Topic #5 PLUL: An Idea to Reality Journey of App Development for Health Records

Abstract Of App-Based Digital Business

Today we are going to talk about the journey of app development for health records. It is a niche of the much larger concept of app development for healthcare industry. But, before starting the journey lets see how the age of technology has lead to ease of accessibility and convenience.

Almost anything, anything under the sun is available at our disposal no matter where one is on the phase of this earth.

With time, our convenience and easy access to services, products, information etc have increased exponentially.

We all agree with this, right?

Good. Let us take a second to consider and appreciate how easy life has become with all the power that we have in our hands.

However, there is a downside to this. Power, if used irresponsibly, makes you lackadaisical towards life.

This leads to things being taken for granted, ignored.

In comes the cause and effect principle.

The direct effect of this inadvertent lifestyle can be easily seen on our health.

Our well being, our health being the most important aspect of what makes us human, often goes for a toss when we adapt to the slack lifestyle.

Spotlights! Action: App Development For Health Records

Addressing this issue and harnessing the potential of technology, one of our clients came up with this fantastic idea of keeping a meticulous tab on entire health history (HH- sounds interesting!) of an individual.

Right from an individual’s personal information to common diseases, allergies, current medications, consulting doctors, medical history, everything concerned with an individual’s health and medication is stored and accessed at any given time.

The Core Idea Behind App Development For Health Records

The ideal purpose of app development for health records was to encapsulate the complete medical history of all possible family members on a singular platform which can be viewed, assessed, and modified with respect to arising situations.

This helps each family member keep a close eye on each one of their peers’ health-related issues and be prepared in the event of an unforeseen issue.

At first, this seemed like a big challenge for our iOS team.

A challenge which was not impossible to achieve but the idea looked difficult to partake at the face value.

Nothing of this sort had ever been developed before.

And that is exactly what ignited the flame to confront the app development for health records challenge.

A bunch of our enthusiastic iOS devs was more than eager to dive into the world of logical reasoning, algorithms, the if, then, else of the development world, a world where human intelligence takes the form of technological art.

Yes, that’s what we like to call it here, technological art!

Let us dig a bit deeper to learn how remarkable and exhaustive this idea was in terms of execution.

Upon receiving the initial request, our project management team started wrapping their head around the idea.

• Requested the complete project requirement report from the client.
• Assigned project duties to relevant members of the team.
• Set a feasible project deadline for delivery.
• Assigned project fragments to quality analysts for a seamless flow.

Client’s Requirement in App Development for Health records

The Client’s idea was to record the medical histories of the complete family; every single individual in the family who is related to each other has his/her medical data stored in the app’s main profile.

Step-1 – Assume that Tim download’s the app and sets up his profile on it. He adds his own medical profile that includes his doctor’s name, his previous appointments, medications prescribed to him, his allergies and diseases that he suffered from in the past. His profile has been created with all the medical data store under his profile.

Step-2 – Tim now decides to add parents’ medical history too on the app. After all, Tim is a concerned little guy who cares about his peers. So, he will create 2 more profiles under his primary profile. Remember that, here, Tim will be assigned the role of admin. Anytime, he logs in into the app, he will be the one with all the admin rights permitted by the app.

So, our concerned Tim has now added his parents into the system.

Both Tim’s parents have the same app installed on their devices.

When they log in into the app, they can see Tim as the admin who manages the profile data.

They can access and modify the data fed into the app if they have been given the access.

We will talk about this in the subsequent steps.

Step-3 – Tim’s super concerned Father wants to add the medical history of his daughter. He wants to keep a check on his daughter’s health too. What shall he do in this case?

Ask Tim to add her? Isn’t that a hassle, asking the admin to add a particular member every time?

Here comes the access problems app development for health records hierarchy.

When Tim adds his Father on his profile, the app asks to assign a permission level.

Level 1 access
Level 2 access
Level 3 access

Each level permits a certain level of access in the ascending order.

Say for example Level 1 access allows the users to only view the medical data but not modify.

Level 2 access allows other users to view and modify the existing data.

