Post-Acute Care Management System

• Project: Post-acute care coordination system
• Duration: Web app — 1 year, mobile apps — 6 months
• Technologies: Xcode, Swift, UIKit, SnapKit, CoreData + MagicalRecord, Firebase, Keychain, Alamofire, FSCalendar, Kotlin, MSSQL, ASP.NET WEB API, C#, Entity Framework, NodeJS, Redux+React
• Target audience: care providers, patients, athletes

Medadept LLC delivers innovative solutions that enable collaborative and coordinated care between healthcare systems, physicians, and post-acute providers that optimize value, outcomes, and patient satisfaction.

Medadept’s suite of applications improves clinical and financial performance across the post-acute continuum and guarantees coordinated, collaborative, and accountable care for outpatients.

Post-Acute Care Business Domain

Medicare penalizes hospitals and other medical institutions with high same-cause readmission rates. Since rehospitalization of a patient within a 30-day period can result in a penalty, hospitals and accountable care organizations have started implementing solutions for monitoring patient conditions outside of the hospital.

A hospital stay in the United States lasts an average of 4.5 days, with a daily cost of around $2,883. So minimizing avoidable hospitalizations is something all parties are interested in.

Medadept’s innovative suite of applications provides solutions to rehabilitation centers, home care and hospice agencies, and other post-acute care providers to coordinate their efforts and keep their patients well.

The Client’s Request

To accelerate the pace of R&D, Medadept made a decision to augment the efforts of its own development teams with assistance from a well-qualified contract programming company.

Medadept was already somewhat familiar with Velvetech’s reputation for excellent work and expertise in healthcare software development; so they called for a free consultation.

Within two weeks, Velvetech drafted the specification and proposed a project plan for the requested product – a web-based post-acute care coordination system that allows caregivers and coordinators to cooperate and track outpatients at home as well as during the transition between post-acute care settings.

A cross-platform mobile medical surveillance application was also included in the planned deliverables.

How We Did It

The project required the implementation of a web-based post-acute care management system accompanied by a mobile solution. The apps are designed to meet the needs of medical professionals and patients.

Synchrony Coordinator^®, a Web-based System

Medadept was already building UCARE™, the central piece of their post-care suite of applications, when Velvetech got involved.

Synchrony Coordinator^®, the web-based post-care coordination application that Velvetech was commissioned to build, allows caregivers to specify a comprehensive care plan, set care activity schedules, access reports, and manage a multitude of other tasks.

Besides UCARE, Velvetech had to integrate Synchrony with several other software products in Medadept’s application suite. We implemented secure text messaging so even patients not equipped with a mobile app could receive reminders and readily communicate with their care team.

Another point of integration was a reporting tool that visualizes Synchrony data as interactive reports to supplement Medadept’s clinical decision support system.

Velvetech significantly shortened the time needed to develop Synchrony through the implementation of creative integration mechanisms.

Our team took the web app a step further. To improve administrators’ work efficiency and streamline the workflow, we added a work log feature for administrators within the app. This makes it possible to monitor the time dedicated to client calls, document completion, and other crucial tasks. So, now the company can get valuable insights on which administrative activities take up more time.

WatchWell^®, a Mobile App

The mobile apps had to be ready by the time of the web app release.

In the beginning, the client proposed a cross-platform mobile development solution – Xamarin. This platform allows simultaneous development for iOS and Android mobile apps.

Find out the Top Reasons to Use a Cross-Platform Development

The Velvetech team used Xamarin to code WatchWell from scratch, including architecture, logic, database, navigation, screen transitions, etc.

The main functions of the WatchWell app are to facilitate communication between patients and care providers and to keep the patient activity engaged in their personal care plan.

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Though the app was successfully implemented, after a few years some technical changes arose. Particularly, the versions of the frameworks used during the development and Xamarin had all undergone substantial updates. On top of that, Google and Apple updated the requirements for mobile applications.

Hence, to seamlessly adhere to evolving industry standards and ensure optimal performance, the Client decided to transition to native technologies and develop separate apps for iOS and Android.

Within the app, care providers can monitor patient health after hospital discharge. Thus, they may assess the potential risks associated with a patient’s likelihood of being hospitalized again.

Service providers may also use the mobile app when working in the field to enter patient data or securely communicate with the rest of the care team. While both patients and service providers use the same mobile app, providers have access to more features.

