Updates are out for TheraOffice Web. This update primarily focused on small changes and fixes, however we are proud to announce a new free iPhone and iPad app for use with TheraOffice Web.
How It Started
In Chicago there is an old saying – there are two seasons, winter and construction. (Road construction in the summer) Trapped in traffic, and running late for his first patient, Hands On Technology’s founder, Dan Morrill, was caught in traffic with nobody at the clinic yet. The idea was simple – come up with a simple way to get access to your schedule via your phone so you could call or text your patient if you were running late.
The Design
The design team worked on various ways to access the schedule – a browser based calendar was the most obvious. After building a small prototype, the ease of use logging into a website via a mobile phone was our biggest complaint. On our second try – targeting the device with a device optimized app seemed to do the trick. Taking a sample of potential users we found the iPhone to be the most widely used phone. We were off to building the app.
We found security to be one of the other concerns with mobile apps and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) – what was going to stop someone from downloading the app from home without knowledge of the clinic administrator or in the event the device was lost? We came up with a simple solution much like on-line banking an approval process was made that would allow the device to be approved or disapproved before it could log in successfully. If the device was lost, the device could be disapproved and shutting down invalid attempts to gain access to the system.
Demonstration
Feedback
We are interested to hear feedback on this app for future ideas we have targeting mobile devices. If you like it – rate it on the App Store or email us and let us know what you think.
Thanks.
Great idea – I downloaded it and it works great.
Wonderful. This is exactly what I was looking for!!
Great idea, when can we expect an android based app?
Hopefully 2013 – just waiting to see demand for Android for TheraOffice Web customers. The initial survey we did of TheraOffice Web customers of smart phones was 88% iPhone, so we targeted that first.
Is it possible to use this if you have the server based TheraOffice?
I think right now we’re waiting to see demand for the on-site version to have the iPhone scheduling app. Unfortunately to get something like this to run it’s probably fairly costly for an individual practice to setup on-site due to the IT costs. (That’s why it was initially setup for TheraOffice Web.)
If you dont use theraoffice web you can access theraoffice from any device by using remote desktop app (RDP). Just need IP (static works best) address and password.
We as a practice would love to see this happen. It would benefit the practices that were part of the original roll out of TheraOffice.
Anything for Android models down the pike?
Yes, we didn’t forget about Android or Windows Phone. We’ll hopefully have those somewhere in 2013 as more customer migrate to TheraOffice Web. We targeted iPhone first because most of the people looking for this type of app had an iPhone.
Thanks
Just one of those Android users following up on the status of the app for us….
We still do not have a date set for this as of now due to the functional limitation reporting requirements for 2013. However, we will keep you posted!
This would simplify life. What privacy and security procedures do you recommend to be HIPAA compliant?
When designing the app we built in multiple security and privacy measures – most of which are what mobile banking apps use:
1) All data is encrypted while being transferred over the web.
2) The app is password protected.
3) We created a means to approve or disapprove devices so it can be shut off if a device is lost.
4) We also placed warnings in the app to remind users to not send PHI though unsecured means.
5) Finally, there is a timeout on the app so if you don’t use it then it goes back to the login screen.
There are some additional protections server side that we built in as well. As far as being HIPAA Compliant – depending on your HIPAA Policies and procedures – just documenting and training staff for the use of this app such as – just knowing what you would do in the event that the phone was lost or stolen, staff changes, etc. (Mostly common sense things)
My therapist would like to know how she can log into the schedule as it is asking for a site ID
If you are a TheraOffice Web user, the site ID is the 3rd textbox on the login screen. Unfortunately we can’t give out site ID’s – so you would need to ask your clinic’s owner for the site ID (it is basically the TheraOffice web account name, and we call it the site ID because each site/location could have a different account). However, this only applies to TheraOffice Web users. If you are a TheraOffice On-Site user you won’t be able to use this app.
Hopefully this helped to clear up your confusion!
Where and what is the site ID you need to put in on the iphone app?
If you are a TheraOffice Web user, the site ID is the 3rd textbox on the login screen. Unfortunately we can’t give out site ID’s – so you would need to ask your clinic’s owner for the site ID (it is basically the TheraOffice web account name, and we call it the site ID because each site/location could have a different account). However, this only applies to TheraOffice Web users. If you are a TheraOffice On-Site user you won’t be able to use this app.
Hopefully this helped to clear up your confusion!
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