Gary Braley
Gary Braley received a Master of Science degree in
Mathematics from Ohio State University with concentrations
in computer technology, physics and education. He began his
career in the aerospace field specializing in software
design and development for the Apollo lunar program and
other space projects.
As the healthcare field began converting to electronic
records Mr. Braley became a program manager for the design
and implementation of pathology laboratory information
systems. Computers had been used for billing applications
but laboratory testing was the first real application of
information technology to patient treatment data. Systems
designed by Mr. Braley were installed in community
hospitals, reference laboratories and The National
Institutes of Health.
Gary next formed Braley Consulting Services in 1978 to
provide consulting services for healthcare facilities that
were entering the "digital age" with little understanding
of the field and limited internal resources. The company
worked with over 200 clients across the US, Canada and
Mexico. As part this work he published numerous articles
and lectured frequently at regional, national and
international conferences.
Working with management in large and small facilities over
many years, it became obvious to Gary that there was a
major gap in the application of technology in organizations
of all types. While staff members were being supplied with
the latest technology, managers were still relying on word
processing, spreadsheets and - most of all - human memory
to store and retrieve their information. As projects became
more complex, managers were still wondering where their
important information was and wasting hugh amounts of time
trying to locate and organize their documents.
Mr. Braley realized that although offices looked different
in many ways, in fact their was a common thread linking
their record keeping systems. At the level of "pure
management" they were all dealing with lists of tasks,
projects, meetings, events, issues, etc. Whether it was a
business or non-profit organization, a small consulting
practice or an association, they were all doing the same
thing. The problem was that almost all of them were using
the wrong technology in their attempts to structure their
work. They were recording information in word processing
documents and spreadsheets - neither of which had any
capability to assist in retrieval. As a consequence they
had to remember where everything was stored whether it was
in a paper filled filing cabinet or in a folder hidden away
among thousands of folders in a shared server on the
network. After working on a particularly complex consulting
assignment involving a dozen project teams and hundreds of
people, Gary began the development of a database approach
to management.
The general idea was not new - numerous project management
packages are available using databases. The breakthrough
was to expand the concept to the entire management process.
The Management Tracker incorporates not only the ability to
track multiple simultaneous projects but to handle all the
issue lists, client management, equipment maintenance
records and anything else that can be entered as a subject
line with user definable keywords. There was one overriding
requirement - the program needed to be easy to use since
managers do not have the time for a three day class. They
need to have something they can begin using with very
limited startup time. The Management Tracker was designed
to meet these demands.
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