Building an app wired with ECG simulator
Story
Imagine you’re a nursing student with 12 electrodes in your hands and an ECG patient in front of you. What do you do?
Our colleagues at Realityworks know that ECG tests require both skill and practice, so they built a simulator to teach the process more easily. Each electrode has a specific position on the body, although the number needed can vary from 3 to 12. Also, the specialist must recognize heart rhythms from the image patterns.
RealityWorks asked QuantumSoft engineers to build a mobile app and asynchronous data exchange USB protocol to interact with a human-body simulator. But when we asked to see the mannequin prototype, we found out they didn’t have one yet!
They had just begun, so all we had was a tablet, circuit board, and a bunch of wires. Time to use our creativity! Together with our RealityWorks colleagues, we imagined how the simulator would work and look so we could design the interface of the app that would control the device.
The app’s interface and functionality changed multiple times during the project, making our Agile skills critical to success. Some sprints ended with us needing to reverse our tasks to start the next sprint! However, we stuck to the plan — to release the first version as soon as possible.
”Wait, the concept changed again? We just finished the new functionality!” — a common refrain during the project.
Although we began at the idea level, it only took 6 months to reach our goal, from the first line of code to the ready-to-use version. The teams worked closely the whole time, with weekly meetings and daily contributions to the code base. We always provided the freshest versions to the hardware engineers so that they could immediately use it in their build.
Our team dug into the work and had a great time with their RealityWorks colleagues. We used a time tracker and a detailed plan to keep work steady but left room for creativity. We gave them as many opportunities as possible to put their hearts into designing the visual and engineering parts of the app.
On the RealityWorks side, they appreciated the results so much that they asked us to rework part of the app code so they could use it in other projects. And in March 2020, this ECG simulator won an Edison Award! It’s always gratifying to help clients, but it’s also nice to have external parties see the value of our work too!
Solution
Our team started this project by building UX prototypes of the app interface. The requirements changed multiple times, so with every new sprint, the interface changed dramatically.
We chose Xamarin Forms as our main tool because it let us quickly create a cross-platform app on C#. The team developed several custom UI elements to enrich the interface and keep it uniform. To control the simulator, QuantumSoft engineers built an asynchronous data exchange protocol via USB for the device’s hardware.
The app has two modes, learning and exam. In learning mode, it checks the electrode placement on the mannequin and displays mistakes interactively. Learning mode can use 3 to 12 leads and can display the rhythms of a healthy heart versus a heart affected by certain conditions. In exam mode, the app shows images of heart rhythm patterns that the student must identify.
Available in English and Spanish, the app also has an administrator function for setup and selection of exam materials.
The project generated its first stable version in 6 months, with one to three engineers at different stages using Agile methods.
