astronomy

Lawrence Weed

Lawrence Weed is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lawrence Weed rather than just read about it. In short: Lawrence Leonard Weed (December 26, 1923 – June 3, 2017) was an American physician, researcher, educator, entrepreneur, and author, who is best known for creating the problem-oriented medical record as well as one of the first electronic health records. Biography Born in Troy, New York, he graduated from Hamilton College and, later, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1947 and pursued a car…

Key takeaways

Lawrence Weed belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lawrence Weed to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lawrence Weed from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lawrence Leonard Weed (December 26, 1923 – June 3, 2017) was an American physician, researcher, educator, entrepreneur, and author, who is best known for creating the problem-oriented medical record as well as one of the first electronic health records.

Biography Born in Troy, New York, he graduated from Hamilton College and, later, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1947 and pursued a career in academic medicine. He retired as an Emeritus Professor of the University of Vermont.

Career Dividing his time between research, patient care, and teaching, he developed a method that reorganized the structure of the medical record from being divided into the different sources for patient records (x-rays, prescriptions, physician notes) to one structured around a well-defined list of a patient's medical problems. In the early 1950s, while a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Weed was known to accompany students in the hospital where he observed them struggling to interpret unstructured patient notes written by doctors. In response, he created the problem-oriented medical record (POMR), a method for documenting patient information. He first published about the problem-oriented medical record in 1964, but a 1968 article published by the New England Journal of Medicine introduced the concept to a broader audience. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he gave lectures at medical schools around the country, and published a book that described the problem-oriented medical record in more detail. Weed's POMR included two features that have become nearly universal in healthcare, the Problem List and the SOAP note (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan). Over 2,000 academic articles and numerous medical textbooks discuss Weed's problem-oriented medical record, and it has become a central component of medical and nursing education. His original idea for a patient problem list was adapted and put into law in the “meaningful use” requirements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which promoted the adoption of electronic health records in the United States. He also helped develop PROMIS, a computerized medical information system based on the problem-oriented record, which used a touch screen; introduced in 1969, that system was one of the earliest versions of an electronic medical record. He launched a company PKC, which developed methods for clinical information management systems. In 2012, the firm was purchased by Sharecare.

Honors Weed was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in May 1972 and would later receive the Gustav O. Leinhard Award from the Institute of Medicine for his contribution of the problem-oriented medical record to the field of medicine. He was a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

1995 Gustav O. Lienhard Award, Institute of Medicine, Washington, D.C. 1991 Computers in Healthcare Health Care Pioneer for: Contributions to the development of the healthcare information systems industry. 1984 ACMI (American College of Medical Informatics) Founding Fellow. 1978 Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Medical Administrators. 1976 Monsour Medical Foundation Teaching Award, Health Education & Media Association. 1973 First Brookdale Award in Medicine, AMA National Convention. 1972 Elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences. 1971 Gerald Lambert Award for Innovation in Health Care.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lawrence Weed

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lawrence Weed claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lawrence Weed before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lawrence Weed ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lawrence Weed

In research: Lawrence Weed appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lawrence Weed in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lawrence Weed is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1923 births, 2017 deaths, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lawrence Weed outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lawrence Weed in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lawrence Weed means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lawrence Weed out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lawrence Weed in simple terms?

Why does Lawrence Weed matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lawrence Weed?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lawrence Weed.