Project summary
A turnkey IoT SaaS solution for hospitals and spa salons. The system enables effective cryo unit management; secures patient data; features a PoS system.
Status: ongoing
Efforts: 30,000+ man-hours
Duration: 40 months
Team: 5 PHP (Laravel), 3 Android, 2 Manual QA
Development process
Engagement
We first met a customer when his business had just started as a startup. Initially, the request was only about a simple mobile application that allows users to register, authorize, and pay for the procedure. The cryo-chamber itself at that time was the simplest possible and had featured manual control.
Further contour
As the task was quite trivial, the team had delivered it in weeks. The customer, in the meantime, attracted a bunch of investment. As a result, the scope had exploded with dozens of new features.
From that time, prioritization has become rather challenging. The customer changed his mind almost every day, so it was quite hard to keep the project triangle parameters.
Testing problem
One of the bottlenecks was testing. Our Belarus-based development team had no access to the real devices situated in America. So, all the tests first ran simulated, and then also executed on the customer's side using the chamber.
Intermission and reunion
After a couple of years of successful project work, when most of today's features were already implemented, the customer started thinking about scaling. The growth required investments and one of the provisions of further financing was reassigning the development to an in-house team.
For Expanice, it was a 6-month pause, after which the customer returned! The fact is the Expanice team turned out to be more cost-effective and skilled than the in-house one. Today, the project is still in an ongoing stage but its active phase has already finished.
Features we implemented
Cryo chamber management system is an Android-based comprehensive solution for all aspects of the cryo sauna business. Here are the main features that should be mentioned:
1. Launcher feature: the app executes once the tablet is turned on. Users are unable to quit the app and browse through the basic Android user interface.
2. Built-in EHR/EMR pack of features covering all the main client relationship management needs.
— Easy registration with the help of a receptionist.
— Log in using personal data or fingerprint recognition with the help of an external scanner attached via USB.
— Patient’s health parameters logging. All the data is stored in the cloud, so patients can order health reports.
— Stripe-based POS feature with a magnet card reader or card photographing/recognition.
— Gift card creation and purchasing option.
— Balance sharing between different accounts feature.
— Special offers management feature allows facility staff to create special prices and assign them to their own selected patients. Such special offers could be single-use for specific customers, as well as reusable.
— A questionnaire at the start and agreements receiving and storing help the provider avoiding some safety risks.
— Patient’s digital signature feature helps to take care of all necessary formalities.
— Internal marketplace for sessions, services, and merch items sales.
3. A built-in safety protocol controls important health parameters to switch the chamber off in case of an emergency situation or stop the nitrogen supply. Parameters under control:
- Patient presence in the chamber.
- Patient’s body temperature.
- Patient’s heart rate.
- Oxygene level in the chamber.
- Liquid nitrogen pressure in the tanks.
4. Patient presence detection system combines special presence sensors with the recognition of pictures from three different types of cameras.
5. Three different working modes. The application can act in one of three separate modes aimed at different situations.
— Normal mode is designed for obvious work in a medical facility, providing all the features for both patient management and device control.
— Group mode. In this mode, authorization, payments, and other EHR features are off, making it possible to provide groups of people with the same level of service free of charge one after one.
— Receptionist’s tablet mode. This mode is aimed at usage at the reception only when all the chamber controlling features are off.
6. Chamber embedded hardware and software control. The hardware used in the chamber is fully controlled by the mobile app. There are only highly reliable PLC-based circuits, various sensors, and cameras are placed on the device side. Controlling tools make it possible to adjust the time and temperature of the forthcoming session, start the pre-cooling process, etc.
7. Additional display attachment control feature. The second display is located inside the chamber upper than the operating area to avoid extreme cold. The display is used for real-time streaming of health parameters and promotional content during the sessions.
Results
1. The client received an efficient software tool that covers every aspect of its business. Now, the product is generating steady revenue once the software support costs are
2. The scope of implemented features made it available to stop using some third-party paid SaaS to cut down expenses.
3. The consumption of both power and liquid nitrogen is now 17% lower than that of competitors, which costs only 10-15% of the session's cost.
