Maximising Clinical Efficiency with Compucare Clinician: A Technical Guide

Contents

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Technical Overview
  • Typical Topology
  • Testing and Validation
• Benefits of Implementation
  • Increased Efficiency
  • Real-time Updates
  • Improved Patient Care
  • Robust Security
• Implementation Strategy
  • Prerequisites
  • Simplified Implementation Example
• Security and Compliance
  • Authentication and Authorisation
  • Data Protection and Encryption
  • Secure and Resilient Hosting Environment
  • Compliance and Auditing
• Training and Support
• Contact Information

Executive Summary

Compucare Clinician enables clinicians and medical secretaries to view and manage their schedules remotely. It is optimised for mobile devices so clinicians can view bookings, orders and reports on the go. This white paper explores the functionality and benefits of Compucare Clinician, highlighting its key advantages such as increased efficiency, real-time updates, improved patient care and robust security. It also provides technical information about the application's network topology, implementation and security.

Introduction

Efficiency and flexibility are essential in the healthcare environment. Compucare Clinician, a web application specifically designed for clinicians, addresses these needs by enabling clinicians and medical secretaries to manage their schedules and access patient information both within the hospital and remotely.

Hosted on Microsoft Azure, Compucare Clinician benefits from enhanced security features, such as requiring all users to be authorised via Entra ID (see below for more information).

Compucare Clinician combines the flexibility of the previous Clinicians app with the comprehensive capabilities and enhanced security of the Compucare system. This integration ensures that clinicians can maintain high standards of care without the limitations of older solutions.

Consider the following scenario: a clinician is travelling from one clinic to another when they receive an SMS or email notification that an order report is ready. Rather than having to wait until they reach the hospital to view the order report, they can view it immediately by accessing Compucare Clinician on their mobile device.

Technical Overview

Compucare Clinician is hosted on Microsoft Azure and connects exclusively to Azure-hosted Compucare databases. This focus on cloud integration enables the app to benefit from improved performance, reliability, automatic updates and reduced maintenance overheads. For more information on Compucare on Azure, see the White Paper for Adoption of Compucare (on Azure).

Typical Topology

The diagram below shows how Compucare Clinician connects to a Compucare database.

Compucare Clinician can only be accessed by authenticated users registered on Microsoft Entra ID. When a user logs in, the Access Control API checks that they are licenced for Compucare Clinician. If they are, the Compucare Authentication Services API checks which group the user is in and the data source(s) within that group in Compucare Authentication Services. Then, the Clinician API returns the data from the correct Compucare database.

See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/api-management for more information about how APIs are managed on Azure.

Testing and Validation

The following testing and quality assurance checks are performed on Compucare Clinician:

• Unit Testing: Each component of Compucare Clinician is tested to ensure it works correctly.
• Integration Testing: Compucare Clinician is tested after new components are integrated to verify that combined components function together.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Testing is performed with end-users to confirm the system meets their needs.
• Security Testing: Regular penetration testing and security audits are performed to assess Compucare Clinician's security and identify vulnerabilities. For more information, see the Security and Compliance section of this white paper.
• Final Validation: A final check is performed to confirm all tests are successful and Compucare Clinician is ready for deployment.

Benefits of Implementation

This section provides more information on the benefits of using Compucare Clinician.

Increased Efficiency

Clinicians and their secretaries can access bookings, orders and reports from anywhere at any time. This is particularly useful for clinicians who travel between multiple sites. Schedules can be viewed by day, week or month, and filtered by clinic so medical secretaries can easily keep track of availability and book or amend appointments.

Real-time Updates

Changes made in Compucare are updated on Compucare Clinician in real-time so users are always looking at the latest data. Likewise, changes made in Compucare Clinician are immediately visible in Compucare. Combined with the notification functionality in Compucare, clinicians can view orders and associated reports as soon as they become available.

Improved Patient Care

With quick and easy access to schedules and patient information, clinicians can make more informed decisions and provide timely care, enhancing overall patient outcomes.

