Smart Health: Mobile Application for Booking Medical Appointments

Liliana Enciso

1,2

, Jonathan Castro

and Elmer Zelaya-Policarpo

Grupo Investigaci

on IoT - Network Communications on Smart Environment, Universidad T

ecnica Particular de Loja,

San Cayetano Alto, Loja, Ecuador

Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci

on y Electr

onica, Universidad T

ecnica Particular de Loja,

San Cayetano Alto, Loja, Ecuador

Keywords:

Calendar, Reserves, Webservice, Smart Health.

Abstract:

The article describes the development and implementation of a web application developed in python through

django framework, whose main functionality is the reservation of appointments and the sending of them via e-

mail and text messaging to the recipients. The operational model indicates the infrastructure and the process of

use. In this work the device is oriented towards the ﬁeld doctor, where work schedules are pre-established and

the interface is developed properly for doctors or professions related to medicine without previous or advanced

knowledge in computing. The frame views and the ﬁnal interfaces of this application are also presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

At present, we live an autonomous technology of re-

newal of wireless technologies and automatic com-

munication systems, with the passing of years thank-

fully for researching and technological development

(Gralla and Lindley, 2006).

The development of a web application for records

of clinical reserves, hospitals, private practices, solve

the problem of ordering apointments or forgetting

them, both at the personal level of the doctor and

or receptionist, as well as the patient (Hassan et al.,

2004).

This way of storing patients clinical reserves in a

hospital limits their attention because for different re-

asons a person can change the date or time of care,

thus, initiating in the new establishment another cli-

nical reserve, hindering their continuity in care, due

to The traditional systems that are used, in diaries,

books, that require a greater search time than an au-

tomated system with a patient search engine (Hassan

et al., 2004). Likewise there are other applications in

the health context that allow the geolocation of medi-

cal centers (Enciso-Quispe et al., 2018b) and others

customize medical alerts using DHIS2 tools (Enciso-

Quispe et al., 2018c).

In the case of the doctors and profesional people

Loja city, the archives represent an analogous case

where huge amounts of information are ordered, spe-

ciﬁcally in the case of appointments, it is clear how

effective, functional and practical the databases can

be in the administration of the reserves and the state

in which they are (Thompson and Antezana, 2015).

There are currently low reserve systems of annual

subscription of approximately 500 US dollars with

email sending, which does not allow to know the sta-

tus of the appointment, it is important to mention that

it also does not allow to store a database of patients,

these types of tools do not allow reminder to the Cell

phones, because there is no global mobile operator in

Ecuador. Also they are confusing tools without deﬁ-

ned schedules that turn the process, slow for de user

(Enr

ıquez et al., 2007).

2 RELATED WORKS

Google calendar.- It is able to synchronize a mail tray

to place reservations conﬁrmations, can create, edit

and delete events, send email and send text message

(McDonald et al., 2011).

Jorte Calendar.- This application is functional on

all mobile platforms, this organizes a real role with

an attractive and easy to understand appearance, has

the function and the possibility of adding photos to

events.

It has a very special design with a great emphasis

on the color combinations and icons of the tasks, since

you know what you have 30 days a month, I can send

text messages and send mail. However, it does not

438

Enciso, L., Castro, J. and Zelaya-Policarpo, E.

Smart Health: Mobile Application for Booking Medical Appointments.

DOI: 10.5220/0007235104380445

In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST 2018), pages 438-445

ISBN: 978-989-758-324-7

ﬁt into the organizational model of a professional or

health entity (

Alvarez-Garc

ıa et al., 2011).

Today calendar.- It allows to visualize the events

of an easy, fast and understandable form for the user,

this calendar owns items for reservation of appoint-

ments this also allows only the sending of appoint-

ments by email way.

Business calendar 2.- It is one of the most complex

applications to organize daily diary, it is a calendar de-

signed speciﬁcally for business people, it has been de-

signed and improved for functionality, efﬁciency and

interface, through features for administrative functi-

ons, this application allows sending e-mail And text

messages. Previous acknoledgement in computing is

recommended because of its complexity.

