With pencils and erasers, I began filling in grids so that there would always be a senior resident on call, that no one takes call more often than every third day, and that, ideally, each resident gets a 'golden' weekend each month. I needed to coordinate with other hospitals and residency programs, arrange for cross-coverage when everyone had clinics, and satisfy numerous requests.

My husband, Stuart, who makes a living writing software, said the right software would make the task a lot easier, but we couldn't find anything reasonable. So, Stuart began writing OnCall.

Six months later, I started using the software. With my co-chief about to take maternity leave, I was able to whiz through several months of call scheduling in 1/4 the time it used to take.

My chief year drew to a close but OnCall continued to grow. With over 100 residents in the combined pediatrics program at Boston Children's Hospital and Boston Medical Center, my successors saved countless hours using the software.

It's now 2006 and we have over 2000 residencies and attending groups scheduling with OnCall, many entire hospitals using OnCall Enterprise, and tens of thousands who view their schedules online at amion.com. We hope that OnCall continues to take a little of the folklore mystery and a lot of drudgery out of scheduling.