Equine Medical Solutions
About Equine Medical Solutions
Equine Medical Solutions’ mission is to promote equine welfare by supporting owners and vets in the management of skin diseases and cancer in horses.
Professor Derek Knottenbelt founded Equine Medical Solutions in 2016 to ensure that owners and vets would still be able to get high-quality advice and treatments following the closure of the sarcoid referral service at the Liverpool Vet School which Professor Knottenbelt had provided his expertise for over 25 years.
The Equine Medical Solutions app was built for IOS and Android. This enables stable-side submission of cases and follow-ups without needing to wait until the vet is back at the office to write up notes.
The App is very intuitive and should allow people to get familiar with it quickly. It aims to reduce the time spent on each case and improve efficiency.
Services Provided
Working closely with the Equine Medical Solutions team, we built a mobile version that integrated with their existing desktop portal and payment system, through APIs on their custom backend built in Microsoft Azure.
Objective
Our objective was to deliver a bespoke mobile version of Equine Medical Solutions’ desktop portal for vets to submit referral requests. This will enable vets to easily upload images and notes on their handheld devices whilst at the stables.
Must-have features for this app included:
Registration of cases
Collect & store data and images
Confirm images are correct
Show expert recommendations
Making payments
Enable follow-up advice and treatments on each case
Collect and store files for further consultations, ongoing treatments and protocols
All cases to be easily accessed by the vet on the app in one place
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Key Features
During the discovery phase we discussed all the ideal features they wished to have on the app. These were then split into must have and nice to have to allow us to focus on the most valuable items first.
The main focus on this iteration of the app for the Equine Medical Solutions team was to improve the user experience for end-users and make it as intuitive as possible.
Upload Images
Vet to confirm the image is correct before uploading for consultation.
Dashboard
Vets can manage all their cases easily in one place.
Payment System
Integrated with the desktop portal to work seamlessly across devices.
Connect to Database
Ability for a vet to create multiple cases and track follow-ups for future consultations and treatment protocols, for a more complete medical history that’s easily accessible from the app.
Partnership Goal
To build a mobile app that enables vets to submit photos and information for medical advice, without having to wait until they are back at the office.
Web app that was only available on desktop so vets would have to wait upon returning to their office to write up notes and access EMS services. This would typically take 1 - 3 days for a vet or their secretary to complete and often had mistakes, which meant it could take 7 - 10 days before receiving the advice required.
A mobile app that enables vets to upload images immediately onsite from the field/stables enabling them to complete the referral within 15 mins and get advice typically by the next working day and begin treatment sooner.
GearedApp delivered exactly what I wanted within the time and budget.
The app works extremely well, it’s delivered far better than I ever thought it could be. It’s much more versatile and intuitive than what I expected and was easily understood by our customers and the horse owners.
Prof Knottenbelt OBE, BVM&S, DVM&S, DipECEIM, DACVIM, MRCVS
Equine Medical Solutions
Choosing the Tech Stack
Front End
We use React Native as we do not need to develop two separate codebases for iOS and Android. React Native enables us to achieve high code reusability between the platforms. This saves us time and clients save money.
Key Benefits
Project Delivery
Working in collaboration with the Equine Medical Solutions team, regular weekly meetings and communication through dedicated Slack and Jira channels, ensured everyone was on the same page and progress was smooth throughout the project. As the main challenge for the existing platform was the amount of time it took for vets to complete the case registration process, our focus was to make it as quick and easy as possible for vets to submit their cases through the app.
Previously this process would take vets 1 to 3 days to complete which resulted in many inaccuracies that required clarification and fixing before an expert recommendation and treatment plan could be given.
By reducing this to 10-15mins that a vet can submit their request while they are still on site at the stable, greatly improves the accuracy of the information provided and then get the treatment recommendations within the next working day.
How Agile Helped
Work on the app began in September 2019 with the aim of having the project ready for launch 1st January 2020. In sprint 0, our discovery sprint, we started reviewing tech stack, design and mobile patterns, we did initial prioritisation selecting the features to focus on in the first iteration.
After sprint 0 we continued with 4 development sprints before releasing to the client for user testing. Because of working in the Agile process, the weekly meetings and regular contact with the Equine Medical Solutions team enabled us to focus on delivering a very intuitive onboarding process and overall user experience and for vets. Once we had the v1 released we did 2 Quality Assurance sprints with User Acceptance Testing with trusted users from Equine Medical Solutions. This spotted any bugs that required fixing so we were able to deliver a bug free launch on the 1st of Jan.
Throughout the project, we continued reviewing important features and prioritising based on early feedback from the Product Owner at Equine Medical Solutions. These changes would not be possible if we were following a more traditional waterfall model where you design, build and test at the very end.
Taking time to test the app fully with our Quality Assurance procedures ensured that there were no reported bugs when the app launched. The app worked as expected with great feedback from end-users on how easy it was to use.
Our Agile Process
To get the best outcome for your project you constantly learn and iterate and reiterate your ideas throughout your project. Our Agile development process means that we iterate and have regular scrum meetings and communication with you throughout the process with each sprint lasting two weeks. This ensures we are all on the same page with the priorities and there are no nasty surprises. We work efficiently and with quality at the heart of everything we do.
Key Takeaways
Preparation was key in this project. Great communication from the client about expertise in their field and sharing knowledge of how the existing portal worked improved the GearedApp team’s understanding and ensured the smooth running of the project. Learning from the industry experts, who work very closely with the end-users, provided detailed insights to develop the most intuitive user experience of the app.
The React Native mobile apps were delivered in a short turnaround, within 4 months on the 1st Jan 2020. Due to the app being so user-friendly, over 50% of new enquiries Equine Medical Solutions are receiving, are now through the mobile app. As a result the business is seeing a 15% YOY growth, there is more accurate diagnosis and quicker turnaround of cases.
Due to the success of this project future improvements of the app are planned including the ability for vets to add new cases offline when they do not have a strong enough signal at the stables.
GearedApp gave a glitchless delivery. The overall experience has been optimistic, helpful, realistic and the cost has been exactly what I expected. The process was outstanding with the GearedApp team who were eager and interested in the challenges, which were very difficult. Very good value for money.
Prof Knottenbelt OBE, BVM&S, DVM&S, DipECEIM, DACVIM, MRCVS
Equine Medical Solutions
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