Telehealth Solution with a Remote PatientMonitoring Module

Business context
Our client is a US-based technology company that focuses on medical facility automation. They offer smart hospitals and clinics customizable healthcare software as well as integrations with third-party service providers to meet their individual demands.
Examining the effectiveness of medical IoT solutions for healthcare, their potential, and their popularity, our client saw an opportunity to use IoT devices in telemedicine to help clinicians treat remote patients more efficiently.
Previously, Yalantis had developed customizable modules for the client — specifically, a hospital administration module, a patient portal module, and an extendable EHR module. This time, the company appealed to Yalantis to bring IoT technology into their existing telemedicine system.
Goals of our cooperation
Our project objectives were:
To achieve these goals, we needed to extend the client’s existing telemedicine solution with a remote patient monitoring module through integration with medical IoT for healthcare devices for acquiring data on patients’ vital signs. This involved:
Analysis of needs
The integration of IoT devices into the existing telemedicine solution began with a thorough examination of the various kinds of data that could be collected. We studied the forms of data that a doctor collects during a personal visit based on a patient’s age and general health condition. Besides that, we took into account the current COVID-19 situation to choose the most important parameters to track.
After a discussion with clinicians, we focused on two categories of data:
Clinical data
Fitness data
Integration of IoT devices in patient–clinician communication
Personal medical devices
Our goal was to identify an appropriate supplier that could provide devices that were both convenient for patients to use and met our technology requirements.
Our client initiated a strategic partnership with the most suitable vendor. This cooperation allowed us to use modern BLE-enabled medical devices and a provider’s SDK for direct data gathering.
As a result, we configured such IoT applications for healthcare as Bluetooth EKG monitors, Bluetooth blood pressure monitors, and Bluetooth pulse oximeters to collect data on a person’s vitals that is accurate and appropriate for analysis.
Smartwatches and fitness trackers
After deciding to adopt wearables, we had to decide what types of data we would collect from them, since different models can collect different types of data. After examining the data collection capabilities of widely used wearables with clinicians, we shortened the list of data to collect to the most practical parameters:
These two parameters aid doctors in determining a patient’s condition during daily activities and regular physical load. As a result, doctors can consider the broader context of a patient’s health and provide more accurate suggestions regarding specific routines.
To enable patients to use their own wearables, we ensured smooth integration with the most popular and widely used models.
Main technical challenges
Find ways to optimize the data flow from wearables
Hundreds of terabytes of disorderly data can come to the client’s system from wearables on an hourly basis — and even by the minute. This disorderliness complicates data analysis. To make wearable devices truly beneficial to doctors, we needed to optimize the data flow and sort this data according to medical requirements.
Solution
We created a schedule-based data control mechanism that collects device data from the provider’s cloud storage, processes it, and summarizes it. As a result, clinicians have access to a summary of a patient’s vitals taken from wearables via the EHR system.
Design mechanisms for proper data storage
Regularly updating data on patients’ vitals taken from wearables requires a lot of storage. This would lead to additional costs for data of secondary importance. We needed to resolve the issue of storage limits and develop the means to save data conveniently.
Solutions
Data compression
Data overview
Data limits
Ensure proper security measures
Integrating personal medical devices and wearables into the system entails the transmission of sensitive information about patients’ health problems. A new module had to meet security requirements to protect patients’ health information.
Solutions
HL7 protocol
Educated consent
Device onboarding
Refinement of the existing telemedicine solution
Implementing a remote patient monitoring module and addressing arising challenges required enhancements throughout the whole platform that the Yalantis team successfully provided.
Value delivered: tripled the functionality
As a result of IoT device integration, this product allowed our client to present clinicians with a more comprehensive background on patients’ health than they can acquire during an office visit.
Enhancements to the patient-facing application
Enhancements to the clinician-facing application
Our client decided to go through the ONC Health IT Certification Program with guidance from Yalantis experts. Now, the upgraded telemedicine solution demonstrates that it meets government requirements for technological capabilities, functionality, and security.
Thanks to this project, our client has increased their market share and is proceeding to create cutting-edge software for the modern healthcare industry and contributing to the further healthcare transformation.
Future plans
The enhancements we have mentioned here are part of the first release. We are continuing to work on the project and have established the following goals for the next release: