MedNet is a web application that we made to address two major issues in modern healthcare: a lack of interoperability (transfer of data between disparate health systems) and a lack of physical equipment for workers. Because different hospitals use different electronic health records and health worker registries (HWRs), it is often impossible for hospitals to exchange health data that would be very useful for testing and communication purposes. We are aware of this problem, so we wanted to give MedNet users the ability to link their HWR and automatically connect their workers to the system, preventing the need to manually write data to a worker database. Furthermore, in the age of COVID-19 especially, personal protective equipment (PPE) such as respirators, ventilators, and masks are being used at an extraordinarily high rate, which inspired us to create a system that connects hospital departments in need of equipment to hospitals with resources to provide.
MedNet allows hospitals in need of equipment to register on the website by inputting the hospital name and the link to the data store for their health worker registry. After signing up, hospital department representatives may text the MedNet text line to ask for as much equipment as they need and set how urgent the request is. It was important that MedNet communicates over text, as hospitals in less-developed area generally have more access to mobile devices than computers. This information is sent to the website, which displays all current requests in order of urgency. All requests include the address, phone number, email, items in need, description, and urgency. Now, hospitals that have equipment to donate can browse through the requests and arrange donations with the requesting department via phone or email.
MedNet was made in accordance with the Care Services Discovery (CSD) profile. Hospitals that register input the link to the data store for their health worker registry, a.k.a. their "Care Services InfoManager", as well as the XML document to query from. Here is an example HWR document. An OpenHIM mediator periodically fetches data from the HWR and sends to a Google Cloud MySQL database in JSON format via a PUT request to a RESTful API made in Node.js and Express. Therefore, when workers text the MedNet text line, we can check their phone numbers against the API to match the numbers to their respective owners and departments. The text line itself is made with Twilio's Programmable SMS service. When a worker finishes a text request, the request information is sent to a Google Cloud Firestore database via a request to another RESTful API made with Flask. Finally, the MedNet website retrieves requests from Firestore and updates its listings accordingly. The website and both APIs run on a Google Cloud Compute Engine Virtual Machine instance on Ubuntu. Registering and logging in are handled with Google Firebase Authentication.