19-27 individuals
30 months
Chronic illnesses like diabetes are on the rise across the United States and around the world, leaving doctors and patients alike struggling to find effective and practical ways to manage care. Prescribed medication schedules recommended exercise techniques, and frequent follow up visits are frequently called for, but are not always sustainable for patients trying to manage their health amid their already busy schedules. Wellsmith partnered with Calavista to improve people’s health by developing a care-tracking application that is user-friendly, responsive to patient needs, and sensitive to the difficulties that patients experience when managing chronic illness in their daily lives.
After pitching their vision to Cone Health, Wellsmith found themselves with an enthusiastic sponsor invested in their ideas, but no development team to bring that vision to fruition. The founders of Wellsmith already knew Calavista had the expertise and business philosophy they were looking for after working with them on a prior project. After going through a rigorous RFP process, Wellsmith confirmed what they had suspected: Calavista was the integral partner they needed to make their idea into a reality.
Calavista worked with Wellsmith to create a fully functional application that integrated with patient portals, medical records, social media, and data from personal devices such as scales, glucometers, and blood pressure monitors. Together, the application could compile data, facilitate communication between patients and their providers, and give both doctors and users insights to users’ health and progress.
Wellsmith started out as a four-person (2 FTE) team working on a Proof of Concept with a powerful vision and a tight deadline. Time was of the essence in the development process to stay on track with the trials scheduled in conjunction with the investor. Wellsmith was already enthusiastic about working with Calavista because they knew that our patented Hyper-Agile® development process aligned well with the Wellsmith continuous innovation philosophy. After completing the initial phase in a few short weeks, Calavista was ramping up team members, growing to nearly 30 people developing project essentials and blending our colleagues with Wellsmiths’ existing talent.
Jeanne Teshler
CEO at Wellsmith
With Calavista’s leadership and fast-moving development process, the blended team moved from contract signing to releasing the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) in just six months, a process that Wellsmith felt would have taken them a year and a half if they had built their own development team from scratch. Everything moved quickly due in part to the fact that Calavista did significant research and planning as part of the RFP process, so that once the contract was signed we were able to move quickly and effectively following the approaches we’d already mapped out. Ensuring that the proposed scope of the work is accurate and realistic is part of Calavista’s philosophy – we don’t overpromise just for the purpose of making a sale.
Since hard deadlines for medical trials of the product had already been set, we utilized our Hyper-Agile® development process to rapidly develop an MVP that allowed the trials to run smoothly. Our Solutions Directors worked with Wellsmith on requirements gathering and set the project timelines. The design and delivery was overseen by three Calavista Architects, with development, testing, and DevSecOps support provided by a large remote team. The team kept the project timeline tight and deliverables strong, while adhering to HIPAA and insurance guidelines. The schedule left plenty of bandwidth available to fine-tune the product before, during and after the trials to create the best user experience possible. Meanwhile, the Wellsmith team was freed up to focus on other success factors like marketing and distribution.
Jeanne Teshler
CEO at Wellsmith
Instead of being “just a contractor,” Calavista became an integrated part of the Wellsmith organizational structure and culture. As a partner should, Calavista went above and beyond to facilitate unparalleled communications and team building to maximize the quality of the end-product as well as the process of building and maintaining the product. The offshore team leads flew in for on-site development, and the Calavista lead Solutions Director often flew to North Carolina to be present for meetings at Cone Health or the product trials at no additional cost. “The breadth and depth of their talent goes beyond just the core Calavista group,” said Teshler. “Having a friendly working relationship with the team and everyone getting along really well on a project that is meaningful and necessary, makes coming to work so much more fun.”
Within just nine-months of Calavista developing the new app, Wellsmith had 25 major clients using it.
Jeanne Teshler
CEO at Wellsmith
The trials ran without software errors, and Calavista was able to respond quickly to system updates as they became needed. We did not just develop an application, but created an experience that transformed patients’ health by improving and extending their quality of life. Our dedication to delivering on time and defining realistic expectations for an MVP enabled Wellsmith to run successful trials and begin work on more functionality, addressing other chronic illnesses.
We are proud of our partnership with Wellsmith to reliably and collaboratively develop software that could change people’s lives. If you have a revolutionary idea or are looking for a Development Group in a Box™ like Calavista, email us at info@calavista.com.
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