A System For Federal Dental-Referrals
Website: FDS
Dedicated team behind the project
Lead Project Manager
Solution Architect
Senior Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
DevOps Engineer
Software Engineer
QA Engineer
AQA Engineer
Manual/Automation QA
Manual QA
The client
Dental Referrals, operated by RMSL in partnership with FDS Consultants, has been serving the NHS dental referral system for over 10 years. Their team, fully registered with the General Dental Council (GDC), ensures a seamless referral process supported by specialist administrators.
Dental Referrals provides a fully integrated referral management solution, including eRS integration, PACS services, and DocMan
GP integration, while being compliant with ISO 9001:2015 for quality management. Additionally, their service has been independently assessed for DCB 0129 compliance to ensure clinical safety, with
a dedicated Clinical Safety Officer overseeing operations.
The challenge
Security and Compliance
Managing thousands of patient referrals daily required robust security measures to protect sensitive data and meet NHS standards.
Legacy System Migration
The client needed to migrate from an on-premise system to AWS to reduce high maintenance costs and improve scalability.
Upgrading Legacy Technology
The app, built on outdated versions of Ruby and Ruby on Rails, needed upgrading to the latest versions to improve performance and security.
Monolithic to Microservices Architecture
The monolithic app structure caused performance issues. It had to be split into microservices to enhance scalability and efficiency.
Uptime and Downtime Management
Ensuring the app’s 24/7 operation with minimal downtime was essential to maintaining uninterrupted service and patient care.
Managing a Large Development Team
Coordinating a team of mid/large size of development team to execute the migration, upgrades, and architecture changes while ensuring ongoing app functionality was a key challenge.
What was done
We overhauled the entire system to modernize and improve its performance. The project included migrating the infrastructure to AWS Cloud, adding new EHR and EMR capabilities, enhancing security, and refactoring the existing codebase for better efficiency. The platform was upgraded to handle sensitive patient data securely and integrated with NHS services to streamline the referral process. Additionally, we implemented a fresh UI design and conducted rigorous penetration testing to ensure system integrity
Implemented features:
AWS Cloud Infrastructure Migration
Moved from on-premise to AWS Cloud, including transitioning from MySQL to PostgreSQL, resulting in cost savings and improved scalability.
New EHR and EMR Features
Introduced advanced features for managing Electronic Health and Medical Records, enhancing patient data management.
UI Overhaul
Refreshed the user interface to improve usability and overall user experience.
NHS Service Integration
Seamlessly integrated the platform with NHS services to automate and streamline referrals.
Penetration Testing and Security Audits
Performed extensive security audits and penetration testing to safeguard patient data.
Refactoring and Performance Improvements
Refactored the monolithic codebase, improving system performance, reducing downtime, and achieving significant operational savings.
Additional features
We implemented a progressive maintenance plan to manage and reduce the platform’s technical debt.
Developed a robust routine for third-party testing to ensure continuous performance and security validation.
Increased unit testing coverage from 25% to 95%, significantly improving system reliability and reducing the risk of future bugs.
Ensured seamless routing and availability within the NHS’s internal Health and Social Care Network (HSCN), critical for secure and reliable data transfer.
Facilitated close collaboration with various vendors and partners to enhance platform functionality and integration.
Established a strict SLA, ensuring a 1-hour response time and 4-hour resolution for critical issues, as any downtime directly impacts doctors’ ability to input and access vital patient information.
Implemented a sophisticated data governance approach to comply with GDPR and HIPAA regulations, ensuring patient data is securely managed and protected.
Results:
Faster responses and the ability to implement new features quickly
Improved financial forecasting; decreased maintenance costs
Improved Business Agility
Faster responses and the ability to implement new features quickly
Operational Resilience
More uptime/less downtime; decreased risk of patients’ sensitive data loss; faster data recovery; failover and load balancing; improved backup features
Scrum of Scrums
Successfully introduced and used Scrum of Scrum methodology with many customer client reports to manage multiple development teams
SLA Compliance
Implemented a strict Service-Level Agreement (SLA) with a 1-hour reaction time and a 4-hour resolution for critical issues
8.7 technical quality score
We significantly increased tech quality of project measured by in-house quality measurement SQM, and regularly reviewing it to follow industry high standards
Other сases
Team size: 10 developers
Team size: 5 developers
Team size: 5 developers
Team size: 6 developers
Team size: 3 developers
Team size: 4 developers