LOOKING FOR TALENTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS FOR AN ONLINE PLATF
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date posted 12/2/2011
LOOKING FOR TALENTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS FOR AN ONLINE PLATFORM FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION, PRESCRIBING TRAINING AND HUMAN FACTORS RESEARCH
Please note that this job has previously been posted online but has not received the sorts of responses we were looking for. We are now able to provide a more detailed description of our requirements for the project and the type of people we would like to hear from and specific information we’d like to receive. We would be delighted to hear from those who have already expressed an interest in this job, if you could provide the additional information we have asked for to help as best evaluate bids.
This project is not for everyone, but we are confident that, for some people, this is right up your street.
Background
We are a team of junior medical doctors in London leading an exciting new project in medical training and human factors research. We have the support of a London hospital trust as well as a panel of experts from education, medicine, training and health informatics research.
The aim of the project is to create a novel online simulated prescribing environment for education and assessment of medical trainees. This will be in the form of a web-based framework which combines scenario-based prescribing training using a simulated electronic drug chart with a means to manipulate the user interface to facilitate experimental research in the design of clinical information systems.
What we are looking for
We are looking for bright, dynamic developers as individuals or teams who are able to join us in this project which has medical, academic and commercial potential. Several members of our team are from a computer science background but you must be happy to work in a multidisciplinary team including doctors, students, educators, nurses, pharmacists, managers, IT staff and academics.
We do not have the budget to pay for a large corporate developer to build a “solution” to our requirements, and this sort of firm isn’t likely what we’re looking for, either (but you are welcome to persuade us otherwise). We are looking for those prepared to invest their time and energy in the project and its great potential. We are looking to find people with whom we can work very differently to a traditional client-developer relationship. We want people who take a genuine interest in the relationship between technology and medicine, in academic research, and to see technology best applied to educate doctors and improve patient safety.
We are happy to hear from across the scale of developers: from larger teams of developers to smaller dynamic groups of collaborators, to part-time contractors, or those involved in a Masters or PhD in computer science or related discipline: anyone with the right skills and who is looking to be involved in something innovative and exciting, and prepared to work differently for it. The following would be of benefit:
• Interests in medical simulation, e-Learning (though this is not a standard e-Learning affair), physiological modelling, health informatics, human factors research, user experience and user interface design
• Experience in web application development, user interface design and database programming
• Experience in working the NHS or medical sector
• Experience in web application deployment and hosting
• Experience in requirements analysis and user-centred design and ability to work in an agile, dynamic way with regular design iterations and testing
What we aren’t looking for
We aren’t looking for, and we can’t afford (and don’t think it would necessarily work, either) a software company who will devote huge resources to formalise, analyse, organise and project manage the project before they’ve written a line of code.
What we have to offer
We are a group of bright doctors with a background in health informatics, medical education and academic research. We have the support of a London hospital trust to take this project forward. We have a small budget to allocate to the software development for this project of about £15,000. The right candidates will value the additional opportunities to partake in academic research, to work with medical institutions and educational organisations to create a valuable product.
We are happy to receive a range of competitive quotations and proposals for remuneration. We are open to suggestions about how payment could be structured for the benefit of both parties, and how scope for future work as well as the academic and commercial success of the project might be factored into a contract.
Objectives of the project
We aim to create an information technology framework for an online simulated prescribing environment, for the purposes of:
• Training, induction and assessment of medical undergraduates, post-graduate trainees and allied health professionals, and
• Conducting experimental human factors research in electronic prescribing and clinical decision support
The central theme of this project is that it delivers education, assessment and research capabilities by allowing users to learn in a simulated immersive electronic prescribing environment. Users interact with a virtual clinical scenario presented to them by prescribing via an electronic drug chart, a virtual e-prescribing system. This environment will be much more like the real-world than that which has been used before for educational purposes. It is closer to a “virtual patient” or “simulation” environment than traditional methods of teaching and assessing prescribing skills, and unlike the standard e-Learning modules available.
The system grants users unparalleled degrees of freedom, as they practise, learn and are assessed via open-ended clinical scenarios. Users read the clinical scenario and are required to prescribe relevant medications. Users learn from their actions by receiving automated clinical decision support alerts and guidance in response to their actions, and receive individualised feedback about the appropriateness of their choices and their performance in the clinical scenarios.
A research theme underpins the system. All user interactions are recorded, including time spent on scenarios and medications prescribed and cancelled, and which warnings were displayed to users. Crucially, aspects of the user interface can be manipulated in order to facilitate experimental studies in different aspects of user interface design, for example comparing the effect of modal dialog boxes versus non-modal dialog boxes on prescribing errors.
What is to be developed?
• An online information technology framework for delivering this immersive learning experience and facilitating research based on user interactions with the system. We are interested in proposals incorporating a range of technologies, but for the purposes of this description we assume the system is web-based (i.e. running via a browser, using RIA technologies). It is comprised of components and features which are described now. We must emphasise that the chosen developer will be involved in detailed user requirements and user-centred design sessions, and be assisted by the project team who have experience in developing systems of this kind.
• A simulated electronic drug chart (e-prescribing system):
• Trainees shall log on to the system and be presented with the electronic drug chart (an area displaying drugs currently prescribed to a patient and having widgets to add prescriptions for drugs, fluids, and so on). This systems runs as a web application (i.e. from the browser). There are controls e.g. to search for a drug, and prescribe a new drug according to dose, frequency, and so on. A list of drugs the patient currently receives appears on the screen, and a new prescription adds the new drug to this list. Prescriptions can be removed, edited and so on.
