Empowering Care Through Technology: Unveiling the Story Behind My Health Tech Project.
With great power comes great responsibility — Uncle Ben
Being a health care worker sure comes with great responsibility, and that comes with prestige, pride and honour. Like the normal parent-child relationship on the topic of education and career, as a little boy, my dad would always tell me that I would be a doctor, or suggest I study medicine in the university. Yep, I’m one of those children. However, he didn’t just suggest this career path to me, he gave me a reason as well, which was to save lives. So it was like, “save lives first, then you will be respected”. From then on, I would always tell myself I’d be a medical doctor, and I went through most of my time in junior secondary school wanting to practice medicine. Now I wasn’t the A-grade student, but I knew my basic science stuff.
That when on, until a major event happened in my life, as doctors tried to save me. This resulted to me losing one year of my life, before continuing with senior secondary school. After I recovered, I wasn’t so sure of becoming a medical doctor any longer, because of the images that were imprinted on my memory. I wasn’t sure I was emotionally strong enough to handle what I saw while in the hospital, as a medical doctor. So I was left without a plan for my career.
I went through senior secondary school as a science student, I still loved science subjects. During this time, I started developing interest in computers. As of then, this was strange for me, because I was not comfortable with computers during my earlier years in primary school; as I would always mess up whenever there was some type of class activity that involved computers. Funny enough, my senior school didn’t offer any curriculum on computers or IT, so I was left with no choice but to get a computer textbook and study on my own whenever there was a free period. The textbook mostly contained information on computer hardware parts, and some basic binary computations. Fast forward to some years later, I started developing interest in backend development with Django web framework in the university.
One of my first few projects built with the framework was similar to Elixir, it was called “LifeBar”. At the time of writing this particular line, I looked up the private repo with the intention of laughing at it, but I was shocked to see that I really worked on it with my very little knowledge of programming at that time (sike😅). You know that saying that goes like, “that idea you have, 100 people have already worked on it”, that was the case here. I was building something that was related to the health-tech space, without realizing that applications like that even existed. I’m not even sure I knew the word “health-tech” existed, as of that time. So when next you have that idea, just build it. After some time, I closed up the project and left it, waiting for the next idea to hit me.
Fast forward to some time again, I picked up the Nest.js framework. I wanted to try something new. By the way, if you want to read about my first experience with the framework, you can check it out here. During one of the breaks I had while building my first Nest.js project, I suddenly had a slight interest in the human physiology, that I just wanted to read up on it. You may now say I started developing interest in medicine again… yeah, probably. One time, while reading an article on physiology, I came across the word, “telemedicine”. At first glance, I thought it was a psychic super-hero ability, you know, like telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation and every other “tele-powers” you can think of.
After reading a little about the word and its field, I realized that LifeBar was in the health-tech space. However, I developed a strong interest in this space and became determined to create something even better. It was during this time, while working on my first Nest.js project, that the idea for Elixir.io was conceived. Elixir is just an API, but initially, I wanted to build it as a complete software product, you know, with the backend and the frontend, and maybe a mobile app version. So I searched for people that would want to collaborate with me. I asked friends, close friends, strangers on LinkedIn, Slack communities, and Discord servers. I got response from some people, but nothing really happened after that. So I figured they were probably just busy with other areas of their lives, and I took the idea back to just becoming an API. At this point I felt like a failed startup founder 😅. With very limited knowledge on healthcare and health-tech, I made ChatGPT and Google my guides. I got better insights on areas I wasn’t so sure of, got ideas to try and work on, from healthcare companies that were making it in the space.
Now, I bring you to…
ELIXIR.IO
Elixir is an API that targets the healthcare industry, built with the patient’s experience in mind. Just as students tend to understand a topic faster if the teacher makes great effort in carrying them along, same way, patients may get to heal faster if medical providers carry them along, through the healing process.
Patient engagement creates room for effective communication between them and their healthcare providers, which allows the patient express their concerns, ask questions, and provide valuable insights about their health. It also allows healthcare providers to tailor their treatment approach to the patient’s specific needs. This can later build trust between the patient and their healthcare provider, easing the healing process. This is the idea behind Elixir.
