In an age where technology is propelling industries toward transformation, few fields are changing as much as healthcare. The sector is quickly evolving into an innovative landscape that places patients at the heart of every interaction.
StoryMD, a leading US-based health journal platform, is at the forefront of that transformation. This digital health platform aims to redefine how health and wellness data are communicated, translating complex information into compelling narratives.
Dreamix’s work significantly contributed to the final release of StoryMD’s ultimate product - a centralized, personalized healthcare experience that combines its users’ health data into a single platform.
A need for personalized healthcare
StoryMD recognized that a significant number of people avoid necessary doctor’s visits due to time or financial constraints. Additionally, factors such as health literacy and fragmented personal health information also posed significant barriers to personal healthcare.
Consequently, StoryMD was created in 2017 with a mission - to empower individuals to take control of their own health journey through a personalized ecosystem. The company quickly garnered attention and secured several funding opportunities, solidifying its future trajectory as a market mover.
What followed was a series of strategic feature releases, which, over time, culminated in the full StoryMD platform coming online in 2022. The company went on to sign enterprise-level clients and form strategic international partnerships.
Today, StoryMD owns one of the world’s most complete digital knowledge repositories of medical knowledge, and has revolutionized the way people engage with their health.
The challenge
The main challenge StoryMD faced was unifying the healthcare experience it wanted to offer under a single, easy-to-use, widely accessible platform. The healthcare ecosystem, however, is defined by the existence of many disparate systems - electronic databases, patient portals, telehealth platforms and more. Furthermore, the field involves a wide range of data types - from medical images to clinical notes. And to top that off, StoryMD had several proprietary systems that also needed to be integrated into the final product.
Combining all of them into a cohesive platform that remained accessible was a significant interoperability and technical challenge. StoryMD was facing difficulties finding the right vendor to realize their goals.
The Dreamix solution
The Dreamix team started by extensively gathering requirements and designing a scalable architecture to serve as the platform’s foundation. The storymd.com platform itself seamlessly connects to StoryMD’s CMS, synchronizing the healthcare provider’s rich library of content, proprietary layered images, journals, and more.
The solution’s chosen technology stack includes:
- Web portal: Developed using React v17, offering a modern and responsive user interface.
- Back-end services: Leveraged Spring Services with Hibernate on Java 17, ensuring efficient data management and secure interactions.
- Database: Utilized Postgres to maintain data integrity and manage complex medical information.
- Authentication service: Incorporated Keycloak v18 for robust user authentication and access control.
- Serverless implementation with AWS: Utilized AWS Lambda, SQS, SNS, S3, and Textract to streamline operations, manage data, and integrate diverse functionalities seamlessly.
- Third-party services: Integrated healthcare data providers (Cerner, Epic), wearables data provider (Terra), payment provider (Stripe), and OpenAI to enrich the platform's capabilities.
A personal health journey
As a result of its collaboration with Dreamix, StoryMD now operates a cohesive ecosystem that seamlessly integrates different healthcare and telehealth systems, giving its users easy access to personalized health insights. The platform also offers social functionalities, letting users ask questions, leave comments, and discuss health topics with others.
“Superb problem solvers! Worked very well as a team and with other teams! No egos! They take pride in the development of the platform and are extremely technically proficient! Good researchers!”
Alexander Tsiaras, CEO of StoryMD
StoryMD’s platform offers features such as:
- Website and Library: A user-friendly, engaging health and wellness website with daily StoryMD articles, a rich collection of HealthJournals, and a library of HL7-coded content.
- +StoryMD Health: A personalized health journey that turns your data into The Story of You and not The Statistics of You. The tool is synchronized with the user’s data, including wearable data, lab test results, vaccines, conditions and medication lists, letting you upload and organize all available health information.
- Communities: A safe and supportive social platform that connects users with similar health issues and gives you access to resources and informative recommendations.
- Digital Experience Platform and Library: Dreamix connected StoryMD’s proprietary content library to the online platform, resulting in an integrated suite of technologies for the creation, curation, and distribution of personalized and engaging content to all users.
- HealthJournals integration: Over 4000 health journals explaining causes, diagnosis, and treatment of various conditions. Each StoryMD journal is a comprehensive and rich story concerning a particular health topic, made up of a selection of images, interactives, videos, and scientifically accurate, up-to-date information.
- Health Level Seven (HL7): Adherence to a set of international standards regarding data transferring and sharing between healthcare providers and Electronic Health Records.
The partnership between StoryMD and Dreamix not only achieved technical success, but also symbolizes the potential for collaboration amidst changing industries. StoryMD’s individual-centric approach to healthcare is central to the modern industry, and this partnership helped facilitate the realization of that vision.
