DENMARK — John “Jack” Wright, who managed the information services department at Maine Medical Center in Portland and played a key role in implementing several systems at the hospital, died Saturday. He was 75.

Mr. Wright managed Maine Med’s clinical and ancillary systems for more than 10 years. Jonathan Allen, a database administrator at the hospital, said Mr. Wright had a distinguished career at Maine Med that included the implementation of several systems that were vital to inpatient and outpatient operations.

Mr. Wright was instrumental in creating Maine Med’s CardioVascular Information System, a state-of-the-art image management and reporting system.

“He was very focused on what the end result would be for hospital patients and staff,” Allen said, noting that Mr. Wright was a good friend and a mentor to many of his colleagues. “You could always count on his support for anything good that you were trying to get done.”

Early in his career, Mr. Wright helped to create the Maryland Perinatal Database, one of the largest women’s health care databases in the world. He previously worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

His wife, Holly Best, said he had a passion for his work. She said he did more than manage the systems – he talked to hospital administrators and doctors to learn what they needed the system to do.

“It’s the way he went about his work,” she said. “He had a passion for helping computer systems work for people and caregivers.”

Mr. Wright left Johns Hopkins around 2000 and moved to Maine with the intention of retiring. Soon after that, he began working at Maine Med.

He was remembered by his family Tuesday as an accomplished man who had a passion for computers, woodworking, writing and music.

His wife talked about the day they met, on a hill overlooking a University of Connecticut football game. That day, she questioned why the team “didn’t do more draw plays.”

“His ears perked up and he moved closer to me,” his wife said. “That was like music to his ears.”

The couple got married on a Super Bowl Sunday. She said they had a great life together.

“We had the same view of the world, which helped enormously,” she said. “We loved a lot of the same things.”

 

Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at: mcreamer@pressherald.com