Neal Patterson

Neal Patterson, co-founder and CEO of Cerner Corp. and a principal owner of Sporting Kansas City, died Sunday July 7 2017 at age 67 The son of Oklahoma tenant farmers, Patterson grew a reputation as a believer in hard work while building Cerner into an electronic health records giant. He started the company with two partners after graduating with an MBA from Oklahoma State University and after a stint working for the accounting and consulting firm Arthur Andersen & Co. Cerner benefitted from the ever-growing push to digitize health systems. The company sells IT and electronic health record systems to doctors' offices and hospitals. Its stock shot up 44% in 2013 after Congress passed a law that imposes penalties on health systems that don't make enough progress in going digital. Patterson relinquished part of his role at the company in September 2013, turning over the president's job to Cerner veteran Zane Burke. Patterson remained CEO and chairman. He started the Kansas City-based company in 1979 with two colleagues from Arthur Andersen's consulting business. He co-owned Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City, and was a devoted follower of Ayn Rand. In 2012 he led Cerner to form CommonWell Health Alliance with other healthcare IT companies. The trade organization aims to facilitate the transfer of patient information across different medical software.