Company leader
Abdiel Marin
Founder
Optivate
Abdiel Marin founded EyeMD EMR, the ophthalmology record and practice-management system that rebranded as Optivate. He started fixing computers for pay at 13, wrote the software after months inside an eye clinic, and still leads the company he set up in 2009.
Fixing Computers as a Teenager
As a child he liked building things and working with computers. At 13 he earned money fixing computers and wiring small networks for homes and home businesses. At 18 he founded X-tech Data Systems and used the income to pay for college. While in school he contracted with a medical billing firm and ended up running its IT. After a change in that firm's management, the company failed. He co-founded SW FL Billing & Recovery to pick up the stranded clients, and he was its chief technology officer while he kept writing software through X-tech.
Building EyeMD EMR
He saw no usable electronic record for ophthalmology and started building one. He also built Infusatrack, software for running an infusion room in rheumatology, and later sold it to Cardinal Health. In 2009 he set up EyeMD EMR Healthcare Systems as a division of X-tech. Before writing the eye record he spent eight months in a practice, following technicians and physicians and scrubbing in on surgery. He has worked with the IHE Eye Care team and co-authored the IHE Eye Care workflows that made the DICOM imaging standard practical for smaller eye practices.
Fishing in the Florida Keys
Away from the office he fishes from his boat in the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys, and he spends time with his family. He also flies, sails, and plays trumpet in a church orchestra.