Accelerating Digital Innovation and Resilience during the New Normal and Beyond

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Elizabeth Mixson
11/05/2020

There’s no doubt about it: agility = resiliency. However, responsiveness to rapid change is often easier said than done. All too often roadblocks such as dysfunctional legacy systems, lack of skilled talent, organizational resistance to change stand in the way.

However, at least when it comes to building mobile or web-based applications, OutSystems’ Low-Code platform can help users overcome many of these issues. Simple to use and inclusive of out-of-the-box DevOps, low-code platforms allow users to quickly and easily build complete applications with modern user interfaces, integrations, data and logic. Instead of writing thousands of lines of complex code and syntax, the user simply uses a drag-and-drop interface to custom design applications.

With that in mind, we invited Fiona Caldwell, Chief Information Officer of Estia Health, Charles Papp, Director from KRE8 IT and Richard Davies, Sr Lead Solution Lead Architect of OutSystems to discuss how healthcare organizations are using Low-Code solutions to enhance the digital employee experience and boost operational efficiency amidst the Covid-19 crisis.

One of the primary goals of Estia Health’s, an Australia-based aged care provider, IT department is to ensure that the technology and business processes associated with it align with the needs and desire of its workforce as well as its patients. As its workforce are not the most technologically savvy, its critical that the applications and solutions Estia employs are as easy to use as possible. Their goal with leveraging Low-Code was to develop solutions that are user friendly and tailored to its diverse workforce but also cost-effective and simple to update.

Looking forwards, Estia Health is looking for solutions that enable business process optimization and the delivery of next level care. For example, how can they use technology to communicate the daily activities and statuses of residents to their families. Or use patient data to deliver better health outcomes while also remaining complaint to privacy laws and other healthcare regulations. “There are so many [IT solutions] out there, for us it’s really about knowing which ones are the best to invest in and will help us to deliver on our broad strategic objectives.”

From there Charles Papp of KRE8 IT shared how, at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, one hospital he worked with implemented a mobile app that allowed employees to clock in their hours, schedule shifts and receive corporate announcements, thereby eliminating the need for them to utilize, potentially infectious shared devices and streamlining crisis communications.

Estia Health too developed a new app in response to Covid-19. Alongside OutSystems, Estia build a mobile app to track testing activity and infections levels amongst staff and residents. In addition, the app enables direct communication between Estia and its workforce, many of which are working remotely these days. Though no one has tested positive so far, this application adds another much-needed layer of protection and accountability during this time of crisis. The OutSystems low-code platform also enabled them to respond to user issues and modifications in real-time, a necessity in this rapidly changing time.

To wrap things up, James Harrison of OutSystems walk us through how the Low-Code system actually works. Some of the features he showcases: