DEVELOPING A PERSONALLY CONTROLLED HEALTH RECORD (PCHR) USING MICROSOFT VISUAL C# SESSION 1 BACKGROUND

CAN YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION ACCURATELY AND COMPLETELY?  Can you recall all of the vaccinations that you have received in your life?

CAN YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION ACCURATELY AND COMPLETELY?  Do you remember all of the medical details regarding previous medical conditions and procedures?

CAN YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION ACCURATELY AND COMPLETELY?  Do you remember the results of all medical tests ever performed on you?

WHAT IS A PERSONALLY CONTROLLED HEALTH RECORD (PCHR)?  An electronic application.  Allows an individual to capture, access, and manage his own health information securely.  A PCHR typically captures information on the following:  Allergies  Immunisations  Medication  Test results  Medical conditions  Medical procedures

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE A PCHR?  Allows individual to create lifelong summary of his health information in one convenient place.  Especially useful for individuals that must manage chronic conditions.  May also help to improve quality of care and communication between patients and healthcare providers.  Patient can make printout of his/her PCHR available to his healthcare provider.  Availability of more data about a patient’s health will help healthcare providers to make better decisions.  PCHRs may also help to save costs since duplication of tests could be avoided if previous test results are available.

WHAT DESIGN ASPECTS SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WHEN DESIGNING A PCHR?  Designing a user-friendly, professional user interface.  Protecting sensitive data by means of encryption.  Ensuring that the PCHR is portable.  Protecting an individual’s privacy.

WHAT WILL THIS PROJECT INVOLVE?  Improve and complete a PCHR that has already been partly developed in Microsoft Visual C#.  Work in groups of 2.  Complete 9 sessions totalling 15 hours to improve and complete the PCHR in Microsoft Visual C#.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 1  Background lecture.  Choose your team.  Choose name for your software development team.  Choose name for your PCHR desktop application.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 2  Receive partly completed PCHR desktop application developed in Microsoft Visual C#  Complete worksheet to discover important user interface design principles.  Improve user interface of PCHR desktop application.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 2 (Continued)  What is a user interface?  Application’s user interface (UI) allows the end-user to interact with the application.  User interface includes the appearance of the application, messages displayed to the end-user, as well as the way the application responds to input.  Designing the user interface of an application is very important because it determines the usability of the application.  End-users often judge the quality of the application based on the user-interface.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 3  Presentation and class discussion on some of the user-interface design features that you should have changed during Session 2.  The reason for these changes will also be discussed.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 4  This session will introduce you to the topic of cryptography.  You will be made aware of the importance of protecting data by means of encryption.  The session will take the form of a step-by-step tutorial that will introduce you to the Microsoft Visual Studio ProtectedData class that offers functionality to encrypt and decrypt data.  This session will be concluded by a short class discussion on the trade-offs associated with encrypting and decrypting data.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 4 (Conclusion)  It is often necessary to protect confidential data such as passwords by encrypting the data.  Encryption is the process of using an algorithm to convert readable data into unreadable data to protect the data.  Decryption is the opposite of encryption.  In other words, decryption uses an algorithm to turn encrypted, unreadable data back into readable data.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 4 (Conclusion)  For example:

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 4 (Conclusion)  You can encrypt confidential data in.NET applications by using the ProtectedData class of the System.Security.Cryptography namespace.  The class consists of a Protect method to protect (encrypt) data, and an Unprotect method to unprotect (decrypt) data.  During this session you will learn how to use the ProtectedData class to encrypt and decrypt data.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 4 (Conclusion)  Since you will encrypt and decrypt data during this session, as well as during future sessions when you complete the desktop PCHR application, it will be useful to create a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) for the encryption and decryption of data.  A DLL is a library that contains functions and data that can be used by multiple Visual Studio.NET applications.  By developing a DLL it is thus possible to re-use code.  This session will guide you through a step-by-step tutorial to develop a DLL.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 5  During this session you will use your new knowledge acquired during Session 4 to change the PCHR desktop application to ensure that sensitive data is protected by encrypting it.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 6  Functionality to export the user’s comprehensive personal health record from the PCHR desktop application to a Microsoft Word document to be printed or ed to a healthcare provider has already been added to the application.  You will have to add functionality to enable the user to generate an Emergency Record from his PCHR that he can print out and keep with him in case of an emergency.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 7  During this session your team will evaluate the PCHR application of another team.  You will be provided with an evaluation form to perform an anonymous peer evaluation on the functionality and user-friendliness of the completed PCHR application of the other team.  Other teams can learn from peer evaluations of their work, and you can also learn by evaluating another teams’ work.  For example, by evaluating another teams’ work you can discover many useful practices that may help to improve your own programming skills.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 7 (Continued)  At the end of the session the evaluation forms will be returned to each development team so that they can learn from the suggestions and advice of their peers.  By reviewing the peer evaluation of your application you will also be able to reflect on the functionality and user-friendliness of your application.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 8  During Session 8 you will perform a self evaluation to evaluate your own performance and reflect on the skills and knowledge that you have acquired during the completion of this project.  The purpose of the reflection and self evaluation exercise is to encourage a reflective habit which could promote future skills improvement.

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: SESSION 9  Conclusion of project  Summary lecture

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: DURATION  Session 1:1 hour  Session 2:2 hours  Session 3:1 hour  Session 4:3 hours  Session 5:3 hours  Session 6:2 hours  Session 7:1 hour  Session 8:1 hour  Session 9:1 hour TOTAL:15 hours

PROJECT BREAKDOWN: DATES  Session 1:  Session 2:  Session 3:  Session 4:  Session 5:  Session 6:  Session 7:  Session 8:  Session 9:

HOW WILL YOU COMPLETE THE PROJECT? 2 Students per Development Team Complete 9 Sessions Totalling 15 Hours Use Microsoft Visual C# to Develop a Desktop PCHR Application

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?  Concepts and trade-offs that you will discover during the completion of this project include:  The impact of a user-friendly user interface.  The advantages of re-using code.  The importance of protecting sensitive data by means of encryption/decryption and the associated trade-offs of encryption/decryption.  The importance of underlying concepts such as adherence to software development best practices.

Questions?