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Medplum's Proposal for NASA's Health Tech RFP

· 2 min read
Cody Ebberson
Medplum Core Team

NASA's TRISH team (Translational Research Institute for Space Health) recently issued an RFP for a healthcare tech platform designed for monitoring spaceflight participant health metrics during space missions. TRISH is a virtual consortium focused on applied research to ensure astronaut health during space exploration.

As avid space enthusiasts, and NASA Space Camp alumni, we were eager to apply.

Cody at Space Camp

Medplum submitted a proposal. We were invited to present to the TRISH team in June!

Medplum for TRISH

We're now anxiously awaiting the results.

Adapting to Space Challenges

A notable challenge in the RFP was the solution's ability to operate in a low power environment. To address this:

Medplum on Raspberry Pi

We successfully set up the entire Medplum tech stack on a Raspberry Pi 4 (8gb edition). Due to Medplum's open source nature and its reliance only on widely-used open source dependencies, this transition was quite smooth. For those curious, here's the Raspberry Pi 4 model we used.

Raspberry Pi OS Selection

A necessary adjustment was using the 64-bit edition of the Raspberry Pi OS because 32-bit Postgres isn’t widely supported or available as a Debian package. Following that, the Medplum installation mirrored the process on any other Linux server, as detailed in our Ubuntu installation guide.

Satya with Raspberry Pi

Monitoring Power Consumption

With everything up and running, it became pertinent to gauge the power consumption. Using the SURAIELEC Watt Meter, we observed that when Medplum operates idly, the power consumption hovers around 1-1.5 watts.

Raspberry Pi CPU usage

Raspberry Pi power consumption

UI Development

Once power constraints were addressed, we used the Medplum React components to assemble a mock dashboard showcasing health metrics of Artemis mission astronauts, monitoring vital signs and other crucial health parameters. We also included the spacecraft's intrinsic metrics, such as cabin temperature, pressure, oxygen levels, CO2 concentrations, and radiation readings.

Medplum Space EHR

Conclusion

This exercise provided a practical demonstration of Medplum’s adaptability and versatility, underscored by the strength of open source tools. We believe the exercise emphasizes Medplum's flexibility and readiness for diverse challenges.

Task Management Apps

· 3 min read
Reshma Khilnani
Medplum Core Team

Great workflow apps are core for us at Medplum, and we provide tools to build highly ergonomic asynchronous task tracking systems providers. Some examples of task management apps in the medical context are apps that:

  • Review and approve lab reports
  • Approve or reject medication refill requests
  • Instantiate custom care plans for a patient

Medical systems in general and FHIR in specific have robust workflow resources to create, track and implement workflows. Tasks and ServiceRequests are the most common workflow resources for asynchronous work.

Setting up Queues or Worklists

The core or a workflow app is a queue or sometimes called a worklist. This is exactly what it sounds like - a list of tracking tasks that represent the work to be done and it's current status. The FHIR Tasks as a group are often used to represent a queue. Tasks can be created programmatically, or via Questionnaire and Bot.

When populating the Task resource, it can be useful to populate the following fields:

  • Task.focus - this is what the task is about, for example you can link it to a DiagnosticReport, MedicationRequest or CarePlan
  • Task.businessStatus - this can be used for custom workflow, where you can set your own statuses that fit your workflow
  • Task.code - this can be useful to cue the Task specific user interface (below), example might be "Lab Review"
  • Task.executionPeriod - this can be useful for productivity tracking
  • Task.for - this is usually a link to the Patient

Once you have created some Tasks you can view Tasks in the Medplum App.

Once you have confirmed that tasks are formed the way you want them to be, you can embed a search control in your Task tracking application, there are examples in the sample application.

Like in the Medplum App, it is recommended that you have one page in your app that supports permalinking to a specific task search as it is useful for collaboration, integrating into chat apps and other common workflow tooling scenarios.

Task specific User interface

For each task, you will want to show a user interface that gives the user some context on how to resolve or take action on that task. This is very workflow dependent so customizability is important. You can see a video (70 seconds) on this topic here.

The exact components of the Task specific user interface are often driven by Task.focus or Task.code.

Dashboards

Turnaround times and productivity tracking are crucial for observing the health of your task-based workflow. Assuming you populate the timestamps correctly in the resources, it is straightforward to calculate how many work hours a certain task takes, or the turnaround time.

Here is an example of a timestamp calculation:

  • Turnaround Time for a Task: Task.executionPeriod.end - Task.authoredTime
  • Work hours for a task: Task.executionPeriod.end - Task.executionPeriod.start

Using these calculations, it is straightforward to make a dashboard that gives a very clear picture into the status and health of your queues. In this example below, each of the graphs is a representation of a Task search, with results bucketed by turnaround time or by work hours.

TAT Dashboard Sample