Modernizing Healthcare Software Solutions for Think Research

Think Research is a Canadian healthtech company that develops knowledge-based solutions and tools to help clinicians deliver better care and enhance patient outcomes. The company's key business idea is to connect clinicians, facilities, and entire healthcare systems by providing them with software solutions and decision-making tools backed by cutting-edge technologies. They aim to solve some of the healthcare’s most complex challenges by modernizing their technological stack and developing new solutions. Their goals include extending development capabilities, supporting all existing solutions while seamlessly migrating them to newer technologies, building a platform for referrals management, creating a virtual B2C platform for real-time appointment tracking, and ensuring the security and compliance of the products with healthcare regulations.

Think Research, a Canadian healthtech company, was faced with the challenge of modernizing the technological stack of its software products and developing new solutions to address complex healthcare challenges. The company's primary goal was to connect clinicians, facilities, and entire healthcare systems by providing them with software solutions and decision-making tools backed by cutting-edge technologies. The tasks at hand included extending development capabilities by setting up a dedicated development team, supporting all existing solutions while seamlessly migrating them to newer technologies, building a platform for referrals management, creating a virtual B2C platform for real-time appointment tracking, and ensuring the security and compliance of the products with healthcare regulations. The challenges also included analyzing the business logic, existing code, and product functionality for smooth migration to a newer version of Ruby on Rails framework, developing an efficient online care platform within a tight timeline, and integrating the platform with the partner’s healthcare system.

N-iX, a dedicated development team, was brought on board to boost Think Research's engineering capabilities and deliver value to the end-users faster. Initially, the team worked on supporting and optimizing EntryPoint, a cloud-based platform developed by Think Research. The platform was modernized by migrating all the client’s products to one of the latest versions of Ruby on Rails and Mongo Driver. Following the successful completion of the first iterations, the client extended the cooperation with N-iX team on the development of new solutions. Two teams were formed to work on the development of eReferrals and Virtual Care platform. eReferrals was developed to allow physicians to easily send referrals directly from electronic medical records (EMRs). The second product, Virtual Care, is a powerful online care platform that connects clinicians with patients anywhere, anytime. The solution features a comprehensive library of clinical decision making tools and protocols.

• Throughout the project, N-iX team worked closely with Think Research's in-house development team to identify the distinct business and functional requirements and translate them into efficient solutions. Agile methodologies: Kanban and Scrum were used to maintain effective communication and deliver results faster. The team supported and modernized the technological stack of the EntryPoint platform applying the latest coding practices. They developed an online referral management tool which incorporates the best practices to improve communication, workflow, and appropriateness of referrals. They also built a virtual care platform enabling new care pathways by connecting patients with high-quality clinical support. The team contributed to enhancing the client’s software products and developed new point-of-care solutions from scratch. Special attention was paid to strengthening the reliability of cloud-based solutions ensuring they meet the highest security and privacy standards.