Welcome to this series on How to Build an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. This tutorial is designed to guide you through the entire process of developing a robust, scalable, and secure EHR system, leveraging modern methodologies and best practices.

Objective: Gain an understanding of the key concepts and assumptions in this tutorial.

Familiarize yourself with the items in the Appendix and when you’re ready, proceed to kickoff the project in the next part: Planning & Discovery.

Appendix

Key Concepts

In this series, we will explore key concepts for building a scalable and extendable EHR system:

  • Electronic Health Records (EHR): Understanding the fundamentals and importance of EHR systems in healthcare.
  • Agile Methodologies: Applying agile practices to ensure iterative development and continuous improvement.
  • Event Storming: Utilizing collaborative workshops to visualize and streamline complex business processes.
  • Example Mapping: Breaking down user stories into concrete examples for clarity and completeness.
  • Domain-Driven Design (DDD): Focusing on the core business domain to drive the architecture and design.
  • Clean Architecture: Ensuring a separation of concerns to make the system maintainable and scalable.
  • DevSecOps: Integrating security practices into the DevOps pipeline to ensure robust and secure deployments.

Team Concepts & Culture

Building a high-performing team is as crucial as the technical aspects. We will delve into:

  • Team Topologies: Structuring the team for optimal collaboration and efficiency.
  • Psychological Safety: Creating an environment where team members feel safe to take risks and share ideas.
  • Radical Candor: Encouraging open, honest, and empathetic communication.
  • Extreme Ownership: Fostering a culture of accountability and proactive problem-solving.
  • DORA Metrics: Measuring and optimizing the team’s performance and delivery speed.
  • RACI Matrix: Defining roles and responsibilities clearly.
  • Communication Strategies: Ensuring effective and efficient communication within the team and with stakeholders.

Tools

We will introduce various tools that facilitate the development process:

  • Work Management: Tools like ClickUp, Jira, or Linear for tracking progress and managing tasks.
  • Version Control: Using GitLab for source code management and DevSecOps.
  • Local Development: Gitpod for consistent, collaborative, and secure development environments.
  • Quality Assurance: Implementing Cucumber for behavior-driven development and automated testing.

Assumptions

This series is designed with a realistic scope in mind, considering:

  • Audience: Intermediate to advanced Software/DevOps/QA Engineers, UI/UX Designers, leaders, and anyone else who is interested in a modern approach to building complex software systems.
  • Stage: Series A and beyond.
  • Timeline: 4-9 months.
  • Team Composition:
    • 1 Product/Project/Engineering Manager
    • 5-7 Engineers (Frontend, Backend, ML)
    • 1 UI/UX Designer
    • 1 QA Engineer
    • 1 DevOps Engineer

In the next post, we’ll start Planning & Discovery to begin the journey in building a state-of-the-art EHR system, leveraging the best practices in software development and team management.