Web App Development with WordPress: Healthcare MVP

Customer Snapshot

• B2C Health and Wellness Startup
• Innovative cash pay only business model
• The company enables customers who think they may have sleep apnea with a way to get tested and treated from the convenience of their home using an online process.

Key Differentiators

• Leverages free and low-cost plugins and a commercial theme
• Developed onshore in 6 months
• Development staff provided a great deal of business ideation and content development

Solution Snapshot

• Secure, responsive WordPress development project
• Image dense, yet fast loading pages
• Hosted on WordPress VPS Cloud hosting
• Some custom code development required
• Highly cost-effective

Skills Needed:

• Gravity Forms Environment
• HTML/CSS
• Membership
• PHP
• WooCommerce
• WordPress
• Workflow

The Challenge

Restafy is a health and wellness startup with a business concept for a low-friction home sleep testing option. With physician agreements in place, they are able to serve customers from start to finish in 39 states. For middle-aged adults who need a home sleep test, their cash payment service enables customers to go from testing to treatment (if indicated), using an online process and sleeping in their own bed without dealing with insurance hassles.

The client wanted to quickly develop an MVP web app to facilitate a primarily self-service online HST option to validate their business idea. Getting a solution to market very quickly was the main priority as the market is highly competitive.

Initially, having a nearshore team do traditional custom development was considered for the solution. It was quickly determined that this would be both time and cost-prohibitive. In reviewing other ways to meet the client’s needs, the consulting team determined that the majority of the project’s requirements could be delivered quickly and relatively inexpensively using WordPress as a framework. The client approved the alternative approach that was projected to be customer-ready in 6-7 months.

The Solution

QAT Global helped the customer create the requirements, which required many group meetings to brainstorm functionality and processes. A development team consisting of three US resources was formed to execute the project. Once development began, weekly meetings were conducted where project status was reviewed.  Various demos were held during development to ensure the customer was getting exactly what they wanted, and adjustments were made based on these reviews.

The result was a responsive, mobile-friendly solution that automated the majority of the workflow, integrated seamlessly with payment gateways, and was delivered a strong user experience. A couple of manual steps were required since some of the final dashboard scores came from multiple systems and required processing to get the final scores, input them into the dashboard, and upload the testing document; otherwise, WordPress handled the majority of the requirements efficiently.

The online sleep wellness assessment includes 356 possible questions covering insomnia, sleep-related breathing disorders, hypersomnolence, circadian rhythm disorders, parasomnias, sleep-related movement disorders, sleep hygiene issues, and lifestyle issues. In addition, an optional supplementary questionnaire for the customer’s sleep partner was designed that includes 65 possible questions. The actual number of questions the customer and their partner answer are dependent on their responses to one or more questions.

Customers receive their results in a personalized visual dashboard that includes score details and action steps to address any identified issues. If the customer opted to have a home sleep test, those results are reflected in the dashboard results, and their HST report can be downloaded directly from their dashboard. They can also schedule a consultation and get their consultation notes and prescription, if indicated, on their dashboard.

• Uses a commercial theme from a third-party developer, free and paid plugins, the WordPress core software, and some custom code.
• Includes a fully integrated shopping cart with multiple payment gateways, custom product pages, security deposit processing, and customized My Account section.
• Integrates with a third-party chat program.
• Utilizes extensive organic SEO.
• Can be easily updated by the company’s staff.
• Each customer has a private, secure page where their results are presented in a visual dashboard.
• Customers can sign forms online using a mobile-friendly interface.
• Custom emails are used with both forms and the shopping cart to provide a personalized experience.
• Forms and orders can be individually routed to one or more users.
• Extensive blog and resource sections are supported.
• The application meets or exceeds all security requirements.