We Designed, Built and Delivered a Solution for Their Tuberculosis (TB) Initiative

Based on our success in ‘Connected Health’, we were asked by The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to design, develop and deliver a solution for their Tuberculosis (TB) initiative. They required a database application to capture, detail, analyse and compare TB biomarkers, as part of clinical studies published by research centres worldwide.

FIND have an initiative to ultimately help realise a cure and effective path of treatment for TB. Their aim with this database application was to centralise all clinical effort to ensure research centres would have visibility to focus on an accelerating pipeline of medical devices, assays and treatment.

It was essential that the database was user-friendly and fulfilled the client's desired functionality. First, we had to fulfil the technical considerations around the optimised view and comparative analysis of the TB biomarker records. Second, we had to display the clinical data on an engaging platform to ensure researchers and donors had a user experience that would make them keen to use and maintain the data.

The problem for all such database applications is sustainability – to provide a well-considered, engaging platform we designed and developed all pages and workflows and documented all design decisions as part of our commitment to quality.

We used test-driven development (TDD) to deliver a quality codebase, developing all custom charting and reporting components to ensure there were no ongoing licencing costs; to further assist sustainability. With the latest Microsoft .NET software, we developed some very complex coded algorithms to determine biomarker scoring and assessment with advanced filtering to ensure all data dimensions could be queried and compared for collective assessment.

Using our specialist technical knowledge for large and complex datasets we developed a SQL database platform using the latest Microsoft Azure technologies for cost-effective and scalable architecture. The database design ensured performance optimisation and was a key aspect of the architecture. The design involved considerable testing and reconfiguration to fine-tune queries and execution plans, while maintaining import scripts that we developed to accurately extract and transform clinical study and publication data for use within our application.

Using Agile software development, the project was run with a scrum master who managed daily stand-ups across sprints with collaborative planning sessions. This process ensured that the customer and project teams were well-informed and coordinated. Where blockers were raised early, the tasks were prioritised, sized and assigned effectively to maximise development efficiency. Run under our ISO 9001 quality management system, our development work followed our standard operating procedures and specific work instructions to deliver a quality product. The database application that we delivered was rigorously evaluated by way of user acceptance testing before entering into a pilot period to be further assessed by a select team of research personnel and key stakeholders.

FIND have gone onto announce the success of their initiative with the introduction of our Bm2dx database application, and we will continue to work with them to support and enhance the platform.