Mobile Healthcare

Project summary Development of the first PDA and Smartphone-based clinical decision support software for US and UK market, based on InterQual clinical content
Customer McKesson Health Solutions www.mckesson.com
McKesson (NYSE: MCK) is one of the largest suppliers of vital medicines, supplies and information technologies companies in the US and Worldwide.
McKesson develops and installs health care information technology systems. McKesson IT systems are used in more than 70% of all US hospitals with more than 200 beds.
McKesson Health Solutions (MHS) is a division of the company that in addition to IT system develops clinical knowledge and decision support systems that help doctors improve patient care. InterQual is a clinical content product developed by MHS
Project geography USA
Project objective According to A. Jacqueline Mitus, M.D., general manager and senior vice president of McKesson's CareEnhance Products group, "InterQual customers have asked for mobile access to InterQual Criteria to enable face-to-face communication between clinical reviewers and direct caregivers"
PDAs and Smartphone technology landscape was still emerging, and there were multiple platforms, from Microsoft Pocket PC to Palm OS and Blackbery. So the product needed to have cross-platform capability.It also needed to work in concert with Java-based Enterprise software, - Review Manager, that served as a central repository of all clinical decisions and reviews along with Enterprise workflow, Reporting and 3rd party systems integration (including HL/7)
Project highlights Empowering clinical staff: "We've responded with a powerful, innovative solution that enhances knowledge transfer, improves efficiency, and transforms clinical review from a function sometimes perceived as largely administrative to one that's extremely consultative."
Focus on customer and patient: Case managers have the full criteria set available to complete an interactive review and enter case notes. This gives them the confidence that they have pulled together all relevant information. In the end, it’s about patient, "Better information, greater collaboration and happier staff all lead to improved patient care."
Project description Innovative Usability and UI: The customer had a very good idea, how end-users utilized InterQual content, and where Mobile solution needed to fit in in the continuum of patient care. However, they lacked in Usability of mobile form factor, effective synchronization logic, and partial download of large content and medical and enterprise reference data. ALG analyzed usage scenarios, implemented focus groups analysis, predictive download patterns for effective usage.
A lot of new technology: ALG utilized emerging standards, such as XML and Web Services. To make product robust and security compliant, different standards were researched and translated into specific features and requirements for the product, including database encryption, incremental synchronization

Wide device and database compatibility: Product supported multiple mobile devices and operating systems. The back-end needed to be compatible with MS SQL, Oracle and Sybase databases. Its Web services needed to run inside Jetty, WebSphere, Tomcat and Jrun J2EE containers

Effective test strategy and QA Automation: This required a lot of compatibility testing and validation.  As result, ALG Systems developed comprehensive test strategy that used a lot of QA