MCC.NET – Product Development & Maintenance (2006–2011)
More than six years of product responsibility for an electronic patient record in the healthcare IT environment — with a holistic approach as a requirements engineer and technical integrations architect : from requirements elicitation through generic interface architecture to coordination with external technology partners.
Company: MEIERHOFER AG, Munich ( www.meierhofer.de ) | Period: 2006–2011
Requirements Engineering
At the core of my work was structured requirements work — not as an upstream step, but as a continuous discipline throughout the product development process.
- Business and system use cases for clinical order modules, order management, and appointment scheduling
- Alignment with product management and clinical departments
- Requirements elicitation and specification for integration interfaces (archiving systems, RIS/PACS, dictation systems)
- Migration of legacy requirements from VB6 systems into the .NET target architecture
- Since 2008: agile development with Scrum
Technical Integrations Architect
A major part of my role was the design and implementation of integration architectures — with the goal of putting external systems on a consistent, product-wide reusable basis.
- Design of generic interface architectures for third-party clinical systems
- System design and implementation based on .NET (C#)
- Integration of different MCC modules: document management, medication, care planning, archive connection, appointment management
- Temporary technical product management responsibility
Generic Interfaces for Third-Party Clinical Systems
In the clinical environment, many specialized systems operate side by side. My task was not to integrate them as isolated one-off projects, but to develop generic interface architectures usable across the product — configurable, reusable, and vendor-independent.
Archiving Systems
Generic integration of clinical archiving systems for document-based storage and retrieval directly from the HIS — configurable across vendors and systems.
RIS / PACS
Interface architecture for radiology information systems and picture archiving systems (PACS): order transmission, status feedback, and image linkage in patient context.
Dictation Systems
Integration of clinical dictation systems for structured voice capture in medical workflows — including status management and return flow into patient documentation.
Further details: Clinical Integrations
Supplier and Third-Party Coordination
Integrating external systems required not only technical expertise, but also the ability to communicate with vendors’ development teams on equal footing — with technical precision and a solution-oriented approach.
- Building and maintaining technical contacts with development teams of integration partners
- Coordination of interface specifications, protocol adjustments, and test approvals
- Alignment on vendor-side changes and version levels
- Link between internal product management and external technology partners
Key Customer Projects
Within product development, I was responsible for several customer-facing projects with high clinical relevance:
- TopoControl – XML-configurable graphical control for ward views, used in several product modules
- Clinical Order Module – structured order transmission to functional departments (diagnostics, therapy, laboratory, radiology)
- FAP / RIS – redevelopment of the functional workplace in .NET, later extended to RIS functionality
TopoControl – Graphical Ward View
An XML-configurable graphical control — developed as a response to a common customer request: a ward view beyond lists and grids.
Nursing staff work in close proximity to patients and expect a ward view with a strong spatial component. Different concepts were discussed; since WPF was not yet practical enough at the time, a dedicated component was developed.
The result was a graphical base component, derived from WinControls, that can be configured through XML mapping and integrated into arbitrary applications.
My tasks
- Specification, design, and implementation of TopoControl
- Integration into the MCC.NET HIS
- Use in the graphical ward workstation
Features
- XML-based configuration
- Mapping between DataTable and TopoControl
- Layouts: auto layout vertical/horizontal, vector XY layout
- Recursive object structures with free grouping, sorting, and filtering
- User-defined icons per data cell value
Figure: Basic structure of TopoControl
Figure: TopoControl in “Vector Layout” mode
Figure: XML configuration of individual values
Clinical Order Module
Development of the order module and communication with functional departments (FAP).
In day-to-day clinical work, orders for examinations, therapies, lab results, and radiological services are transmitted to the respective functional departments. This module formed the first part of a larger project in which the functional department software (FAP) was later extended into RIS functionality.
My tasks
- Business and system use cases for order and request management
- Alignment with product management
- Implementation of the application
- Data migration from the VB6 predecessor implementation
- Integration of various MCC modules
- Appointment management and documentation events
FAP / RIS – Development & Maintenance
Development of a configurable Functional Workplace (FAP) / Radiology Information System (RIS).
A functional workplace can support many clinical workflows. The goal was to redevelop the existing Visual Basic solution on the basis of .NET (C# / VS 2010), while taking existing customer systems into account.
My tasks
- Business and system use cases for order and request management
- Implementation of the application
- Integration of various MCC modules: document management, reporting, medical documentation, service capture, archive connection, medication, appointment management, care planning