History of M (MUMPS)

MUMPS was originally developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, in 1967 due to the need for an interactive programming system for the expanding medical field. COBOL, the language of choice at that time for large databases was found to be too difficult to develop, maintain, and change and a language was needed that allowed for ease of programming that was easy to learn, and was quick and simple to modify routines. In 1977, MUMPS was accepted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI is the recognized authority in establishing industrial standards. The most recent revision was accepted in 1995. In 1992 the name was changed from MUMPS to M mostly due to the negative connotations caused by the acronym of MUMPS.

M was originally designed to be implemented on minicomputers, but is now run on every variety of computer from PC's to mainframes.

M is widely known and used in Europe, Japan, and South America (especially Brazil). M is gradually becoming better known in nonmedical academic and business circles.

The language continues to evolve under the direction of the MUMPS Development Committee (MDC). The MDC is also charged with the task of ensuring that M complies with all requirements to retain approval from ANSI. Their activities also include review of the existing standard, approving corrections or clarifications as necessary, and proposing revisions and extensions to the language to be included in the next standard. The standard was updated in 1984, 1988, 1990, and 1995.

In the mid 1980's the Department of Veterans Affairs started an underground movement developing a core system for their hospitals using the MUMPS language. Originally known as DHCP (Decentralized Hospital Computer Program) and later renamed to VistA (the Veterans Health Information Systems & Technology Architecture) it is now the largest and most integrated hospital computer network in the world. Their basic system has also been modified and used by DoD (Department of Defense), IHS (Indian Health Service) as well as many civilian medical centers, financial institutions and businesses.

 

M (MUMPS) today

Due to the work of innovative companies such as InterSystems Corporation, Greystone Technologies and many talented and devoted programmers, government and civilian, M (MUMPS) continues to thrive. It has evolved into a powerful and easily maintainable language with many tools for Rapid Application Development (RAD).

Advantages to you

We start with a complete database management system coupled with an integrated security and device handling system developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for their medical centers. This underlying kernel and file management software has already undergone 18 years of development and testing. Since this is public domain software, we are able to use it without incurring the development costs. This allows us to provide a much more sophisticated system with less development time, and at a substantially lower cost.

Because of our use of M Technology, we are able to provide a system that can be easily modified, quickly updated and even provides for user customization.