electronic patients records system based on oracle apex
TRANSCRIPT
Electronic Patients Records system based on Oracle Application Express
A real life case study
Agenda
Who am I Background Challenge Technical Selection The Solution APEX wishlist Recap
Who am I
Jan Karremans Working in IT since 1991 Working with Oracle since v. 7 on Alpha VMS From administration to development From customer to sales / management Oracle SE evangelist around the Globe
Reversed Q&A
Position of Oracle APEX? Standard Edition database? Healthcare background?
Obviously there are more APEX
implementation architectures possible!
Background
VIR e-Care Solutions
Healthcare Software development Complete medical / administrative support Based in and focused on The Netherlands 45 staff and growing 30+ years in business
Background
Dutch Healthcare sector Host based / Client - Server application Small development team Broad operational field
It is called…
The main product, Ecaris is:
A computer system which supports the complete treatment-process of each patient
Primarily arranged for multi-disciplinary working organizations
Arranged for each Healthcare organization
Built from separately available modules
Background
8,000 users total
2 core developers
164 k. clinical tests / year
App. 400 concurrent +100 k. appts. /
month
€ 395 mio. annualy
Challenges
Challenge - 1
Create a web based solution
Without big infrastructural (€) changes Easy to maintain Maximum use of system resources
Challenge - 2
Create Oracle Forms like* functionality
* Full keyboard support
Completely functional plan board
Fast!
Challenge - 3
Retain delivery methodology
Selection
Selection - infra
Non-Oracle
Not an option, to difficult Oracle Enterprise
Even with special terms too expensive Oracle Standard (One)
Strong core, peripherals made to fit
Selection - technique 1
Webforms
Too limited environment
Still needs lots of additional programming ADF
Does not ‘fit’ PL/SQL environment
Way to ‘intense’
Selection - technique 2
APEX
Fit for 60 per cent of environmentNote: this is summer 2010
Pre-APEX
90% PL/SQL
100% fit to technical requirements
BUT…
This is an APEX session
This is an APEX solution!
Demo plan board
All mouse-clicks are also function keys
1. Show plan board
2. Mouse-over’s (no function keys, obviously)
3. Appointment contents (with warning)
4. Appointment change history
5. Changing plan board layout
6. Move appointment
Demo plan board
Solution
Core architecture
“Zero Footprint”
Core System
Monolithic, secure application core
Oracle database Standard Edition One Oracle HTTP Server Powered by Apache Backbase BXML Ajax Toolkit
– Replacement under investigation
Core System
Specific settings
Rule Based Optimizer“If you have developed OLTP applications using Oracle version 6, and if you have tuned the SQL statements carefully based on the rules of the optimizer, then you might want to continue using the RBO when you upgrade these applications to a new Oracle release.”
utl_file_dir
Core System
Default system
HP rx2600 w. HPUX 11i R3 2 CPU w. 2 cores 12 GB RAM
Reporting
Oracle Reports Server Awkward licensing Knee fall to architecture, why?
Alternate solution PL/PDF or iAdvise Doxxy
Disaster proofing
Standby database critical in Healthcare Oracle Data Guard not available
Alternate solution Dbvisit Standby
Federated authentication
Web application needs single sign on Support from application core
Alternate solution Dell now Quest One Quick Connect
Couplings
Healthcare informatics is comprised of numerous individual systems
Standard messages HL7 (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/HL7)
Open source broker
Alternate solution Mirth connect
Offloading and BI
Operational BI Management BI Optimization settings Second database required
Alternate solution Dbvisit Replicate
Microsoft Office integration
Actually just xml Legacy ODBC connections
not possible with SaaS delivery
Alternate solution iAdvise Docufy
Monitoring
Weakest link Under surveillance
Alternate solution Nagios
Monitoring
Application Performance Monitoring Analyse and compare performance Get numbers to feeling
Gartner APM Conceptual Framework
Result
Lowest TCO possible Super fast Rock stable
Looks like a lot of work…
Many systems Much configuration But isn’t this always so? “Setup and forget”
APEX Wishlist
Active Directory integration Connection driven background image Zero Footprint Reporting FOEX Connect to the community
Key points (recap)
Oracle Application Express is a valid choice for core systemsYes!
Oracle Database Standard Edition is a valid choice for core systemsYes!
There are valid alternatives to the Oracle Red StackYes!
Q & A
