naeka blog

For many months Naeka has been developing a health web application (healthcare) specialised in pulmonology.

More commonly known as « Colibri » (yes, like the hummingbird!), this application aims to become a professional reference tool in France for the most common illness in pulmonology (COPD).

Colibri has set a course to facilitate the work of doctors by providing useful features to monitor their patients and offering an unprecedented experience.

Since the outset the challenge has been simple: « Pulmonologists will use Colibri during their consultations if this tool is adapted to their practice. It is because the tool will facilitate and improve patient management that Colibri will be well-received in the pulmonological community ».

It is therefore up to us to find out how to enable professionals to carry out an online consultation, whilst providing them with the full patient history, guiding and assisting this process.

How does this happen in practice?

After the patient has given consent to the doctor they have been referred to (legal obligation), the consultation takes place directly on Colibri.

If the patient is not yet registered on Colibri, an initial file is created. It allows the doctor to acquire the patient’s personal information (surname, name, etc…), but also to enter data from the consultation, which can be added instantaneously. In a new consultation, the pulmonologist can easily relocate the patient and complete the initial record by creating a follow-up. This picks up from the initial data and allows one to follow the subsequent entries on the patient and their illness.

The aim being to provide the doctor, clearly and simply, with the relevant information so that each consultation goes smoothly and with an ongoing concern for quality.

Interesting features await you, such as:

• Patient sharing within a healthcare team. Whether in an office or hospital setting, it is common for the patient to be supported by a team and not only by a pulmonologist. It is therefore clear that all team members are able to have comprehensive access to the patient information.
• The statistics in real time on their own patients and of all of Colibri’s patients.
• Automatically updated prescriptions according to the needs of the doctor and the characteristics of the patient.
• A summary of consultation which can be used to send a letter to medical correspondents.
• Simplified compliance with national and international guidelines for the management of COPD, which evolves steadily on Colibri.

Thanks to the internet, Colibri is always available, no matter where you are or whichever device you are using. It is therefore very interesting to see devices like tablets appearing in consultations. And it’s there that an entirely web-based application shows its true potential!

From the beginning we have wanted to use “cutting-edge” technology. It’s also for this reason that our clients have come to us: to take advantage of secure and reliable modern technology.

It should be noted that old browsers are not supported. Without this constraint it becomes possible to create very interesting things. We cannot technically describe the whole of Colibri for obvious security reasons, but we have used: * Python * Django (who would’ve believed it!) * AngularJS * Bootstrap * SocketIO * Interface with the medical database Vidal

Another interesting point is the fact that all of the data is transferred via websockets to the client (or via a fallback of socket IO). This makes it possible to avoid making successive connexions in AJAX, which, on an application as complex as Colibri, would have taken hundreds of hits per user.

With websockets, the connection is created during the first connection then we can use it at any time thereafter. We thus find simplicity and performance, as well as being ready for the future with real-time, easily achievable. To conclude, seeing as everyone likes the statistics, Colibri has already:

• 500 patients
• 30 registered doctors
• +10 000 lines of python
• ~5 000 lines of JavaScript
• ~7 000 lines of HTML templates

Here is a very short navigation through Colibri, as a doctor:

An artistic view of the work:

The next stage?

Interfacing with measuring devices to prevent entry by hand, an extension to other chronic respiratory diseases, sharing patients with other medical specialists (e.g. radiology), and direct access to the patient's medical file... There is much to be done to advance medicine on the web.

One big round of applause to the team, I think particularly to William, Baptiste and David for their devotion and perseverance.

Thanks to Bernard and Michel for their confidence.

The work continues; many changes still lie ahead!