The University of Tartu Hospital’s “Antibacterial Therapy Web App” is designed for use by healthcare professionals, speeding up and simplifying the work of doctors. It is an application that allows users to enter medications and symptoms, and displays the required medications and quantities. The design was based on the UT CVI or style guide.
Excel remains too small to manage information
Initially, the University of Tartu Hospital kept all the information in a simple Excel spreadsheet, where the health worker had to keep track of it with their fingers to gather the right information. However, this was not a very sustainable or efficient solution. The client found it too difficult to develop the matter further on their own.
A complex system
So, the University of Tartu Hospital presented us with their source material and our task was to create an application that would combine different information fields such as disease and drug classifications, disease agent, active ingredient, diagnosis, and display the right treatment based on the selected information. In simple terms, if a patient comes in with pneumonia, healthcare professionals would immediately see in the app what the primary treatment is, the dose of treatment, etc. Later, when the laboratory results come back with the pathogen (bacteria), the information can be retrieved from the app according to the pathogen and the appropriate treatment can be prescribed. Because of the large number of information fields and the need to take into account special conditions, such as the display of alternative treatments for allergies, it was a rather complex but ultimately very rewarding process to set up the logic of the whole system.
Technologies used
The back-end development of the created web application has been done using PHP technology and our in-house developed Composer PHP package/dependency management solution. The front-end has been created in two parts, both done using Angular. The app side is created with simpler HTML according to the design and the administration side uses the Angular Material component library.
Looking to the future
Now the UT Hospital has an app that is easy to manage in the admin environment and easy to enter information into. The app has been enhanced with the ability to change the contrast and font size of the webpage, so that the new antibacterial web app also meets the needs of the visually impaired. This project is an example of how we are committed to successfully solving complex challenges by providing effective and sustainable solutions for our customers.