Microservices-Based Telehealth Solution Delivered in 9 Months

Our Customer

The Customer is a US-based company providing custom IT solutions for healthcare. The Customer’s collaboration with ScienceSoft lasted for over a decade and resulted in the delivery of electronic medication administration record, marketing, and incident management software for assisted living providers, among other projects.

Need for an Effective Telemedicine Solution

In response to the increased demand for remote healthcare services, the Customer sought to develop a telemedicine solution to connect physicians and patients. The solution was to enable secure video conferencing and instant messaging, pharmacy integration, clinical documentation, prescription, and medication intake management.

Developing a Web Platform and Native Mobile Apps with Telehealth Functionality

Knowing ScienceSoft from the previous projects, the Customer turned to us to build a HIPAA-compliant solution consisting of a web platform and native iOS and Android mobile apps.

Flexible project team

For the initial project phase, ScienceSoft assigned a project manager, a business analyst, and a UX/UI designer. The team defined the project scope and objectives, elicited requirements from both the Customer and target users, and translated them into user-friendly design concepts. Later, during development and deployment, we expanded the team with four developers (two back-end, one front-end, and one Android), one QA specialist, and three more UX/UI designers (for a comprehensive design coverage across features and platforms). The Customer provided its own iOS developer to work on the project.

Strategic choices

Video conferencing was among the solution’s key features, and the Customer initially wanted to build a video layer from scratch. Recognizing potential time and cost implications, we recommended that the Customer considered a ready-made platform. This option would ensure a seamless user experience alongside time- and cost-saving solution delivery.

As to the solution’s architecture, our team suggested the microservices-based one, capable of accommodating increased user demand without compromising performance. Also, we wanted the solution to be flexible and adaptable to evolving healthcare scenarios and business needs.

Key functionality

Within nine months, ScienceSoft developed a market-ready telemedicine solution with robust functionality:

Communication and collaboration:

• Customizable doctor and patient profiles. Medical specialists can update their patients’ personal details, share documents, and view connected devices.

• Encrypted real-time audiovisual communication and instant messaging. Doctors can chat with their colleagues for case collaboration and assistance.

• Collaboration between healthcare providers (shared patient records, joint decision-making tools, etc.).
• Referrals management.

Clinical document management:

• Uploading templates tailored to a particular healthcare organization and sending them to patients for signing.
• Creating assessment forms and appointment notes. Doctors can conveniently access and manage their schedules, viewing appointments by day, week, or month. They can create, cancel, or duplicate appointments as well as search for the needed ones using filters.

Medication management:

• Pharmacy integration via HL7 standards for automatic updates to patient drug lists.
• Prescription tracking, dosage and dosing schedule management.
• Detailed medication records. Both patients and medical specialists can view all prescribed medications, including active and completed ones.

• A list of confirmed drug classes, including Medi-Span drug class codes.
• Detailed risk descriptions for each prescribed medication.

Security and HIPAA compliance:

• A matrix of permissions for role-based access to features, which can further be selectively tuned: for example, it is possible to deny access of a certain care team member to a particular patient’s data or part of data.
• Data encryption, access controls, and secure data transmission protocols to ensure PHI security and privacy in line with HIPAA requirements.

A Telemedicine Solution Delivered in 9 Months

Within nine months, the Customer got a microservices-based telehealth solution that gained popularity among end users. ScienceSoft handles the solution’s support, maintenance, and evolution. Continuously innovating the solution, the Customer regularly proposes ideas of new features, relying on ScienceSoft for implementation. For example, we recently implemented a self-sign-up for patients.

Technologies and Tools

Java, Spring Framework, React.js, Swift, Kotlin, Jira, Confluence.