Real-time Telemedicine Platform for Video-Consulting

Healthcare

Real-time Telemedicine Platform for Video-Consulting

02 Engineers

03 Months

60%

Increase in doctor-on-demand service for a hospital

Technology

Django, WebRTC, CoTURN, Kubernetes, PosgreSQL, Redis

Services

Product Conceptualization

Location

USA

Overview

The growing popularity of telemedicine presented an opportunity for our USA-based client to develop a comprehensive platform that enables seamless video consultations and efficient management of patient records. We were tasked with designing and developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that effectively integrates virtual consultations with real-time access to medical history and treatment records. This solution aimed to improve healthcare accessibility and patient-doctor engagement while adhering to strict regulations around patient health information.

Challenges

Virtual Consultations: Implementing a reliable and high-quality video-conferencing tool was a critical challenge, given the technical obstacles such as network limitations and firewall restrictions.
Patient Record Management: A significant challenge was to develop a system for real-time access and management of sensitive patient health information while adhering to strict HIPAA rules and regulations.
Scalability: The increased load on the system due to high user engagement required an efficient solution for horizontal scaling without the added costs of permanent scaling.
User Experience: Creating an intuitive and user-friendly interface for healthcare professionals and patients was a vital requirement, given users' varying levels of technological proficiency.

High Level Design Architecture

Solutions

Video Conferencing Tool: We developed a robust video conferencing tool using WebRTC technology and a CoTURN server, which was efficiently scaled using Kubernetes, ensuring high-quality video consultations.
Patient Record Management: We integrated a secure database with a third-party Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for effective management and real-time access to patient records.
Scalability: A Kubernetes load balancer was implemented to effectively distribute a single IP address to multiple TURN servers, thereby addressing the challenge of multiple IP addresses and enabling efficient scaling.
User-friendly Interface: We developed a comprehensive three-split tab interface for healthcare professionals to concurrently conduct video consultations, review patient's medical records, and prescribe further tests or medications.

Result

The successful development of the telemedicine MVP improved patient-doctor engagement and made healthcare services more accessible. This solution facilitated timely and affordable specialized care while significantly saving time for healthcare professionals and patients.