Mental Health Online Clinic
A mental health and well-being web platform backed by a mobile app for iOS and Android.
Summary
The first version of the web app and iOS mobile app had been created by another development company.
Our first task was to review, fix and enhance the app’s performance so that it could work, handle a high load, and guarantee the privacy of its users.
The second task was to find ways to develop the data model and add new features using the existing solution, as it already had real therapists and patients in it.
We also had to make the solution compatible with the vast range of devices and technologies. We managed to find the solution for each challenge – the application finally tripled (maybe even more) and became a core solution for mental health telemedicine.
We found original approaches for problems that we weren’t originally aware of. Omertex adopted the product as their own and is currently working together as one team with the customers. And we have done it at a minimum cost.
Collaboration in numbers
Budget
$80 000 - $120 000
Periods of engagement
February – September 2018, February – March 2019
Team size
12
Client’s location
London, UK
About the customer
Our customer, Dr Julian Medical Group Limited, is a UK-based company whose mission is to put accessible and affordable mental healthcare into the hands of anyone who needs it. The company’s founder & CEO came up with this idea of importance to provide everyone with access to mental health counseling as soon as it is needed. Dr Julian believes that innovative technologies can help enhance mental healthcare and well-being in the UK.
What our customer expected to get:
- a Web app that can be accessed via any computer, tablet, or mobile device;
- a mobile app available on the Apple App Store for iOS devices and on the Play Market for Android devices;
- compatibility of the platform with a wide range of internet browsers;
- acceptance of a variety of payment methods, including major debit and credit cards such as American · Express, Visa, and MasterCard;
- enhanced protection of sensitive data and full security of payments;
- ability to ensure the stability of simultaneous multiple connections;
- integration with the governmental healthcare provider’s program;
- newly added functionality that covers the entire range of mental health services.
The platform is required to have the following features:
- therapists’ specializations management;
- therapy method selection;
- appointment booking management;
- health history management;
- instant messaging;
- video calls;
- billing and payments.
Project objectives
- Increase the performance of the legacy app
- Improve poor solution design
- Overcome various compatibility and integration issues
- Conduct a full code review
- Add new features
- Address security and penetration issues
- Ensure the app’s ability to follow a complicated data model and handle numerous business flows
- Meet strict deadlines
- Ensure minimal costs of development and maintenance
Solutions
Manage and coordinate a big team of highly professional specialists in different areas:
- we applied the hybrid iterative approach to the software development life cycle;
- we ensured the quality and coordination by developing a series of consistent and tightly interrelated software specifications performed in several iterations;
- we made development clear and predictable by using traditional project management techniques and a Kanban board to indicate our progress. Dr Julian constantly sent us change requests to make the solution even better, and timeframes were consistently short.
Unfortunately, the initial solution showed that the code guides and architecture patterns weren’t followed strictly, so the application had a partly inconsistent structure and different code imperfections. We considered these issues and ensured the code quality.
Make the improvements to handle the high load:
The legacy database for the project was PostgreSQL, but the solution had to be improved substantially to ensure its performance.
We improved the clustering performance, memory usage, sockets performance, and many back-end and some front-end components.
Security and penetration protection:
We ensured security and high potential of penetration resistance, as privacy is vital for the health platform. The platform takes it extremely seriously, enables SSL end-to-end encryption for the security, and complies with the Data Protection Act 2018.
The high quality of performance allows multiple stable connections, and the platform passes the strongest of penetration tests.
The platform allows secure online booking with all major debit and credit cards including American Express, Visa, and MasterCard. The sensitive data is encrypted using SSL (secure sockets layer technology) before transmission to one of the most secure and reliable payment service providers known as Stripe. The card details are never stored on the servers.
To ensure outstanding compatibility
The service is available through:
- A web app that can be used on all computers, tablets, and phones;
- An app on the Apple App Store for iOS devices (i.e. iPhone, iPad) and on the PlayMarket for Android devices.
To smile:
Once upon a time, we improved the third party providers’ libraries to make their solution even better and make them compatible with browsers they were previously not supported by before. It worked well for a few months. Then they were surprised to see an unexpected increase in traffic and asked us to use different technology instead. Who knows, maybe soon they will use our solution to provide even better service!
Add new functionality to cover the full range of mental health services. Finally, the platform is built using Amazon Web Services. Modern technologies are used for the front-end applications and multiple integrations are enabled with third party services for video calls, billing, and payments. This results in sufficient benefits, such as reduced costs of development and maintenance and a high level of performance.
Patients and therapists can perform the full stack of activities, such as therapists’ specializations management, advanced care method selection and appointments booking management, health history management, etc.
The new acceptance:
After some time of operation in production mode, our customer asked us to equip the platform with the capability to collaborate with the governmental healthcare provider program and its database.
We got the chance to prove again that the solution we had created, including the data model that we’d designed, had the sufficient potential of development. We got the chance to prove that the team we run maintains the highest level of proficiency.
In short, the platform becomes the nationwide solution indeed.
Technologies applied
To fulfill all the set tasks, we used the following techs.
Web:
(Patient dashboard) Typescript, Angular 5, RxJs, Socket.io, FullCalendar, Twilio Chat, Twilio Video, localforage, lodash, moment, sweetalert2, block ui
(Admin dashboard) Javascript, AngularJS, JQuery, Socket.io, FullCalendar, Twilio Chat, Twilio Video
Back-end:
Node.js, Express, Sequelize, Swagger, Postgre SQL, PgBoss
Android:
Reselect, Saga, Redux, Branch, React Native Localization, Wix React Native Navigation, Immutable.js
Third party solutions:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) (AWS S3, AWS SNS, AWS SES, AWS RDS), Twilio, Stripe, Firebase Cloud Messaging, IAPTUS
More case studies
Nothing speaks for the result better than happy customers with thriving businesses. Check out their projects delivered by us.