Fynydd Blog

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is proudly part of Jefferson Health. LVHN's mission is to heal, comfort, and care for people and communities by providing advanced and compassionate health care of superior quality and value supported by education and clinical research.

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) partnered with Fynydd to build a curated, locked-down "kiosk" learning and entertainment experience for in-room patients. It would be deployed on Apple iPads and rolled out to a limited number of random patients. IT would gather analytics on usage through tracking of the patient's Internet access and in-person feedback. The goal was to try a new approach to educating patients about their care team, as well as what to expect when they go home, and a more enjoyable experience while in the hospital.

HIPAA requires that the device be completely cleared of all personal information between patients, and nurses needed a simple way to reset the devices, and keep patients from navigating into device settings, the App Store, and other areas that would create HIPAA and security concerns.

The first thing we had to do was ensure that HIPAA compliance was possible. After some research, we discovered that by using iOS "Guided Access Mode", we could keep patients in our app, even if the device was locked. We also discussed being able to write a system which would auto-wipe any browser or other history and input from the device whenever the user was taken to the "Acceptable Use Agreement" screen, asking for consent. We also created a shortcut for hospital staff to get there and a passcode so only hospital staff could initialize the app.

The app had lots of information about a patient's care team, what to expect during their stay, and what to do when they get home. They also had access to specific web resources, including a custom YouTube interface with curated LVHN videos.

During the testing phase, armatures which held the iPads were connected to the hospital beds, making it easier for patients in most any condition to use the device. There were no support calls, LVHN IT was able to get the analytics they needed, and some lucky patients got an even better experience.

Some of the key features include:

• 4 months to MVP
• API integrations
• Github source code repository management
• Native iPadOS app development
• Server security audit
• Technical research, consulting
• Secured access to iPad
• iPad data wiped and reset between patients

Key Technologies