Android Project Use Cases
Patient Identification
Opening a patient record will depend on the credentials of the user accessing the patient. The clinic configuration file will define what the different levels of the user are, and the different kinds of information each level of user must provide in order to open a patient record. A list of patients that are "checked-in" to the system will be displayed.
Clinic Visit
Here The user will be able to see current information for the patient. First and foremost user will be informed of the highest priority items that are to be addressed in their visit with the patient. From this screen the user can choose to view/alter, or add new kinds of information to the patient record, or visualize the patient's history.
Demographics
Demographics are information about a patient such as family disease history, social history, socio-economic status, age, race & gender. The system will have an interface for viewing the demographic information that was entered into the enrollment form of the web application.
Measurements
Measurements are values which can be of various types. Predominantly these measurements will be vital signs, such as blood pressure, heart rate & respiration. Some measurements may come as a result of lab tests, and certain diagnoses may cause the system to try to collect additional measurements (for examples, for diabetics the system will ask for blood glucose).
Message Framework
The user will be able to assign messages to patients, where the message could be a diagnosis, note, treatment, lab test, prescription, or referral. Each message will have in common the status, assignment dates, and due dates.
Upon entering the patient view, the active messages will be displayed. The user will be able to select a message and display its details, change it's status, or otherwise edit it.
An action menu will be accessible, which will give the user the option to add a message. These actions will be labeled with: Diagnose, Annotate, Treat, Test, Prescribe or Refer.
- Diagnoses - Will have a set of messages that the doctor can select from in order to respond to the diagnosis (these could be any kind of message)
- Treatments - Are medical in or outpatient procedures.
- Lab Tests - Are tests done through in house or external labs. Ultimately a link will be established to return lab results through a data feed to Quest Diagnostics.
- Prescriptions - Are for a certain dosage of a drug. This will link to the pharmacy part of the web application where drug labels will be printed.
- Referrals - Allow for the user to select from a list of specialty clinics to refer to.
Patient Record Visualization
We will implement a graphing library using the OpenGL ES API that is included with Android to visualize a time line that will superimpose measurements and messages. Measurements will be normalized so that their range of values maximize vertical real estate. You will be able to horizontally scroll or zoom the patient data. The user will be view messages or see measurements values by taping their
Server Connection
The client handset will negotiate a secured connection with a centralized server which will relay information to the client devices. The server will keep a database of messages updated on the client devices, however patient data will only be loaded onto the devices when a user is granted access to that record, and will be removed from the device as soon as the user is done dealing with that patient.
Contingencies for device loss
- Devices will be registered and assigned their own secure encryption key for access to the network.
- Stolen devices will be registered in the database, and upon establishing a connection with a stolen device, the database will send a "kill signal" to the device, which will strip the device of access privileges, wipe any patient data from memory, and ultimately activate a silent alarm system which would allow police to track the device using location based services / GPS.
- A key-guard will be installed on the device that will make the user enter in a code before the app will allow them to return to working with the patient data.
