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| <h1>Healthcare Quality Assurance Application on the NetBeans Platform</h1> |
| <p>By <em>Geertjan Wielenga</em></p> |
| <p> </p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/javier.png" style="float:right" alt="Javier"/>One |
| area where the NetBeans Platform, the world's only modular Swing |
| application framework, is well suited is as the basis of an |
| enterprise's internal quality testing tools. In |
| <a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/chip-validation-applications">Semiconductor |
| Validation Engineering on the NetBeans Platform</a> |
| , you can read how engineers at |
| <a href="http://www.pmc-sierra.com/">PMC Sierra</a> |
| have created Swing applications on the NetBeans Platform to validate |
| PMC Sierra's semiconductor products. A similar thing is done at |
| <a href="http://www.bbraunusa.com/">B. Braun</a>, |
| a healthcare product provider. </p> |
| <p>One of the devices made by B. Braun is |
| <a href="http://www.bbraunusa.com/index-FBD7BF3B65B05CD0DC2612AD482AD6D9.cfm?uuid=FBD7BF3B65B05CD0DC2612AD482AD6D9">Outlook |
| Safety Infusion System</a>, which helps to ensure that |
| "the Right patient receives the Right medication in |
| the Right dose from an authorized clinician at point-of-care". |
| This is what the device looks like:</p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/outlook400.jpg" alt="Outlook" /> </p> |
| <p>Below, we meet Javier Ortiz from B. Braun, who is in charge of developing |
| tools for quality testing of healthcare devices such as the above. </p> |
| <p><b>Hi Javier who are you and what do you do?</b> |
| </p><p>I'm a software and power engineer from Juncos, Puerto Rico, and |
| work as a software quality engineer for BBraun in Carrollton Texas. I |
| love wrestling to the point that I've practiced it for a while, love |
| video games, and programming is my hobby! Among my software quality |
| related tasks, I'm in charge of developing tools for testing purposes, |
| perform code reviews, and analyzing programming issues. |
| </p><p><b>So, you work in quality assurance in the healthcare industry. What |
| kind of software applications are typically required in this area?</b> |
| </p><p>Healthcare industries have many requirements due to FDA |
| regulations. They use a lot of data gathering software and databases, |
| document management systems, training management systems and, as in my |
| case, some development tools. |
| </p><p>In other instances they want to use open source applications that |
| don't comply with FDA regulations. In my case, I joined |
| <a href="http://www.xinco.org/">Xinco</a> |
| (more info on that later in this interview) and added |
| the <a href="http://www.21cfrpart11.com/">21 CFR part 11</a> |
| functionality to it. After validation, I gave Baxter, my employer at |
| the time, a document management system, got the Xinco project to the |
| next level, and became its lead programmer on the process. |
| </p><p><b>Let's now look at your work at B. Brain. |
| There you work on the Outlook ES Interface Tester. What is that exactly?</b> |
| </p><p>Outlook ES Interface Tester (OIT for short) is a test framework |
| for interfaces of our device the Outlook ES. As part of my duties as |
| quality engineer I need to figure out how to test that all requirements |
| are met by our product before it is released to the public. Among those |
| requirements are communication protocols and data transfer that can be |
| too technical for a technician to test. |
| </p><p>OIT provides an user friendly GUI to "see" those protocols and |
| data transfers, providing parsing and visual aids to ease the |
| validation process. |
| </p> |
| <ul><li>For example, the HIMS module simulates a HIMS system as |
| used in hospitals to send data to the medical device for configuration. |
| Also parses the outbound data used to collect stats of multiple devices |
| within a hospital. |
| </li><li>The PCEIS module provides similar testing functionality between |
| the device and its configuration software. |
| </li><li>The CMAIS module (work in process) provides similar |
| functionality between the device and a Configuration Management |
| Application to handle configuration of the devices wirelessly. |
| </li></ul> |
| <p>All huge parts of our device! Here's a screenshot of OIT:</p> |
| <p><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/sites/all/files/1-javier-import-configuration.png"><img alt="" src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/1-javier-import-configuration_small.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(14, 27, 85);" /></a></p> |
| <p><b>When did you start creating it and what were the requirements?</b> |
| </p><p>The first tool, HIMS (Health Information Management System), |
| started development in 2008 as a Swing based application. The aim was |
| simply to provide a visual way of seeing the interaction between |
| systems and verify all formatting and data requirements of the defined |
| protocol were met at all times. |
| </p><p><b>How does the NetBeans Platform help in this scenario?</b> |
| </p><p>In time, other interfaces were added to the system and more |
| tools like the HIMS were needed. As a regulated environment all |
| software, and changes to those softwares, come with a huge amount of |
| documentation to comply with FDA regulations. Also, the new interfaces |
| would have code that would be shared somehow. |
| </p><p>The NetBeans Platform provided a way to merge all those |
