In Ankhos, we display a lot of information in different places, the most comprehensive of which is the patient’s calendar. I’ll talk about what we put on the calendar, what it looks like, and one of the tricks we have used to make it very fast.
Posts Tagged ‘ankhos’
Partial patient calendar caching with Memcached
October 5, 2011Down to the wire
July 8, 2010
It’s been really busy lately (thus, the lack of posts), but we’re finally starting 1.0 on Monday! We’re going to be going side-by-side with the paper charts until we determine that all the bolts are screwed in tightly.
I’ve been working very closely with the staff at Carolina Oncology Specialists. I’ve spent weeks, nay, months watching, listening, asking questions. And it has paid off. Ankhos is almost unrecognizable (even the name) from what we started with nearly 10 months ago. This is a good thing. I owe much to the staff who have helped with this effort, especially Dr. Orlowski and lead R.N. Joy Hester. Their enthusiasm and willingness to take my after-dinner calls has been indespensible to the progress of Ankhos.
The staff is armed with their cache of iPads and we’re ready to rock. This weekend will certainly be a busy one. There are many usability findings that need fixing in these next few days. They are little things like ‘this button should be bigger’, or ‘This link should be on this page’, but hopefully these are the types of bolts that need tightening.
Here’s looking forward to 1.1 and the innovative solutions we have for patient scheduling!
Ankhos + iPad: The perfect marriage
June 14, 2010I just recieved our development iPad from the apple store this afternoon. If there has ever been an incarnation of poetry it is in the synergy of the iPad and Ankhos. There is really something special in the iPad and I am now a believer.
I was skeptical that Safari would be able to handle what Ankhos was up to, or that the resolution might be to small or… well, that’s all in the past now. I hope iPad forgives me.
This is going to be awesome.
Winning the hearts and minds of the people
May 18, 2010We spent the last few weeks going through the initial process of using Ankhos in the office, as well as developing a specific rollout schedule. We have been very sensitive about how receptive the employees are to our new software, as their acceptance can make or break the software.
To this end, I spent most of my time this week working one-on-one with the future users of the software, coaching them through their roles with the software. Physician’s assistants would be working with the software in different ways than the nurses or lab techs, and I made sure everyone understood their proposed roles. (I say proposed because software is organic, and these roles and use cases will likely change)
Working one-on-one with the user, asking questions and prompting criticizm is the best way to win the hearts and minds of the users and to make the software their own. I am excited to abdicate this ”developer’s throne” and give the power to the users. Ankhos 1.0 is coming soon…
Regimen creation success
February 23, 2010Today was the first day in three of on-site user tests for Ankhos. I sat with Joy, the lead nurse at COS and went through the creation of a few oncology regimens. Granted, the previous experiences she has had with regimen entry in other EMR products has been a nightmare but, in her words, Ankhos is “Awesome!”
Oncology regimens can be as simple as prescribing one dose of one drug on one day. They can also morph into tentacled behemoths capable of devouring days of productivity and chomping away at the morale of those charged with their creation. Today we concluded that the simple interface Ankhos uses is able to tame these horriffic beasts and make their creation… dare I say… fun.
To make regimen entry simple, we tried to break it down into fundamentals. We took a step back and noticed a few fundamental principles
1. Regimens are cyclical — There should be some notion of periodicity built in to how we specify them.
2. Regimens are cohesive — They are not simply a collection of drugs, but are notions of intent for how to treat a patient.
3. Regimens are subject to real life events — They have to be flexible enough to accommodate a patient missing a treatment, or not having a ride home, or having bad reactions during treatment.
4. Regimens are temporally dependent — Modification of an ordered regimen must be allowed to ‘cascade’ to future doses and schedules.
5. Regimens can be hierarchical — Some are derived from others, and if we can design our interface around that, we can make modification and addition of regimens easier.
By taking these principles into account, we were able to design an interface that is both easy to use and powerful enough to express the most complex regimens. More testing tomorrow…
If there is enough interest, I would be willing to create a video demonstration of our regimen creation process.
Security: Public primary keys bad?
February 12, 2010I’d like to talk about a security aspect of web apps in general. I’ll try to keep the industry buzzwords to a minimum for the non-programmers.
Ankhos is a web application, an asynchronous one, at that. Asynchronous web applications use many web addresses to load only parts of themselves at once. This can make things seem faster and more responsive to the user.
In any asynchronous web application, web addresses are flying around left and right. These addresses aren’t typically seen by the user, but simple tools can tell you what these addresses are. In order to submit a comment or retrieve patient information, we have to hit the server and that means loading a webpage behind the scenes. Here are some fake examples:
Oncology EMR: The human element
January 25, 2010I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Enthusiastic clients are a huge part in creating quality software. I read the Daily WTF often (as most programmers should). This blog reminds me of all the things that can easily go wrong with a software project if you don’t keep your head on straight and learn to side-step people eager to get in the way. It also makes me constantly appreciate the doctors and nurses with whom I am writing this software. Without their expert and creative input, this project would be a lost cause.
It is this human element; the creativity, expertise and enthusiasm of people that makes Ankhos great.
If you have an EMR vendor who is not excited to work with you, don’t just walk to the nearest exit. Run. If you have an EMR vendor who works very closely and listens to your needs, cherish them and count yourself lucky. If you are looking for an oncology EMR product developed by and for oncologists, stay tuned. Drop us a line, or provide feedback. Ankhos will deliver.
More screenshots coming soon…
