Getting back to coding – taking the plunge

Having had releases 1.3 and 1.4 of SortED® tablet behave themselves remarkably well in the two clinical trials, I’ve been putting off the daunting task of getting back to coding. This is essential to make the next set of improvements, but difficult after such a long interval testing the system and analysing data.

 

Examining existing code, even when you wrote it yourself, can leave you quite at sea. You try to add enough ‘Rems’ (remark lines) in the code but rarely do.  Fortunately my background in medical research means I keep very detailed laboratory note books.

 

My displacement activity has been overhauling content with colleague Barbara Cleaver. In essence, we capture her many year’s experience working in Emergency Departments to populate the checklists, Ix and Rx lists which SortED displays to nurses. They then get very thorough testing in clinical settings. This August we have been adding content for some new ‘routes’ through the system. For example we added content for a ‘Frailty’ route, more suited to some elderly patients with multiple co-morbidities than pre-testing routes such as ‘falls’ or ‘collapse’ which apply to young fit adults too.  To accommodate the new routes we have had to redesign the four graphic panels (two for adults and two for children) which act as clickable navigators. Andrew Brady at Polymorph Ltd has made an attractive job of these.

 

Now I need to plunge in, get coding, and hope I don’t encounter too many problems as I ‘re-wire’ the system.

 

Gillie Francis – Sep 2018