But not add any new member of the family in the app; this access still remains with Tim.

Level 3 access permits to view, modify and add any data or user into the system.

Presuming that Tim gave level 2 access to his Mother and Level 3 access to his Father, the concerned Father can add his daughter into the profile along with all the available medical data of his daughter.

Tim’s Mother will now be able to view her daughter’s medical data on the app whenever she likes.

She can also easily modify the data if there is any discrepancy since she has Level 2 access to the profile.

So far so good. A happy family, all connected on one platform with all of their medical data being updated regularly for anyone of them to view and keep a tab on.

Great! Now they can take care of each other even when they are not together.

This was the complete idea of the client about app development for health records

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The Elephant- Problem A

We made perfect doors and windows in accordance with the blueprint i.e. the SOW (Statement Of Work).

Everything was splendid and going smoothly when suddenly the Elephant decided to show up at the door.

He wanted to get in from those doors.

Our client made sure everything was systematically mentioned in SOW about app development for health records to avoid further hurdles.

We made sure everything was done seamlessly across all aspects ranging from design to technicality.

What the client thought he wanted?

__________

However, the Elephant was something no one had expected.

During one of the many brainstorming sessions, our client realized that this app would have multiple family members.

Every member would want to add some member of their immediate family into the app.

And all of those members will be directly connected to one Admin (In our case it’s Tim).

Hence our client proposed that each member has to have a relation assigned to the admin.

Client said, whenever any of the members with proper access add other family members, the app should display the new member’s relationship with the direct admin.

The Mammoth- Problem B

No, the Elephant wasn’t enough.

He went back in time and brought an even bigger Mammoth.

This Mammoth was interconnectivity.

So, now we had two gigantic guests waiting to enter through a door that barely expected them.

What the client actually wanted?

__________

The client realized this Mammoth when it hit him that the number of family members which will be added per profile cannot be estimated.

Each profile will have n number of members added into the system.

What if the Profile named ‘Tim’s Family’ has 15 members under this profile.

All of Tim’s brothers, sisters, Aunts, and Uncles have been added into the profile.

Each individual profile containing the entire medical history that we talked about.

And each profile siphoning down to a single admin profile of Tim.

The client felt it was an anarchy in making.

We were being confronted by two major obstacles during app development for health records –

1. Addressing the relation of each added member

2. The interconnectivity of the family members inside the app.

The Taming Process- The Solution

We needed rigorous brainstorming and endless discussion to come with a solution that benefits the process of app development for health records and after a point in time, the client asked us to keep aside the sow and gave us the freedom to think outside of the planned structure.

Today we can say, that was all which was needed.

Our team, after endless productive huddles came with a permanent solution.

We now have Tim, his parents and Tim’s sister added into the profile.

Tim’s sister was added by his Father.

Our app knows there are four people under the profile, but it doesn’t know the relationship that all of them share with each other.

For this, whenever any member wants to add another member to the group, a notification is sent to the new member via email.

When they are undergoing the signup process, the app asks what relation do they share with the member who has invited them to join the app.

When Tim wanted to add his parents, both were asked what relation did they share with Tim.

His parents gave the information accordingly and so now the app knows they are Tim’s Father and Mother.

Now, when Tim’s Father added his daughter, she was asked what relation does she share with the one who has requested to add her.

She fed the information ‘Father’ into the system.

The app automatically understood the new member added into the group is Tim’s sister.

This further goes on for every new member added and the app cleverly picks up each member’s relationship with Tim.

This way, every member’s email address helps to link each of them inside the app.

We have successfully managed to address the issue of family relation and interconnectivity of app development for health records, but only theoretically.

How to display what we have figured out so far?

__________

Since the client wanted interconnectivity to be the USP of the app, we had to make sure the app displayed the abstract idea on the mobile up to the T.

Selling what you are advertising is the key to a successful business.

Since everything had to be displayed on a screen the size of your average palm, the task was daunting, but not impossible.

When each member is connected to every other member in the group and there is a relation assigned between all of them, it has to clearly display all of those aspects to the viewer.

