy Policy | Accessibility CDC Home | Search | Health Topics A-Z This page last updated June 16, 2008 United States
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