Robust Security

Compucare Clinician uses Microsoft Entra and Compucare Authentication Services to strictly control what data each user can access. In addition, all patient data is kept within Compucare, minimising opportunities for unauthorised access.

Implementation Strategy

This section details the requirements that must be met before Compucare Clinician can be implemented. It also provides an example of a typical implementation process.

Prerequisites

Before Compucare Clinician is implemented, the following prerequisites must be met:

• You must have the latest version of Compucare 8
• Your Compucare 8 database must be hosted in Streets Heaver's Azure Environment
• Depending on the features you wish to utilise, you must have the following Compucare 8 modules configured:
  • Outpatients - required for viewing, creating and modifying outpatient bookings
  • Orders - required for viewing orders, marking orders as seen, and downloading order reports
  • Inpatients - required for viewing inpatient bookings
  • Surgical - required for viewing surgical bookings

Simplified Implementation Example

This is an example of the process required to implement Compucare Clinician. This would be achieved with the help of your Streets Heaver Project Manager:

1. Configure Clinician settings in Compucare and decide what defaults (EoC Source and Specialty) will be used for bookings made on Compucare Clinician.
2. Ensure that clinicians have relevant availability and that medical secretaries have the right clinicians assigned to them.
3. Ensure Microsoft Entra is set up for all required users.
4. Ensure requirements for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) are met, e.g. all users have a smartphone if needed.
5. Complete user acceptance tests in your test environment and agree on a go-live strategy.
6. Go live.

Security and Compliance

This section provides details on the security and compliance of Compucare Clinician.

See also:

• Security, Monitoring and Alerting of Azure Apps
• Disaster Recovery Policy

Authentication and Authorisation

• All authentication is handled by Microsoft Entra and Compucare Authentication Services.
• Compucare Authentication Services ensures users can only access groups and data sources for which they have explicit permissions.

Data Protection and Encryption

• Encryption in Transit: The application queries Compucare SQL databases hosted on Azure. All queries use secure connection protocols TLS 1.2 to ensure that data in transit is encrypted.
• Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) Authentication: Access to the application is restricted to authenticated users via Entra ID.
  • MFA is enforced via the client's tenant configuration within Entra ID.
  • The enterprise application will need to be approved. Assigned Access can be enabled, and then the users and groups are restricted to the application.
• Azure Front Door: All web applications are fronted by Azure Front Door which serves as a secure entry point for web traffic, offering several security benefits.
• Azure API Management: All web application APIs are managed through Azure API Management allowing for varying rate limiting of endpoints based on sensitivity.

Secure and Resilient Hosting Environment

• Azure Static Web Apps: Compucare Clinician utilises Azure's global distribution network to host the application's front end, ensuring efficient delivery and improved performance for users worldwide.
• Geo-Replicated App Service Plans: Compucare Clinician benefits from redundancy and failover capabilities. Utilising the UK South and UK West regions with replicated architecture provides load balancing and resilience.

Compliance and Auditing

• Data Storage and Handling: All data, including but not limited to patient data and clinical availability, is stored and accessed through Compucare 8.
• Logging and Monitoring: The application's activities are logged and monitored in Compucare 8. This allows auditing capabilities for changes made by the application. Additional logging uses Application Insights to identify and respond to potential security incidents.
• Regular Security Audits: The application undergoes annual external CREST-approved PEN testing and regular vulnerability audits to assess its security posture and identify vulnerabilities. Any findings are promptly addressed to maintain a robust security posture. Internal and external reports are available upon request. Additional PEN testing is performed for new features, scoped to the changes made for the feature.

Training and Support

To help new users familiarise themselves with Compucare Clinician, Streets Heaver provides personalised training via remote sessions, which is usually included in the project costs of the system setup.

Further guidance can be found through quarterly release webinars and detailed product "lunchtime webinars" available via the Streets Heaver YouTube channel.

Additionally, the Streets Heaver Knowledge Base is regularly updated with tutorials and how-to guides. Visit the Compucare Clinician section of the Knowledge Base (login required) for the latest updates and support materials.

Contact Information

Please contact the Streets Heaver Commercials team at [email protected].