• Also presented to users is a written clinical scenario. This describes a simulated patient, their name and a description of their problem. This might include simulated investigation results and images. The user reads the scenario and then based on their understanding decides which drug/s to prescribe. Once they are finished, they will move on to the next scenario until they finish using the system. Different types of trainee are allocated to different “packages” of scenarios according to their level of training or institution (e.g. medical undergraduate vs. specialist kidney doctor).
• All interactions with the electronic drug chart are recorded, for example which buttons are pressed, and timings, as well as which drugs are prescribed or amended or cancelled.
• Making a prescription during a scenario which causes an error will cause a warning to appear to the user. This relies on underlying logic which is defined for each scenario and drug error. For example, prescribing “penicillin” to a patient who is allergic will cause an error message to appear so that the user can change their prescription.
• Similar logic also drives a system for recording user’s overall actions and prescribing behaviours and later providing a summary of these behaviours and feedback on prescribing performance. By a combination of receiving warnings during a prescription as well as feedback later, trainee doctors and students learn in a practical way about prescribing (i.e. how to and when to prescribe drugs, and when not to, for different diseases and patients)
• There will be about 30 such scenarios to be completed by each user in a session lasting 20 to 60 minutes. There will be a formulary of about 100 drugs from which the user can choose.
• The live application will be hosted online and require login credentials to access it. We imagine that it will be presented via a rich client interface running out of the browser, e.g. Google Web Toolkit, Vaadin, or Java Server Faces, providing that (as we have suggested) the requirements can be met using these technologies.
• Importantly, all interactions of trainee users with the system are logged, as described above. These include the drugs that are prescribed (and perhaps removed), the warnings which appear (and how the user responds to them) and the time taken for each scenario. This data will be collected for all users and available to administrator users to download from the online system to e.g. a CSV file.
• Given the importance of the “clinical scenario” content, it is vital that adequate tools are provided to author this content. The content of the scenarios, the drugs available, the content and presentation of alerts must be configured easily by a ‘design and customisation side’ aspect to the whole system which is not an “add on” but rather which underpins the entire system. Different users shall log in and create and edit scenarios, order the scenarios, group them into “packages” of learning for different types of trainee. There must be tools for the creation, validation and maintenance of this content. The developer will not be required to develop this content.
• Research users shall log in and create modifications to the user interface design of the electronic prescribing system as well as the logic and presentation behind warnings that are fired by the system. The system will allow studies to be performed which directly compare the impact of different types of prescribing and decision support alerts on prescribing behaviour and outcomes. This is achievable by underpinning the user interface with a presentation engine which controls the display of user interface elements to different users. This will enable, for example, groups of users to be randomised to see different forms of decision support alert. Since their interactions with the system are logged, researchers can then study the impact of the different forms of alert on prescribing behaviour.
More information?
For those who have not excluded themselves yet, we are happy to provide more information in response to specific questions. We wholly acknowledge that this is still a fairly abstract description of our requirements and we are happy to accept a range of suggestions for bids.
Those interested in contacting us – please read first
We realise a highly accurate quotation is not possible with the information we have provided herein. Please bear in mind what we have said about the nature of this project, its potential as well as the limitations we are working with. We firmly believe that any individual or teams will thoroughly enjoy working on this very different and exciting project.
When contacting us please provide examples of any relevant work you have completed, and a description of that work and the final fee involved. Any screenshots or links to websites would be especially appreciated.
Please provide approximate estimates for the cost of the work to develop, test and release a working build of the software (excluding any website hosting costs). Please include a breakdown of your fees where possible.
Please provide the following information where possible
1. Your location and ability to travel to London and how this is costed
2. Your status as a business entity (i.e. sole trader, Ltd, LLP, …)
3. Your other relevant commitments and expected frequency and regularity of work and hours you will be able to commit to the project
4. Your ability and willingness to have Skype- or telephone-based meetings
5. Your willingness to enter into the following payment structures
a. Payment on meeting of quality control/user acceptance criteria
b. Payment as a percentage of future revenues from the software developed in addition to a development fee
Please give examples of any such arrangements you have previously entered into and any suggestions you have in terms of control- or performance-related payment
6. Your ability and willingness to work to a tight system of controls and quality assurance criteria
7. Your ability and willingness to work to a development methodology involving frequent iterations and releases of software prototypes for review by selected users to ensure successful progress of the work
8. Your willingness to transparently share technical aspects of the development with members of the project team, including software architecture and design patterns, rationale and unit testing schedule
9. Your interest and value placed in the academic research potential of the project in terms of your own contribution to this research (i.e. contributing to and appearing as an author in academic research publications)
10. Your interest and value placed in the potential for you to be involved in future work not simply limited to the maintenance of the software developed
11. Your experience (with examples including links to further information, if possible) of working in any of the following sectors:
NHS and medical sector; public sector; education; e-Learning; simulation and modelling; database programming; experimental psychology; user interface design/user experience
12. Your areas of expertise in terms of programming language and experience with that language, development tools and hosting platforms, e.g. Java, Silverlight, GWT, Netbeans, Vaadin, C++, Microsoft ASP, Google App Engine, PHP/MySQL
We look forward to hearing from you.
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