Macintosh Medical Practice Software History

The history of MacPractice is intertwined with the history of Apple Computer and the very first practice management software applications designed to work in the Mac OS environment: DentalMac, MediMac, and ChiroMac. It is also the fruition of the trials and dreams of individuals profoundly committed to their customers.

In 1984 a young Apple II programmer bought a house in Lincoln, NE, and two computers: a Lisa from Apple and the original Macintosh. With the input from his dentist brother-in-law, he designed and created the very first dental practice management software for Apple’s new Macintosh graphical operating system. That young programmer was Patrick Clyne.

Late in 1984 Patrick became the Vice President of Product Development for a new company, HealthCare Communications, Inc. (HCC). Patrick and his programming team subsequently designed, wrote and developed DentalMac as HCC’s first software release. DentalMac became the foundation for the subsequent products MediMac, ChiroMac, OrthoRAD and OpticMac.

Through the years Patrick continued to develop and maintained successive versions of the software through an often-turbulent history of successive owners of the program code for the last 22 years.

In 1996, HCC received a major investment by Physicians Computer Network (PCN), a developer of software for Unix and Microsoft Windows. Shortly after PCN's investment, DentalMac was sold to Unident, also a reseller of Windows and Alpha Micro dental solutions.

Patrick continued to work to improve DentalMac for Unident and its subsequent owners, InfoCure and eventually PracticeWorks, now owned by Kodak.

In the spring of 2000, MediMac and ChiroMac were sold to Medical Manager after its acquisition of PCN. Medical Manager was subsequently purchased by WebMD in the fall of 2000. Long time HCC employees, territory managers and customers were initially heartened by Medical Manager's continuous stated support of the further development of MediMac and ChiroMac.

In the spring of 2004, PracticeWorks had no plans whatsoever for development of DentalMac for Mac OS X and WebMD stopped development of their long awaited, promised Mac OS X software for MediMac and ChiroMac customers.

Along the way, the software developed many fans: hundreds of doctors, dentists, and chiropractors who appreciated the software's ease of use and attention to detail, and who continued to use it even as the companies which sold it came and went. One such supporter and biggest fan was Mark Hollis. His representation and consulting business with MediMac, DentalMac, and ChiroMac users in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania became the largest in the country.

Having shepherded the software through these many changes in ownership, Patrick and Mark felt that it was time to create the next generation software and support in Practice Management. And so, on May 3, 2004, MacPractice Inc. was founded by Patrick Clyne and Mark Hollis.

MacPractice is a client-centric company staffed by highly experienced and caring individuals who are dedicated to the development and support of best-of-class Macintosh software, hardware and associated services for physicians and dentists.

MacPractice is uniquely suited to provide support related to their clients' existing MediMac, DentalMac, and ChiroMac software, because the people of MacPractice created the software and have supported it for two decades.

Beyond just software, MacPractice is aware of other fundamental elements critical to support a successful medical practice, including hardware, connectivity, consulting on best practices, training, marketing, and taking full advantage of the Internet. MacPractice provides solutions in these areas as well.

MacPractice provides an upgrade path for their clients. This next generation software delivers new medical, dental, optometry and chiropractic practice management software program that utilizes a state-of-the-art, industrial strength database at its core and capitalizes on all of the Apple technologies and the security built into Mac OS X. MacPractice gives doctors access to high quality software at a very reasonable cost, and backs this up with a full spectrum of software and hardware solutions and associated support services.