Sol calendar.- It is one of the complete calendars

has an interface with 3 views available per month, per

day and year, shows the events by time slots distri-

buted throughout the hours, while the calendar shows

the events in the form of a list of tasks, It also allows

sending appointments via text message and email.

All the applications developed are of an interna-

tional nature, there is no local proposal for appoint-

ment booking that works through the web, in Ecua-

dor the only system of sending text messaging is from

banks, with private, non-commercial systems, That is

to say, they are not available to people whose ofﬁces

are small or people who need to make reservations

whose technological infrastructure is limited (Aren-

burg et al., 2010).

3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

3.1 Web Applications

Until a few years ago the Web was just collections of

pages, documents and static and simple images that

people could consult but actually its posible to inte-

ract with them. An important step in the evolution

of the Web was the creation of CGI (Common Gate-

way Interface) which deﬁnes a mechanism where in-

formation can be passed between servers and certain

external programs (Erl, 2004).

The solution to this comes basically in 2 ways:

A. Module execution systems are designed that

are better integrated with the server, avoiding the in-

stallation and execution of several programs.

B. The servers are given to an interpreter of some

type of programming language that allows to include

the code in the pages in a way that the server executes

it.

3.2 SCRUM Methodology

Scrum is a process in which a set of good practices

are applied on a regular basis to work collaboratively,

as a team (Enciso-Quispe et al., 2018a), and to obtain

the best possible result of a project. These practices

support each other and their selection originates in a

study of the way of working of highly productive te-

ams (Martel, 2014).

3.3 Data Base

From the computer point of view, the Database is a

system consisting of a set of data stored on disks that

allow direct access to them and a set of programs that

manipulate that data (Hammer and McLeod, 1978).

Each database is composed of one or more tables

that hold a dataset. Each table has one or more co-

lumns and rows, where each column stores a portion

of the information about the appointments, the hours,

the query reason, the status of the appointment (Doug-

las and Douglas, 2003).

3.4 Mobile Services

Nowadays, due to the great boom of mobile services

based on text messages, there are a large number of

reliable and useful solutions with remarkable featu-

res; Necessary to send text messages manually or au-

tomatically from a computer / server to provide noti-

ﬁcation services, news, etc (Gallardo et al., 2007).

SMS is connected to the cellular network with a

set of services or SMS applications, for which it usu-

ally provides a series of interfaces so that software de-

velopers can receive, process and send a high number

of messages. The systems that link an SMS gateway

can be seen better (Harb et al., 2008).

Through an Android API its posible to send text

messages, however, to retrieve data from the web to

the cellphone can do with queries in PHP through a

data retrieval in a JSON that will be broken down and

placed in ﬁxes, For the sequential sending of messa-

ges, as well as scheduling the exceptions in case there

are incorrect numbers or lack of mobile balance in the

pone (Delegido, 2016).

3.5 Architecture

The reservation application is developed in the django

framework that allows programming with the python

programming language, it has by default an architec-

tural model which we will use as the model, view,

controller (Ross et al., 2006).

Smart Health: Mobile Application for Booking Medical Appointments

439

Figure 1: MVC Django Framework.

The model that uses the django framework Figure

1, composed of a database server, in addition, models,

views, which are based on a template, which is then

visualized through a web browser.

The browser sends a request. The view interacts with

the model to obtain data(Forcier et al., 2008).

The view calls the template. The template renders

the response to the browser request. (Condori Ayala,

2012)

3.6 MVC Djando Framework

3.6.1 Model

The Model represents the data structures where all the

information with which the application operates ma-

nagea behavior and domain data typically the model

classes will contain functions that help to return, in-

sert and update information from your database, re-

gardless of the database to use or possible changes

(Gonz

alez and Romero, 2012).

Encapsulating an application model into compo-

nents facilitates debugging, improves quality and en-

courages reuse of code, and for the changes that the

system might suffer in the future.

3.6.2 View

• The information that is presented to the user, the

view manages the presentation of the information

of the application; Everything related to the user

interface, the data necessary for the user to con-

tinue interacting with the application (Gonz

alez

and Romero, 2012).

• A view will normally be a web page, the view re-

presents the presentation logic of the application.

The components of the view extract the current

system state of the model and provide the user in-

terface for the protocol being used.

