During the early stages of COVID organizations worldwide were working on creating a quick and effective solution to minimize human interaction to stop the virus from spreading. This was one of the main reasons why online COVID testing scheduling systems have become the most popular solutions since 2019. Till now organizations have been growing the functionalities of the given solutions to improve the healthcare systems in general.
In the article, we are sharing our experience in building a platform for not only testing but also vaccination appointment scheduling and processing of the results. Initially, this one started when COVID hit, but today it turns into a flexible and scalable system with a wider application within the world of healthcare.
Major requirements for healthcare platform development
At the early stages of the development process, the goal was to create a product that will be easy to maintain and grow in the future to satisfy the needs of the rapidly changing healthcare sector. When the COVID pandemic became a huge deal around the globe and people were put into lockdowns, getting an appointment with a doctor was rather challenging. Not to mention how dangerous that was for individuals who were within risk groups if they were contaminated with the virus. Therefore, having a system that would allow reducing the risk of getting the virus during a hospital or healthcare practitioner visit was vital. Besides, people needed to know where and how to get tested or vaccinated without imposing any risk to themselves or others.
The main tasks for the team were to build the functionality that will
- allow registering for testing and/or vaccination through a built-in calendar;
- map locations of the facilities where testing and/or vaccination can be taken;
- add payment tool that enables patients or insurance companies to pay (if necessary) for the healthcare services provided;
- make the platform easy to maintain and introduce changes when necessary.
The key implementations from the Agiliway development team
Within the development process, the team has focused on two main directions: building a scheduling and administration solution and a telemedicine tool. The goal was to simplify the process of signing for doctors’ appointments, managing payments, and arranging remote access to the data for healthcare service providers, insurance companies, and patients.
As to the scheduling part of the product, the major implementations are:
- API and data layer developed by the Agiliway team based on Golang that processes payments from insurance companies;
- Both patients and medical staff to add data entries, edit and view them
- A third-party tool added to the product gets to process the data and sends the results to the system. Depending on the results, the Agiliway team developed alert notifications to testing locations to inform about individuals testing positive for COVID;
- The data team collects and processes all test results for further use in creating statistics regarding the COVID contamination situation;
- The administration app was developed with authorization via Okta or Ping to manage the entire system.
Another significant direction of product development is telemedicine. Since COVID started it became vital to create a solution that will allow patients to reach out to their doctors without visiting or booking appointments online.
Patients who were tested and fall within the specified criteria and locations receive notifications with their test results (the system can generate a PDF for patients to have proof of testing CLIIA letter). Patients who tested positive also receive notifications with the suggestion to get COVID pills or any additional treatment. The treatment is not free therefore, it’s up to the patient whether to continue interacting with the system or schedule an appointment to meet with a healthcare service provider online. Patients pre-pay for the visit within the system through the Stripe payment system. Following the payment, users get to create an account, and all the information regarding their medical history will be available there. After the visit, the platform collects visit reports to build business metrics that will be further utilized to improve user experience.
Summary
With extensive experience in building healthcare solutions, the Agiliway team has been helping our client to create and maintain a platform for simple and quick registration for COVID testing or vaccination in the system. In addition, the functionality is being extended to cover registrations for other vaccination/testing like monkeypox. This allows viewing locations to centers that perform the said procedures, receiving results, and signing for doctor’s appointments when and where it is necessary. With the help of payment tools integrated into the platform, patients and insurance companies can easily make payments for the services provided by healthcare professionals.
If you are looking for a reliable partner to build your healthcare solution, contact our team to receive professional assistance in turning your idea into a profitable business product.
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