One in twenty adults in the US suffers from a serious mental illness. SMI patients are incapable of caring for themselves and, therefore, very demanding. It creates a lot of strain on healthcare providers and loved ones helping the person in need. Fortunately, the US healthcare system supports SMI patients through Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams and community mental health clinics (CMHC). ACTs unite psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, counselors, addiction, and other specialists that monitor patients and take action in case of emergency.
To provide ACT teams with collaboration tools, our customer initiated the development of a mobile app and a web platform. It has become the first collaboration solution designed for ACT members. Empeek has already created an MVP and keeps working on the project to launch the solution.
How It Started
At the project start, ACT members didn’t have a solution for quick EHR access and convenient communication. They were forced to keep healthcare records in print and arrange patient visits or discuss treatment by phone. They even couldn’t send a message or email since these were non-HIPAA compliant communication channels. It was also impossible to create a detailed patient profile with valuable notes and update it on the go during visits.
The lack of a single platform prevented ACT members from collaborating and harmed the quality of healthcare. Organizations funding SMI patients also suffered from increased financial losses because of the growing number of emergencies that could have been avoided. For example, when a nurse attending the patient decided that the current medication didn’t work, it took too much time to communicate this to others. The SMI patient’s health could start to decline without effective treatment and end up with an emergency.
This problem inspired our customer to design an ACT Team Collaboration Platform. The solution was meant to enable real-time communication and task distribution between ACT team members. That was the request the customer contacted us with back in the spring of 2021.
Project Requirements
The customer is a US tech startup specializing in healthcare software for ACTs and CMHCs. They chose Empeek as a software development partner upon the recommendation of our existing client.
The customer hired Empeek to cover the entire software development life cycle from the discovery phase to maintenance. They fully outsourced software development to a dedicated team Empeek assembled for the project. The idea behind the project was to launch a HIPAA-compliant collaboration platform for ACT teams. The customer requested a cross-platform mobile application for care providers and a web platform for admins managing organizational processes.
The initial requirement of the customer was to create an interactive prototype for pre-sales and testing. It would allow raising investment and engaging potential users. After the MVP stage, Empeek was requested to continue working on the mobile app and web platform for ACT teams.
How the ACT Team Collaboration Platform Works
The ACT team collaboration platform consists of a cross-platform mobile application and a web admin panel. Whereas the mobile application is designed for ACT teams, the web solution provides functionality for healthcare managers who supervise ACT team members.
Here are the main characteristics of the ACT team collaboration platform:
Key features
The developed solution consists of five core features. The Clients section includes information about all the patients the ACT team serves. The messaging functionality enables team members to communicate in group chats and connects colleagues in private chats to discuss work-related issues. There is also a convenient map with the location of SMI patients, crisis alerts, and reporting.
Main user personas
The main personas include customer’s Super Admin, ACT team leader, ACT program assistant, ACT team members, community resources, and CIO.
Access
Only ACT members and admins can access the platform. It doesn’t have a version for patients and their loved ones since caring for someone with SMI is challenging and requires professional expertise.
Integration
The ACT team collaboration platform supports integration with EHR and EMR systems through an API. Such an integration optimizes patient record management for end-users.
This combination of features and user roles creates a unique solution for ACT teams. They get instant access to EHR records, secure messaging, alerts, and notes.
What We Already Did and the Future Roadmap
After being contracted by the customer, Empeek has assembled a dedicated team of tech experts based on the unique requirements of the project. The team consists of a project manager, business analyst, UI/UX designer, mobile developer, front-end developer, back-end developer, and QA. Such a team composition allows meeting existing customer needs and deadlines.
Since the start of the project, the Empeek team has:
- Run the discovery phase to collect and analyze all the information about the project
- Provided the customer with our recommendations on how to achieve the expected result within the shortest time
- Created a highly realistic interactive prototype of the cross-platform mobile application
- Provided UX/UI design services to the customer
- Helped the customer to attract investors and pre-sale the platform
The Empeek team keeps working on the project to launch the cross-platform mobile app and the web admin panel. We closely cooperate with our customer and deliver the work in sprints following the Scrum methodology. In next months, the team will implement the reporting feature, connect interactive maps, and simplify ACT platform integration. After launching the platform, Empeek will continue to provide software maintenance and implement software updates.
Project Challenges
So far, the biggest challenge of the project was the creation of an interactive prototype. To help the customer convince ACT providers to adopt the solution, an MVP had to be highly realistic. It was also important to design it within the shortest time to start presales.
Our team created the prototype that allowed navigating all the features and capabilities of the future application. We completed all the processes, starting from requirements discovery to MVP launch, in a month.
Get In Touch
Healthcare software providers and healthcare agencies that seek tech assistance can request our services. Empeek is a software engineering company specializing in healthcare solutions. We have launched a cardiac care mobile device, EHR and telehealth platform, wireless medical monitoring solution, and other projects featured here. Use this form to get in touch and discuss your software development needs.
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