IEEE Spectrum June, 2015 - 4

BacK StorY_
editor in chief

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org
executive editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org
editorial director, digital

Harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org
managing editor

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org
senior art director

Mark Montgomery, m.montgomery@ieee.org
senior editors

Stephen Cass (Resources), cass.s@ieee.org
Erico Guizzo (Digital), e.guizzo@ieee.org
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org
Samuel K. Moore (News), s.k.moore@ieee.org
Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.org
Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org
David Schneider, d.a.schneider@ieee.org
Brandon Palacio, b.palacio@ieee.org
Randi Klett, randi.klett@ieee.org
associate art director Erik Vrielink, e.vrielink@ieee.org
deputy art director

photography director
associate editors

Rachel Courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org
Celia Gorman (Multimedia), celia.gorman@ieee.org
Eliza Strickland, e.strickland@ieee.org
assistant editor Willie D. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org
senior copy editor Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org
copy editor Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org
editorial researcher Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org

Tech Reporting in Muck Boots

executive producer, spectrum radio

sua lly, when IEEE Spectrum's biomedical editor, Eliza
Strickland, heads out into the field to report on cutting-edge
technologies, she doesn't have to borrow a pair of muck boots.
For her article in this issue about a remarkable couple on the
forefront of the personalized medicine revolution, however,
extreme measures were necessary.
John Halamka, chief information officer of Boston's Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center, lives with his wife, Kathy,
on a farm in Sherborn, Mass. The vegetarian duo nominally raise
alpacas for wool and poultry for eggs, but really they do it for sheer joy.
"Watching the chickens chase the fireflies at dusk makes every day a bit
better," John has written on his "geek doctor" blog.
Strickland visited the farm in February to learn about John's
pioneering work on query tools that mine hospitals' databases of
electronic health records, finding medical wisdom in troves of big
data. These tools became vital to the Halamkas when Kathy was
diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. After a long interview at the
kitchen table, John announced that it was time for Strickland to
meet the animals. He outfitted her with boots and a barn coat, and
they headed outside into the snowy fields. "Remember," said John,
"the alpacas are friendly, but they're not exactly huggable. We just
hang with them." Strickland did her best to follow instructions.
John, who trained as an emergency-room physician before turning
toward engineering, says his hands are those of a farmer now, not a
doctor. Both of his skill sets are put to the test, though, for one of the
trickier farm tasks: the biannual trimming of the alpacas' toenails. n

Jun 2015

north american

SPectrum.ieee.orG

Ramona L. Foster, r.foster@ieee.org
Nancy T. Hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org
contributing editors

Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N.
Charette, Peter Fairley, Tam Harbert, Mark Harris, David
Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel,
Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich
Peter Tuohy
Roy Carubia
senior electronic layout specialist Bonnie Nani
director, periodicals production services
editorial & Web production manager
spectrum online

Shannan Brown
Jacqueline L. Parker
multimedia production specialist Michael Spector
product manager, digital

Web production coordinator
editorial advisory board

Susan Hassler, Chair; Gerard A. Alphonse, Jason Cong*,
Sudhir Dixit, Limor Fried, Robert Hebner, Joseph J. Helble,
Chenming Hu*, Grant Jacoby, Norberto Lerendegui, John P.
Lewis, Steve Mann, Jacob Østergaard, Umit Ozguner, Thrasos
Pappas, John Rogers, Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Takao
Someya, Jeffrey M. Voas, Kazuo Yano, Larry Zhang*, Yu Zheng,
Kun Zhou, Edward Zyszkowski
* Chinese-language edition
editorial / advertising correspondence

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06.15

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photograph by

John Halamka

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum June, 2015