UPDATED 14:45 EDT / MAY 08 2017

APPS

How this startup used open-source tech to deploy emergency room app

Since apps can be used on smartphones to do things like schedule appointments at restaurants or at the hairdresser, a physician in Switzerland wondered why we couldn’t make appointments for emergency rooms as well.

“We all have the same problems in healthcare, it doesn’t matter where you live or where you work,” said Dr. Dorothée Rhein Straub (pictured, right), founder of easiER AG, a startup based in Zurich, Switzerland. She explained that when a patient is sick or injured, they are looking to be cared for as rapidly as possible without having to repeat the same information over many times to different people.

While Rehein-Straub had the original concept, she and her two partners worked with Red Hat Inc.’s Open Innovation Labs to refine the app for patients and hospitals.

Rehein-Straub and Dr. André Baumgart (pictured, left), co-founder of easiER AG, recently joined Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during Red Hat Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. They discussed the working process of developing their app with the Open Innovation Labs. (*Disclosure below.)

From concept to minimum viable product to working app

Originally, Rehein-Straub and Baumgart presented the idea for an emergency room app to the hospital where they worked. The hospital told them there was no budget for it, so they decided to pursue it on their own. Baumgart was familiar with Red Hat and saw an article on the Open Innovation Labs.

“We tried for several months to find a partner that could support us in a very structured and modern way, and then I said, ‘OK, let’s try this,’” Baumgart stated.

He was concerned that their company was too small to attract Red Hat’s interest, but he heard back from Red Hat and met for a discovery session. The Open Innovation Lab was held in Waterford, Ireland, with the partners, three developers and 12 people from Red Hat.

Rehein-Straub and Baumgart built their case, and the combined team performed event storming and planning out what the app will do, step by step, in terms of user experience from both the patient’s and the hospital’s point of view.

After three days in Waterford, they came up with a Minimum Viable Product. After that, they figured out what to implement in sprints. Within four to six weeks, they came out with a working app of smart devices.

“Everybody’s engaged in this process, and this is the innovative idea … you bring [everyone] together and make the case,” Baumgart concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Red Hat Summit 2017. (* Disclosure: Red Hat Inc. sponsors some Red Hat Summit segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Red Hat nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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