For example, medical specialists can suggest exercises or organize a nurse visit, reducing the risk of readmission. This approach is beneficial both for medical and insurance companies since hospitalization appears to be quite expensive.

CompeteCare^®, a Native App

After successfully implementing WatchWell, MedAdept decided to build another native mobile app — this time, tailored specially for athletes. Thus, our team brought CompeteCare to life. At its core, the app focuses on helping athletes stay safe and healthy by coordinating their care and preventing injuries.

Simply put, the concept behind the application lies in a professional athlete taking on the role of a trainer. The trainer supervises multiple athletes from different US states which do not have private sports schools. Hence, with CompeteCare, trainers can suggest tailored exercises to their athletes, regardless of their location.

Project Scale

Our team put significant efforts into swiftly developing both mobile and web apps.

The development of the web application Synchrony lasted more than a year. It took a total of fifteen months to build the solution and integrate it with other Medadept’s solutions. As for WatchWell and CompeteCare, it took our team 6 months to create native apps for Medadept.

The mobile application was ready within six months, from start to finish, thanks to the cross-platform development tool Xamarin.

Challenges

Integration

Velvetech was developing Synchrony at the same time Medadept was actively working on other components in their application suite. Many of the issues our team faced during the project had to do with the need for Synchrony to be closely integrated with the suite.

Specifications were developed collaboratively by Medadept and Velvetech and modified during the project as our shared vision of the technical aspects of Synchrony developed.

Velvetech met the challenge by establishing direct contact with lead developers on the Client’s side to align with the architecture of Medadept’s UCARE.

The team on our side also had to implement multiple temporary stubs to carry on the development and testing of the solution. The stubs were later replaced with actual functionality.

Database Integrity

Another challenge Velvetech had to overcome during the project implementation was a database structure provided by the Client that grew more complex as Synchrony and WatchWell were being developed.

The Velvetech team came up with many scripts to keep the database updated on the staging and production environments. The scripts were later used for building complete database schemas to support the enhanced functionality of the application suite.

Mobile Architecture

Velvetch developed two mobile apps with personalized sign-up steps, different interfaces and functions based on the user role. In particular, WatchWell is designed both for patients and service providers. CompeteCare targets athletes and providers.

As a consequence, app architecture presented a challenge for UI development, requiring our team to create distinct home screens with different UI elements within the same application.

Learn more Why Your Healthcare Software Should Have an Impeccable UI/UX

To smoothly deal with the two-user-roles situation, our mobile developers also implemented an access management system. As a result, the patient or athlete-user has restricted access rights compared to the provider-user, who can access more screens and options in the app.

Outcome

The applications developed by Velvetech are now integral parts of Medadept’s value proposition to clinics, hospitals, healthcare organizations, physicians, and post-acute providers.

As components of the UCARE suite of applications, Synchrony and WatchWell equip hospitals with powerful tools for more efficient and cost-effective care delivery models across the post-acute continuum. End users get more accountable, value-based care.

CompeteCare application, on the other hand, unites athletes, coaches, and athletic trainers from different states to help users stay fit and complete their wellness tasks. Within the app, users receive personalized activity tasks aligned with their specific requirements.

Velvetech was able to accelerate Medadept’s development plan due to extensive expertise in the development of complex systems. The applications we worked on integrate with Medadept’s UCARE and several third-party solutions.

All in all, the collaboration between Medadept and Velvetech is a great example of how Velvetech can deliver value even to an innovative company engaged in developing paradigm-shifting solutions in its industry.

Gerald Bedwell on Working with Velvetech

Discover what working with Velvetech looks like through our client’s eyes. Read MedAdept’s story about the development of a post-acute care coordination suite of applications.

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What’s Next

Medadept, LLC is now well-positioned to take advantage of the enormous potential of its UCARE suite. The solutions we implemented for them can scale easily with Medadept’s anticipated growth.

Today the apps have many end-users, and Velvetech supports MedAdept along the way. Our ongoing efforts involve integrating additional functionalities, conducting thorough testing, streamlining some features, and ultimately enhancing the overall user experience.

Velvetech will be happy to assist our valued Client to continue driving innovation in the healthcare industry by implementing emerging technologies such as IoMT, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning solutions.