Next generation EMR Platform built in record time (and budget)
"It took you less than a year to build this? and only cost this much to build? Oh Wow!" - Ex-CTO of a leading EMR company
Under 12 months
CTO, UI/UX, 14 Developers, 4 QA
Project Overview
A visionary Cardiologist was frustrated by the current Electronic Medical Record (EMR) landscape. Outdated , bloated, and designed decades ago, these platforms were built for general practitioners (GPs) but failed to address the needs of specialist physicians. These platforms were unusable, unequipped for telemedicine, and failed to deal with vast amount of data that is available today thanks to health wearables, and remote patient monitoring solutions. They also lacked critical functions to run a medical practice. He set out to build the next generation Integrated Medical Platform.
The platform consists of a Web Application that allows Physicians, Nurses, Medical and Administrative staff to access various capabilities, in addition to a Patient Mobile app that allows the patient to access their healthcare data.
The platform would implement a large array of functions that are required to run a medical practice; Electronic Record Management (EMR/ EHR), Patient files, Requisition Management, Fillable PDF Forms, Digital Signatures, Medication Management (Rx) , Charting, Scheduling and Appointment Management, Billing, Search, Email, in-clinic messaging, as well as e-Fax capabilities. In addition to Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring capabilities.
Before working with BitLab, our visionary physician tried his hand at hiring an offshore company to build it. However it became clear that his vision cannot be outsourced. What he needed is a Technology partner who can translate the vision into a product, and the product to specifications that a capable software team can deliver on. Given Shoukri's medical knowledge and understanding of the healthcare space, and the processes surrounding it, they both went to work and were able to bring the platform to life and to exceed stakeholder expectations.
Project Execution
During the initiation phase we started documenting the business requirements and user stories. The UI/UX designers went to work building the foundation UI/UX. We also came up with the high level architecture of the platform. The Technical team engaged to start doing spikes the purpose of which is to identify risky or technically complex pieces of work, and to come up with proof of concepts (POCs) on how to address these areas. During this stage the team also identified 3rd party components, software packages, and services that would be used to accelerate the development process. Buy vs. build tradeoffs were evaluated with emphasis on Intellectual Property, licensing requirements, security, and compliance with various healthcare regulations such as HIPAA, PIPEDA, in addition to operational costs. This exercise took a month, after which the development team got engaged, and we went to work.
For the next 8 months the team went to work incrementally shipping various features of the platform in sprints until the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) features were ready to go live. After which the team conducted additional hardening sprints, performance testing, in addition to security and compliance checks.
Project Results
Leveraging BitLab's knowledge, experience, and deep resource pool the platform was built in the record time of 9 months. After which it was ready to go live in private clinics.
The greatest testimony to the work the team has done came from an Ex-CTO of a well known EMR platform who was doing due diligence on behalf of investors. "It took you less than a year to build this? and only cost this much to build? Oh Wow!"
Don’t just take our word for it
