Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital was awarded one of the 2021 Technology Call for Ideas awards to develop two pieces of software with a local technology partner – 1. Vision Center Management Software and 2. Door to Door Screening Android app. Both software projects have been successfully launched and continue to evolve through discussions of strategic priorities as well as user feedback, a process common to any institution who decides to create and maintain their own digital tools.
We had a conversation about maintaining their Vision Center Management Software (VCMS), which is essentially a mini-Electronic Medical Record that includes the following elements:
- Patient Registration
- Payment (or Subsidized)
- Clinical Exam
- Diagnosis & Advise
- Teleophthalmology
- Optical
- Referrals
“We have noticed is that once a patient enters into a network, it could be at any level, it could be at the community level, vision center, they want them themselves to be identified at the next level automatically,” notes Dr. Shalinder Sabherwal, Director of Public Health and Projects at SCEH.
We talked about change management – not just in the launch of the software, but in the continued improvements and upgrades. Security standards change, particularly when handling sensitive personal and payment information. Teams may stumble over workflow challenges that can be corrected by a new drop-down menu. Or teleophthalomlogy or optical modules are added as those programs mature in vision centers.
So how do you help manage that change?
- Serve a clear need: Collecting high-quality data gives confidence to the patients, vision center staff and management that quality care is being delivered and improvements are identified.
- Involve stakeholders: “There were extensive meetings and roundtables and brainstorming along with the people on the ground to actually capture the pain points,”
- Set a clear schedule: The SCEH team works on a 6 month cycle to review input, discuss priorities and define scope, budget and timeline for new features or updated functionality.
- Clarify cost of customization: Weighing the budget of new features against their value to the team and sustainability is an important part of the prioritization process.
- Contract Clarity: Relationships can change over time – people move, priorities shift and there can be unexpected glitches. While this hasn’t happened – and isn’t anticipated – in this project, SCEH ensured they owned all source code and the rights to continue development. So if anything were to change with the technical partner, a new one could be found and work could continue.
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