We designed the app in such a way, when Tim was viewing his complete member profile, each and every member of his family will have a bubble assigned with their name displayed inside it.

So what Tim would be viewing is 15 such bubbles containing the name and his relation to each one of them.

These name bubbles efficiently display the interconnectivity of each family member with a line connecting the two bubbles.

Imagine this chain reaction.

Since we do not know how many family members will someone have, we need to make sure that the screen doesn’t look something like a flea market.

Crunching each bubble inside the 5-inch screen is a terrible idea.

Our designers presented the idea of vertical and horizontal scrolling.

If Tim wants to view all of his family members, he can scroll vertically or horizontally to view each bubble, each member in a crisp and clear manner.

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Some Glimpse of Our Technical iOS Developers Talk During The Journey

“At first when the project details were assigned to us, I was pretty excited to work on something entirely different from all the previous projects I’ve worked on.

Little did I know, the technical complexities of this app development for health records would get the better of me.

There were times when even 8-10 cups of coffee a day failed to provide a solution to the problem I would be stuck on.”– says Rejo, Sr. iOS developer.

“We started working on the project according to the roadmap- the SOW provided to us.

My team and I were able to complete the given structure of the app well within the initial 4 months since the project incubation.

We delivered the project to the client expecting a positive nod.

But, the news our project manager gave, it hit us like a truck.

We came to know that this was not what the client wanted!” He exclaims further.

Rahul, our most fervent and passionate iOS team member was quick to add, “We felt lost at first. You know that feeling when you think all your hard-work seems like going down into the drain. Yes, that is how I felt initially.

Thanks to my project manager, I did not jump from the 8th floor of our building.” He jokes.

“What my project manager told was, the app was built perfectly and as expected.

However, the issue is something which even our client had not anticipated.

The core idea of this app development for health records started taking shape, client-side eventually began to witness the birth of unforeseen events that needed immediate attention.”

“And that is when we the Statement of Work was kept aside to allow freedom of thoughts.

We sat together, sometimes for 3-5 hours at stretch in order to tackle the question of interconnectivity and tagging of relationship that members shared.

Our whiteboards were not white anymore.

Brainstorming seemed small after a point and it turned out to be brain-tsunamis or brain-supernovas with ideas, thoughts, insights pouring in day in and day out.

One weekend, when Rejo, Rahul, and I were working, it hit all three of us simultaneously.

Believe it or not, but we figured out a way together that evening.” an excited Sarah says.

“Next day we called up the client, which was a daily practice for the last couple of weeks then, but this time, the tone in our voices got the attention of our client.

We had been in touch with him everyday, regardless of the time.

If any of us felt the need to communicate something to the other, we did not hesitate.

And that, I think, is the single most important aspect of working collectively and efficiently.

Clear and succinct communication.” Rahul finishes it off.

Time and Diligence in The Journey

Ideally, the complete process of app development for health records would have been wrapped up in not more than 8-9 months.

When our unexpected guests decided to show up at the door, we had to restart everything from the scratch.

You see it’s not just making way for these guests, we have to accommodate them too.

Hence, simply adding a larger door would not have been a tad bit beneficial. We had to rebuild the complete house.

Our team of developers restarted the entire process in order to include the new elements.

This took close to one year in and out.

Turning an idea into reality takes a lot of effort and time.

When we think of an idea, we feel it can be accomplished within no time.

That is not how it works, hence the phrase, easier said than done.

But hey, no one said it was impossible.

Everything is possible with the right mindset and a keen eye towards the end goal.

And that is what the team at TRooTech is built with.

Take Away Point from The Journey

Every new experience brings a new lesson for us to learn wrapped secretly. What did we learn from this experience?

1. Be in a constant communication with the client. Be well aware of their requirements. We humans have the amazing ability to communicate. Use the power of communication to leverage the end goal.

2. Make sure the client has all the prerequisites set in place. A blurred vision for the end goal may result in redundant waste of time and resources.

3. Hurdles are a big part of growing. They are catalyst which helps one grow as company, institution, entrepreneur or an individual.

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