Figure 1. To support web and mobile users in South Africa, we needed to push/pull the certified HIV/AIDS training updates, test data, and drug details to/from servers located on the African continent. Since the content was housed in a SiteCore CMS hosted in the United States, we learned how to use a third-party's servers in Africa to improve wifi connectivity for our users. Our client’s medical educators in South Africa wrote all the training modules, which were then edited, published online, and continually updated by our content team in the United States.
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Location, Location, LocationGeography presented a unique challenge early on when our Product Manager moved to South Africa to support our client full-time. Working closely with our Chief Technology Officer and internal developers, I embraced the product ownership role by designing a wireframe that depicted the mobile app’s interface, user flows, features, functionality, messaging, and mobile account binding process. In addition to managing the overall project and vendors, I also identified missing functionality; wrote user stories; and supervised mobile testing efforts.
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Figure 2. Managing our project plan, scope, budget, and risk to build a CMS, website, and native mobile app required that I coordinate 2 vendors with 4 internal teams (i.e., Clinical Care Options’ designers, developers, publishers, and testers). During testing, our mobile app vendor failed to check its work on all devices, significantly slowing our internal test cycles. Ultimately, we added more internal testers to improve the mobile’s app quality and quicken the vendor’s pace of fixes.
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“Amanda's project management, documentation, and design contributions were a
significant factor in the success of our project.” ~ Ira Baron. Director, Chief Technology Officer at Clinical Care Options
significant factor in the success of our project.” ~ Ira Baron. Director, Chief Technology Officer at Clinical Care Options
Figure 3. To speed time-to-market, I developed a wireframe to better communicate with our mobile vendor the ever-changing design features and functionality. The wireframe also helped quickly onboard new testers and obtain final approval (for content, design, messaging, etc.) from our Product Manager in South Africa.
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A Geographic Cure: More Time ZonesGeographically dispersed teams became the norm with our web vendor located in Boston, Massachusetts; our mobile developers in Vietnam; our Product Manager and medical writers in South Africa; and our internal teams in Reston, Virginia. During the testing phase we leveraged different time zones by coordinating with mobile app developers in Vietnam. They built as we slept; we tested as they slept.
Figures 4-6. Each page, scrolling menu and drop-down looked unique. Mobile developers used Sencha Touch for their cross-platform design.
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“I came to rely on Amanda as an ally in thinking through and managing project risks.”
~ Ira Baron. Director, Chief Technology Officer at Clinical Care Options
~ Ira Baron. Director, Chief Technology Officer at Clinical Care Options
Mobile Security By DesignBuilding security into the system from the start was of utmost importance. The application needed to securely track the test scores of multiple users on the same device—and track a single user across multiple devices. Since each user could re-take a test only once, we developed a mobile binding process to track exam credits and prevent cheating.
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Figure 10. Our mobile binding process (see cylindrical green arrows) ensured user test scores were accurate, even when users shared the same device or when a single user switched between a computer, smartphone or tablet. Since connectivity was unpredictable, users needed offline access to the medical content and quizzes. The binding process would sync an offline user’s test scores with previous grades at login.
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HIV/AIDS Help at Point-of-Care, EverywhereOur client, the South African government, loved the look and feel of both the inPractice Africa website and mobile application. The client also appreciated our content team’s flexibility when publishing training modules, government guidelines, and frequent updates.
Figures 11 and 12. Knowing which drug to prescribe (based on the latest government guidelines) was integral to improving point-of-care medical interventions, and ultimately slowing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Figure 13. In resource-constrained settings, the use of digital medical education and decision support systems is hampered by lack of Internet availability, poor reliability, low bandwidth, and/or cost of service. Thanks to a variety of government-funded programs, including inPracticeAfrica, after only two years AIDS-related deaths decreased by 20,000 annually and a significant increase of affected adults (from 41% to 48%) are now on antiretroviral treatment.
Lesson Learned: Prescribe TechnologyThe South African government partnered with Clinical Care Options, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and drug companies to find a technical solution to their epidemic. We all learned that “in resource-constrained settings, the use of digital medical education and decision support systems is hampered by lack of Internet availability, poor reliability, low bandwidth, and/or cost of service.”
The InPractice Africa learning platform provided both structured training and a point-of-care reference. Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers nationwide could now earn HIV/AIDS learning credits and treat patients in the most remote areas of South Africa, with knowledge and confidence. |
“Amanda's background in user-centered design and user experience also gives her the ability to communicate the needs of the customer and product direction with a wide variety of stakeholders."
~ Paula Lawley. Director, User Experience at Sprint Nextel
~ Paula Lawley. Director, User Experience at Sprint Nextel
Figure 14. Our internal content team enjoyed the special attention given to their unique CMS publishing needs. We dedicated extra time to understand, prioritize, and implement our content team’s special requests to customize the SiteCore CMS, which they used daily.
"Amanda was persistent in managing the processes engaging stakeholders in completing designs/requirements and in signing off on project deliverables, allowing us to
make significant and steady progress in the face of evolving project scope.”
~ Ira Baron. Director, Chief Technology Officer at Clinical Care Options
make significant and steady progress in the face of evolving project scope.”
~ Ira Baron. Director, Chief Technology Officer at Clinical Care Options
