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Let's consider the following conversation I had with a homoeopathic doctor. He doesn't have any software application now but wants one. He follows some sort of system to manage, but as his patients and clinics are increasing, it getting difficult to manage the practice.
This is the first step to design a system - talking to all the concerned people to understand what is needed. We can give this step a name - 'requirements gathering'.
You: Thanks for meeting with me, Doctor. I understand you're looking for an application to help manage your practice, and since you operate across multiple clinics, we want to make sure the system works seamlessly. Could you walk me through how you currently manage your workflow and what you’d like to improve?
Doctor: Absolutely. Right now, managing appointments, patient records, and prescriptions is a bit chaotic. I move between clinics on different days, and keeping everything organized—like which clinic I’m in, what appointments I have, and managing my patients’ histories—is challenging. I also need a better way to track which medicines I prescribe.
You: Got it. So, the app needs to help you with scheduling, patient records, and prescriptions. Let’s start with users. Besides yourself, who else needs access to the system?
Doctor: I’ll be the main user, but I also have staff at each clinic who help with scheduling and administrative tasks. The patients themselves should have some level of access too, like checking their appointment details and viewing prescriptions.
You: Okay, so we’ll create different roles—one for you as the doctor, one for the staff, and one for the patients. What should each role be able to do? For instance, what do you want your staff to handle?
Doctor: Staff should be able to manage the appointments, like scheduling and rescheduling, but I don’t want them to see any of my notes or private information about the patients. Patients should only see their own records—like the dates of their appointments and the prescriptions I give them.
You: Understood. We’ll make sure staff only handle scheduling and clinic details. Patients will have access only to their own information. Now, speaking of appointments, how do you want to manage them? Do you want to set up your availability for each clinic in the system?
Doctor: Yes, exactly. I work at different clinics on specific days. For example, I might be in Clinic A on Monday and Wednesday, and Clinic B on Tuesday and Thursday. I want to be able to set that in the app, so patients can book appointments accordingly. I also need to know if a patient has missed an appointment or not, and it would be great to have a record of all past appointments.
You: That makes sense. We’ll set up a scheduling system that lets you input your working days for each clinic, and patients will be able to book based on that availability. Each appointment will have a status—completed or missed—and you’ll be able to view past appointments for each patient.
Doctor: Yes, that’s exactly what I need. And when I see a patient, I’d like to be able to take notes about their symptoms, what advice I gave them, and any tests I recommend. Sometimes I also have private thoughts or notes that I want to keep for myself.
You: We’ll create a section for appointment notes, where you can enter details like symptoms, advice, and suggested tests. We’ll also add a private notes area that only you can access. Would you also want to link these notes to any prescriptions you write during the appointment?
Doctor: Yes, I often prescribe homeopathic medicines during appointments, and it would be useful to log that. I want to specify the medicine, the dosage, and how often the patient should take it.
You: No problem. We’ll include a prescription feature in the appointment notes, so you can select a medicine, specify the quantity, and how it should be taken. Speaking of medicines, do you want to maintain a list of all the medicines you use in your practice?
Doctor: Yes, I’d like to keep a database of the homeopathic medicines I prescribe, with details like their name and a brief description.
You: Perfect. We’ll create a medicine database where you can store information about each medicine. That way, you can easily add them to prescriptions. Let’s talk about the clinics next. How do you want to manage clinic information in the app?
Doctor: I’d like to keep track of each clinic’s address and working hours. It would also be great if I could assign my staff to specific clinics, so they know when and where they’re supposed to work.
You: So, for each clinic, we’ll include its name, address, and your working hours. We’ll also allow you to assign staff members to specific clinics, so you can see who’s responsible for managing appointments at each location.
Doctor: Exactly. That would make it easier to keep everything organized. I want the app to be simple but cover all these essential functions. And security is really important to me—especially with patient data.
You: Absolutely. We’ll implement strong security measures, including a secure login system for all users. Sensitive information, like patient records and your private notes, will be encrypted, and access will be controlled based on user roles. Only you will have access to private patient information, while staff will have limited access, and patients will only see their own records.
Doctor: Great, I think that covers everything. I’m really looking forward to how this will improve the way I run my practice.
In the next tutorial, we will see how to get started with system design from this conversation.
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