| applications (and any future ones) as modules into one application. |
| Also, many GUI issues I encountered in the early Swing applications |
| were already elegantly solved by the NetBeans Platform, so migrating to |
| it fixed a lot those issues as well! |
| </p><p>Another screenshot:</p> |
| <p><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/sites/all/files/5-javier-parse-validate.png"><img alt="" src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/5-javier-parse-validate_small.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(14, 27, 85);" /></a> </p> |
| <p><b>Do you have some tips and tricks to share with other NetBeans |
| Platform developers (maybe an interesting code snippet)?</b> |
| </p><p>I found a cool trick in one of the other projects I have (see |
| next question) to do database backups using JPA and Derby. This will be |
| part of Xinco 3.0 when is released. |
| </p><p>To explain the code a little here's a brief:</p> |
| |
| <p><u>Assumptions:</u></p> |
| <ol><li>You have a database accessed via JPA (all tables). |
| </li></ol> |
| |
| <p><u>Steps for backup:</u></p> |
| <ol><li>Create an Embedded Derby database in a specific path (setting System property |
| "derby.system.home" to the desired path). |
| </li> |
| <li>Retrieve each entity from each table. |
| (Remember to lock the database before doing this to avoid further modifications.)</li> |
| <li>Detach each entity and persist it into the backup Derby database.</li> |
| <li>Perform a 100% comparison of records transferred to check integrity.</li> |
| <li>ZIP the Derby database with a timestamp name. |
| </li></ol> |
| <p><u>Steps for loading:</u></p> |
| <ol><li>Create a backup of the current database, just in case something |
| goes wrong so we can get back to the original state.</li> |
| <li>Clean the target database.</li> |
| <li>Retrieve each entity from each table. (And we need to lock the |
| database before doing this to avoid further modifications.)</li> |
| <li>Detach each entity and persist it into the backup Derby database.</li> |
| <li>Perform a 100% comparison of records transferred to check integrity. </li></ol> |
| |
| <p>(See attachment <a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/sites/all/files/XincoBackupFile.java">one</a> |
| and <a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/sites/all/files/XincoBackupManager.java">two</a> |
| for the related code.) </p> |
| <p><b>Are there other things you're doing with the NetBeans Platform? </b></p> |
| <p>I'm working on converting <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/xinco/">the |
| client of the Xinco application</a> into a NetBeans Platform application. |
| See this screenshot of the current non-RCP application:</p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/non-rcp_small.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(14, 27, 85);" alt=""/> </p> |
| <p>Also I'll also be using the NetBeans Platform |
| <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/jwrestling/">in my online game</a> |
| as soon as I get out my first alpha version. Below are some screenshots of it so far. </p> |
| <p>Game chat room:</p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/jwrestling_small.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(14, 27, 85);" alt="" /> </p> |
| <p>Main screen:</p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/mainscreen_small.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(14, 27, 85);" alt="" /> </p> |
| <p>Game screen:</p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/gamescreen_small.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(14, 27, 85);" alt="" /> </p> |
| <p><b>Please finish this sentence: "If I had known..." |
| </b></p><p>If I had known the power of the NetBeans Platform back when |
| I started with Java, I would have used it from day one!</p> |
| <p><b>How useful is the NetBeans IDE for both your work and hobby? |
| </b></p><p>When I first got started with Java I did so on NetBeans IDE |
| 5.0. I did try other IDEs like Eclipse but they turned out to be too |
| complicated for me. NetBeans IDE was and still is the most user |
| friendly, natural way of programming, from your first "Hello World" |
| program to a complex application. Probably I wouldn't be where I am at |
| right now if NetBeans IDE had not been around all this time. |
| </p><p><b>Anything else you want to share?</b> |
| </p><p>To all those beginner programmers out there I'd like to say that |
| the best way to learn is to see the code of how things really work. So, |
| if you are struggling: join an open source project and you won't |
| believe how far you'll go! I went from a Java newbie reading "Java for |
| Dummies" to a recognized programmer in Germany with the Xinco project |
| and the modifications I made to it to comply with the 21 CFR part 11 |
| regulation:</p><p><img src="../../../images_www/articles/healthcare/xinco_pc-praxis.PNG" alt="" /> </p> |
| <p> </p><p>And don't stop at Java. After Java go to JavaFX, JavaME, Ruby, etc. |
| Stay as up to date as possible! |
| </p><p> |
| It is amazing to look back to that summer of 2006, after graduating |
| from college, just with my college theory, college experience in C++, |
| my love for wrestling, and programming that made me dive head first |
| into Java. With the great community and online documentation, I've been |
| to places I never dreamt of and I know this is just the beginning! </p> |
| <p> </p><p> </p> |
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