So, it started out like this.
I’m a tech lead and I’m always on the hunt for clients to work with. Ever since the lockdown ended haven’t found much in the way of work. I’m always on the hunt for those “boring” problems to solve.
I came across someone on Mastodon who was asking for something to manage patient records for her daughter–a system where she could print out a summary of tests, and go to her doctor with a printout – all self-managed.
She was genuinely interested in me building something for her. But when I quoted out what it would cost, she admitted there was no way she could afford it.
But that got me thinking–there really isn’t a good patient medical portal for the patient. The most popular one is MyChart (linked; IMO it’s definitely decent), but what happens of you switch providers or lose your insurance? Your MyChart account is no more.
So I’d like to get peoples’ input. Would a self-managed patient portal on the fediverse be something you’d use? Of course it would be open source and e2e-encrypted, so that the server host wouldn’t have access to the data.
The fediverse would also allow the project to be profitable…hospitals can pay for a special branding license, but all of the patient data is yours to keep and take it to other doctors while keeping the service free and open source.
What do you all think? Would you use something like this?
I think a client program is a much simpler route — that is, you don’t really need cooperation with providers nor software vendors (with the myriad of headaches that comes with) unlike with the fediverse proposal.
A client could simply connect to the MyChart server of your provider, display the data, etc. The data could be downloaded and cached, in the case that you switch providers or the MyChart server goes down for whatever reason. In this way, the data is there on the patient’s computer for their viewing pleasure.
Of course, interfacing with the APIs of MyChart and other portals might not be easy, but it’s certainly easier and more viable than constructing a totally new infrastructure of these portals using ActivityPub.