User interface guru Bruce Tog Tognazzini has turned up at so- called super-vertical start-up Healtheon, the company formed by Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics Inc and Netscape Communications Corp. Tognazzini was previously a distinguished engineer for strategic technology at SunSoft Inc, and before that spent 14 years at Apple Computer Inc, where he founded the Apple Human Interface Group. He has strong views on how the web has harmed the usability of computer systems, claiming that browsers represent a giant step backwards when compared to the traditional graphical user interface. Healtheon is working on internet and electronic data exchange technologies intended to connect up the highly fragmented health care industries, consisting of payers, providers, consumers, diagnostic entities and suppliers. It started with applications supporting administrative and clinical healthcare transactions. Healtheon’s underlyng platform for its applications include business rules and workflow technology. Since it was founded two years ago, Healtheon has acquired EDI company ActaMed Corp in 1997, and last September, acquired Metis LLC, a medical consulting and application development firm. Healtheon was on the verge of filing for its initial public offering, but delayed at the end of October due to market conditions. Instead, it announced that it had received a private placement of approximately $40m from a group of new and existing investors led by founder and chairman Jim Clark, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and New Enterprise Associates.
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