3.6.3 Controller

• It is the one that respond to the events invoked

from the view; And in turn will call the correspon-

ding methods the model to process and produce

the necessary answers with the data suitable for

the interaction of the application (Gonz

alez and

Romero, 2012).

• The Controller serves as an intermediary between

the Model, the View and any other resources ne-

cessary to process the HTTP request and generate

a web page (Hendrix et al., 1993).

• The controller is responsible for receiving the

events, determining the processor of the event, in-

voking the processor and ﬁnally causing the gene-

ration of the appropriate view.

• The controller is responsible for receiving the

events, determining the processor of the event, in-

voking the processor and ﬁnally causing the gene-

ration of the appropriate view.

3.7 Location of the Application in the

TCP/IP Model Layer

OSI model suggests seven logical layers, may be de-

sirable for the modularity of the architectural imple-

mentation of a protocol. The TCP / IP architecture

normally consists of 5 layers, there have been multi-

ple discussions, however, it gained a number of ideas

even greater than the entire ISO protocols (Forouzan,

2002).

Typically, the top three levels of the OSI model

(Application, Presentation and Session) are simply

considered as the application level in the TCP / IP

suite. Because TCP / IP does not have a uniﬁed ses-

sion level on which higher levels are supported, these

functions are typically performed (or ignored) by user

applications. The most notable difference between

the TCP / IP and OSI models is the Application le-

vel, in TCP / IP some levels of the OSI model are

integrated into their Application level (Bentham and

Bentham, 2000).

In the Figure 3, you can see how the different lay-

ers interact for the execution of our application (Re-

cor), so that we identify which process is executed in

each layer, from the application layer until the sen-

ding of zeros and ones that are transmitted by a phy-

sical port destined to a local network, that connects

with the web.

In the application layer we have the data that is

sent by our application, which then passes to an appli-

cation layer, where you have TCP / IP protocol con-

ﬁrmations, which are then sent to the network layer,

which then passes to the Link layer in frames, which

are ﬁnally converted into the latter, in electrical pulses

(Handel and Sandford II, 1996).

ITSCO 2018 - Special Session on Internet of Things and Smart Communities

440

Figure 2: MVC Django Framework.

Figure 3: TCP/IP of the application.

4 METHODOLOGY

The use of technologies that allow to separate the dif-

ferent layers present in a Web application and the un-

derstanding of its operation within the application to

be developed, deserves to be a subject of study. Cur-

rently the applications are composed of 3 main layers

distributed as follows:

4.1 SCRUM

It is a methodology with an iterative development pro-

cess that allows constant deliveries to the client, in

this case it is an appropriate methodology with a di-

rect collaboration with the user.

Sprints made for the execution of the project and

the hours proposed:

S1.- Book Appointments: The user requests the

reservation of appointments for his practice (12h).

S2.- User Management: Storage and search of pe-

ople admitted (15h).

S3.- Booking Block: If there is a previous appoint-

ment, block the hours and invalidate their availability

(5h).

S4.- Projection of Appointments: To realize a pro-

jection interface in screen, for the waiting room (8h).

4.2 Data Modeling

Model.- The model layer that deﬁnes the business

logic. The database belongs to this layer, which

is why we present in the Figure 4, the database

modeling speciﬁc to a reservation system. Where

there is a role, so that it is projected in the future

that new roles are integrated, such as doctors or

patients so that they can access the system, as well as

accounting role. It is speciﬁed that the receptionist

can book one or several appointments and these in

turn may contain one or several hours, that is, several

periods when an appointment has an extended time

(Co-Requisitos and Aprob

o, ).

View.- The view is what users need to interact

with the application (the template managers and pa-

ges accessed by the user belong to this layer) In the

Figure 6 all the views are deﬁned that will be occu-

pied for this model (Shaw and Garlan, 1996).

Smart Health: Mobile Application for Booking Medical Appointments

441

Figure 4: Data Modeling.

Figure 5: Operative Model.

Controller.- The controller is a block of code that

makes calls to the model to obtain the data and pas-

ses them to the view showing them to the user. These

front controllers actually delegate all work to the acti-

ons, and the logical groupings of actions are called

modules.