In order to empower patient engagement and enhance the healthcare experience, Elixir provides a range of features designed to optimize communication and foster meaningful patient-provider interactions. To utilize these features, both parties would have to be registered on the API. While this API mainly involves both users, a third administrative user can also be registered to oversee the operations happening on the API. The administrator is also responsible for creating medical departments on the API, with which the details of the medical provider will be created and saved.
Elixir offers a real-time messaging capability that enables communication between patients and their healthcare providers. This allows patients to easily reach out to their providers, ask questions, share and updates all within a secure and private environment. In addition to messaging, the API offers appointment management functionalities, allowing patients to schedule, reschedule, cancel, or confirm appointments with ease. It provides automated notifications, ensuring timely and relevant updates are delivered to healthcare providers and patients alike, enhancing communication efficiency and facilitating informed decision-making.
Additionally, the API offers a stream call feature, enabling virtual consultations between healthcare providers and patients. This feature allows real-time, face-to-face interactions regardless of geographical locations.
While interoperability with external systems is outside the scope of the Elixir project, it offers a secure solution for managing patient records within its EHR system. With Elixir, medical records, prescriptions, and progress notes are encrypted in the database, ensuring data privacy and protection.
One feature of the API is the ability for patients to grant read access to specific healthcare providers on the platform. This means that patients have control over who can access their records, enabling them to share vital information with other healthcare professionals involved in their care. By selectively granting access, patients can facilitate collaboration and ensure comprehensive medical decision-making. Granting read access of a medical record to a healthcare provider automatically grants read access to other data in the EHR system.
If you’re interested in exploring Elixir further and diving into its capabilities, I invite you to visit the comprehensive documentation site. There, you’ll find detailed information about the API’s features. A demo video is provided as well.
TECHNOLOGIES UTILIZED
- Nest.js: A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient and scalable server-side applications.
- Docker: A tool that allows you to build, package, and distribute your applications as containers, ensuring consistency across different environments.
- CircleCI: A continuous integration and delivery platform that automates the build, test, and deployment processes of your application.
- MongoDB: A popular NoSQL database that provides a flexible and scalable data storage solution for your application.
- Socket.io: A library that enables real-time, bidirectional communication between the client and the server, allowing for instant updates and notifications.
- Redis: An in-memory data structure store that can be used as a cache or a message broker, enhancing the performance and scalability of your application.
- Vonage: A communication platform that provides APIs for sending SMS, making voice and video calls, and handling other communication functionalities in your application.
- Daily: A service that offers real-time video and audio communication capabilities through WebRTC, allowing for seamless video conferencing and collaboration.
- Auth0: A flexible and secure authentication and authorization platform that simplifies the implementation of user authentication and access control in your application.
PASSION ABOUT HEALTHCARE INNOVATION: TECHNOLOGY AS A CATALYST
For me, this project was not an easy one. I must admit that there were days I wanted to give up on it and start a new one, you know, that’s what some programmers do, right? Some days I lost the motivation to write code, some days I was just busy with school and other things. Other days, I was stuck with bugs that made me feel lonely, as it was difficult to find solutions to them, but I knew what I was building. I knew the idea had value, so I couldn’t just give up on it like that, even after all the time I already spent on it.
Throughout my journey of developing the Elixir project, I have gained a deep appreciation for the immense value that technology can bring to the healthcare industry. It has ignited a passion within me for the intersection of technology and healthcare.
While Elixir is a side project, its potential in the healthcare industry have sparked a passion within me for technology-driven healthcare innovation. Although it may not have the scale of a large-scale enterprise solution, its significance lies in the ideas and concepts it represents. Building this project has allowed me to explore the possibilities of leveraging technology to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
As a technologist with a keen interest in healthcare, I am eager to further explore opportunities to contribute to a larger healthcare ecosystem. If you share a similar passion for leveraging technology to drive healthcare innovation, I would be delighted to connect with you. Whether it’s discussing ideas, exploring collaborations, or simply exchanging insights.
Please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter. See you next time.
Till then, keep building.
