Dr. Helmuth F. Orthner

Dr. Helmuth F. Orthner 1941 ~ 2009 Helmuth F. Orthner, beloved husband and best friend of Carolyn L. and devoted father to Andrea Orthner Wrobel (Jeffrey) and Michael P. Orthner passed away suddenly on March 16, 2009. Helmuth (Helly) was born on March 27, 1941 in Silz, Tyrol in Austria to Dr. Hans Orthner and Frieda Gritsch Orthner. His family was disrupted by World War II, but despite this, Helly earned his B.S. Degree from the Higher Technical Institute in Innsbruck, Austria and his M.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering and Communication from the Technical University of Munich in Germany. In 1968, Helly emigrated to the U.S. where he studied Biomedical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his Ph.D. Degree in 1973. It was in Philadelphia that he and Carolyn met, fell in love and married in 1970. He started his professional career as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Engineering at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC. In 1976, he was instrumental in founding SCAMC, one of the first annual meetings devoted to the applications of computers to medicine. This was the predecessor organization of the present day American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), of which Helly was Founding Board Member and Founding Fellow, respectively. In 1993, Helly became Professor of Medical Informatics at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. This was followed by his service as Professor of Health Informatics and Director of the Master of Science in Health Informatics Program at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). Helly was a devoted educator and mentor to many students. Although he held them to high academic standards, most students appreciated it and said that "if they received a job recommendation from Dr. Orthner, they had it made". Helly was grateful that his own graduate education was supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fellowship and felt it important to give back. For many years, he served on numerous review committees evaluating grants and contracts for the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the NIH. His recent research involved communication infrastructure for pre-hospital emergency medical care, and for health and disaster management. Helly was also the computer help-line to many, ready to drop what he was doing and guide them through their latest computer glitches. On January 1st of this year, Helly retired from UAB and he and Carolyn just returned to their home in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Helly loved hiking and skiing in the mountains and was a talented photographer. But his first love was his family and friends in the US and Europe, and he was the vital bridge between the US and European branches of his large family. He is survived by his wife, children, and granddaughter Eva Linnaea Wrobel; sisters Sigrid Cicotte, Gerda Sherwood (Douglas), Madeleine Aglubat (Art), Maria Bahrdt (Johannes), and Steffi Orthner (Stefan); brothers Joergi (Anne), Cristoph, and Hans; stepmother Annette Orthner; Aunt Ria Raffle and many cousins and nieces and nephews in the US, Austria, and Germany. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. at the Larkin Mortuary at 260 East South Temple in Salt Lake City, where a visitation for friends and family will be held on Friday evening, March 20th from 6:00-8:00 p.m. and one hour prior to the funeral service. Interment: Salt Lake City Cemetery.