Once explained how our application is structured,

we proceed to detail, at the network level how the pro-

tocol used by our application in a conventional device.

4.3 Operative Model

The operational model of an application, allows us to

see the global picture of its operation, so that it can

determine if its operation is coupled with the objecti-

ves set at the beginning (Enr

ıquez et al., 2007).

In the Figure 5, it is observed in a general level

the operation of the application that once the TCP / IP

protocols are executed, until a router that then passes

to an antenna that connects to the network through

an http protocol, which allows us to connect to the

ITSCO 2018 - Special Session on Internet of Things and Smart Communities

442

Figure 6: Application.

internet and then access our server, where both the

customer data and the data of the professionals who

use the application are stored, as well as the data that

will be used for run the application processes.

It also explains that for text messaging, a web ser-

vice is used to retrieve information from the internet

with the http protocol through a standard format, such

as JSON that allows loading data into an android ap-

plication, in this case, For this to function as a text

messaging sender to proceed with sending the perso-

nalized message with the time and date of the next

appointment of the patient (Crockford, 2006).

Firewalls are deﬁned, being a web application the

main protocol that is occupied is the http protocol,

with which it connects to the internet and later to the

server with the previously deﬁned modeling (Ioanni-

dis et al., 2000).

5 APPLICATION

The application is developed for reservation of ap-

pointments, through the web, which allows the secre-

tary of a speciﬁc ofﬁce, manage patients, through a

crud to add / modify / remove patients, so that we can

make use Of these data for later reservation in the ap-

pointment calendar (L

opez, 2007).

In the Figure 6, the general functionalities of the

application, which quantitatively represent 5 functio-

nalities, are displayed: Add / Modify Patients, Patient

Finder, Appointment Management, Appointment Fin-

der and Control of appointments, so that each of them

facilitates and streamlines the work of a receptionist,

as well as a friendly and intuitive interface, which al-

lows patient management and appointment reserva-

tion, these functionalities are deployed later.

Figure 7: Creating Patients.

In the Figure 7, we can see how the application

presents an interface to add new patients with an au-

tomatically generated history number, where we can

store various data that can be used in other processes.

The application has a calendar (Figure 8), which

allows you to select the doctor to which the medical

Smart Health: Mobile Application for Booking Medical Appointments

443

Figure 8: Reserve Calendary.

appointment is to be added, so that they are stored in-

dependently for each doctor, This data can be sent via

text message and e-mail. It is important to note that if

there is already an appointment at a certain time it is

no longer possible to reserve another appointment at

the same time, as the application blocks the appoint-

ments picked already.

Figure 9: Daily Reserves.

The stored data is retrieved to store new citations

(Figure 9), through a search box that allows access to

this data, either by patient’s name or their ID number,

At the time of scheduling a new appointment this is

sent to the email and via text message.

Quotations can be easily removed through a quick

interface that immediately removes registered ap-

pointments with a single click (Figure 10), which al-

ters the database by deleting the records and returning

the availability Of that hour, so that new reserves can

be added. For visualization it can be done through the

Figure 10: Eliminar/Visualizar Citas.

same calendar, or through the application’s search ta-

bles, which allows you to search for citations by date,

edula number, names, which thanks to the combi-

nation of django with javascript, is allowed Perform

dynamic searches through tables.

Figure 11: Delete/Visualize.

The appointments ﬁnally arrive at the recipient,

through e-mail (Figure 11), and text messaging,

thanks to the backend work done by the application

at the time of reservations.

6 CONCLUSIONS

• The web application for the online administration

of medical appointments has to provide in a fast,

transparent and secure way the administration of

medical appointments by correctly managing the

different user accounts according to the establis-

hed proﬁles increasing the security and integrity

of the information.

• To send text messaging you have to standardize

the data either through json or xml so that you can

generate a webservice where you can retrieve this

data.

• Determining an operational model is essential, in

order to recognize the protocols through which the

data passes and are transferred and stored.

• The use of Ubuntu in this case or any open source

operating system, is essential for the execution of

the project due to the freedom of permissions for

ITSCO 2018 - Special Session on Internet of Things and Smart Communities

444

both ports, as well as modiﬁcation of source ﬁ-

les(Lei et al., 2017).

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