Inpatient Care Mobile App with Communication, Entertainment, and Room Control Capabilities

Customer

A European provider of mobile patient engagement software to improve patient entertainment, literacy and communication with caregivers at the bedside.

Challenge

The Customer wanted a healthcare app development company to create a mobile application designed specifically for iPads. This application was to offer inpatients secure access to their health history, enable communication with caregivers, watching TV shows and movies as well as playing games. At the early project stages, the Customer turned to ScienceSoft for creating a requirements specification and developing a demo version of the application.

Solution

To ensure PHI security at the bedside, the iOS application needs to be locked with a specific PIN-code to be set up by a patient’s case manager. Then a patient is ready to use their care application with the following features available:

Medical record

Here patients are able to view their medical images, check on lab results and refer to their treatment plan.

Entertainment

Within the entertainment menu, patients can pass the time in the hospital by watching TV, Netflix and YouTube. Watching movies allows patients to better endure long procedures, such as IV treatment. They also can listen to music, radio and audiobooks.

Games

Games allow patients to bear discomfort, pain or tiresome waiting better, as they are good at distracting.

Room control

Everyone’s comfort zone differs, but not every patient will be able to ask a nurse for changes. Therefore, the app includes the room control function. It is the feature that offers patients to manage their room conditions through changing temperature and lighting.

Communication

This menu item entails various channels of communication. Patients can use social media and messengers to feel connected. In case of need, he or she can also use the app to call the nurse, taxi, family and friends. To streamline communication, a range of speed dial numbers can be set up.

Services (assistance request, food pick, calendar and more)

Within the services menu, patients can request a wheelchair, a glass of water or personal hygiene help. Moreover, they are able to modify their meal assortment within the individual nutrition plan. To keep tuned to all the procedures, tests and important events, patients also have access to their schedule.

Results

Our team of business analysts and software engineers delivered the requirements specification and the demo version of an iOS inpatient care app. This application allows patients at the bedside to securely check on their lab results, medications and medical images as well as communicate with health specialists and access various entertainment options. Currently, ScienceSoft’s team is defining the app’s final functional set and reviewing the stack of technologies to start implementation.

Technologies and Tools

iOS9, UIkit, VLCKit, RESTful API, PortSIP VoIP SDK