Skip to main content

The Billionaire Who Controls Your Medical Records

In 1969, Faulkner developed a system in which a secretary could punch data cards to generate the schedule for an entire year in 18 seconds at a cost of $5. Faulkner graduated without completing a dissertation (“I never could figure out what to write a thesis on,” she says) and in the early 1970s started working for a physicians group at the University of Wisconsin, developing a database to keep track of patient information over time. It would take a few more years (and lots of convincing from colleagues) before Faulkner was ready to start her own software company. “It almost seemed like a joke to start a company,” she recalls. “How do you do that?”