It’s always nice to see a project come together

A few years ago the department director had me work on a project to replace our paper radiology request forms. The problem with the forms were numerous: sloppy handwriting, eaten by the fax machine, faxed to the wrong number, duplicate requests, etc. I had set up a couple of web-based databases already, and word got around that I knew how to do this kind of thing so I got ‘volunteered’.
So I created a prototype system that was essentially an on-line replacement for the paper forms. PHP/MySQL powered with everything stored in a database (for future datamining/auditing) and requests being emailed out for legibility. Then it languished for a while because we/I didn’t have enough resources to develop it further and lacked the political power to get help developing it or to get people to use it.
Then a resident committee, tasked with finding ways to make residents more efficient in light of the new limitations on resident work hours, said “We spend way too much time filling out and tracking radiology requests. We need a better system”. So a new committee was formed to come up with a solution. Out came my prototype for a few demonstrations and discussion. With the backing of hospital administration and medical staff, we were able to take my prototype to IT and get someone with more skills than me to create a production version.
Now a year later the project has gone from my initial PHP/MySQL based prototype to a JSP/Tomcat based solution developed by the IT guys (because they have the resources, skills and know how to connect to other hospital databases that make it more useful) and is being used throughout the hospital now. Even though I’ve had fairly minimal involvement with developing the current incarnation, I still get a sense of pride at seeing how well the product has been received.
It’s like seeing a kid grow up and become successful 🙂