![William Proudfit, MD., sitting at this desk with paper on the tabletop, looking at the camera](https://magazine.clevelandclinic.org/hs-fs/hubfs/CC%20Magazine/Centennial/1970s/Big%20Data/Centennial-BigData-Wide.jpg?width=1030&height=540&name=Centennial-BigData-Wide.jpg)
Photo: Cleveland Clinic Archives
William Proudfit, MD, was one of the driving forces behind the first computerized medical database: Cleveland Clinic’s computerized cardiovascular registry. Created with records meticulously kept by Emily Wagstaff, RN, the database ushered in a new era of data-driven care when it debuted in 1972. Floyd Loop, MD, and William Sheldon, MD, also collaborated on the registry, which remains the longest-running of its kind. Dr. Proudfit died in 2020, just shy of his 106th birthday.