This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub.
About the team
We are an enthusiastic team of Computer Science students hailing from University College London (UCL). What brings us together is our shared passion for utilising technology as a tool to innovate and revolutionise healthcare - a sector we believe to be paramount in any country. Our team believes that technological advancements have the power to effect palpable improvements in healthcare services, boosting the efficiency to enhancing the overall standard of patient care. As part of the enriching Industry Exchange Network (IXN) program, we've been fortunate to be under the expert guidance and supervision of UCL Professor Dean Mohamedally, Dr Yun Fu, and Prof Lee Stott Principal Cloud Advocate Manager at Microsoft. This partnership has empowered us to take our concepts and turn them into practical, user-friendly solutions using Power Apps and custom connectors.
To bring our solution to life, we developed custom connectors for both WhatsApp and Webex and seamlessly integrated them into a single Power Platform Canvas App.
WhatsApp (Independent Publisher) - Connectors | Microsoft Learn
Webex Integration (Independent Publisher) - Connectors | Microsoft Learn
Connect with the team:
Zakariya Fakira - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakariya-fakira/
Satbir Virdi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/satbir-v-04408518a
Oscar Hui - https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscar-hui-a50776218/
Chaohui Wang - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaohui-wang-baa284254
The project
As a committed team of Computer Science students at University College London (UCL), we recognised a worrying issue within the UK healthcare system: a significant number of patients fail to attend their GP appointments, leading to both logistical challenges and potential detrimental effects on patient health. We found that the current NHS SMS reminder system isn't quite effective, resulting in a persistent issue of missed appointments. Determined to bring about an improvement, we suggested the integration of WhatsApp as an additional communication channel for reminders, aiming to increase the reach and enhance the effectiveness of reminders. Moreover, we also sought to promote the use of online remote diagnosis via Webex, which could further optimise patient care and harness digital technology to bolster healthcare efficiency. To implement this, we developed custom connectors for both WhatsApp and Webex, integrating them into a single Power Platform Canvas App.
System Architecture
The user interacts with the power app. This is the physical UI the end user sees. The app interacts with power automate Flows. The flows are what give the connector real meaning by providing a context for them to be run. In our Power App, when a meeting for a patient is to be created, the WebEx Connector sends a POST request to the API which responds with the JSON body. The JSON body is parsed to extract the meeting link. The outlook connector then uses the date set on the power app, to add the URL on that date by also sending a POST request. The WhatsApp connector then sends a POST request with the URL to the API to forward the link in a message template.
Our solution
Our solution was developed with the intention of reducing the 5% of missed appointments each year and intends to ease the workload of the staff at the NHS, influencing the design of the power app. Power Apps automatically caters for the device you are on and modifies the UI to suit the platform you are using, be it a tablet, phone or computer.
The scalability, no-code philosophy of power platform, along with seamless integration with the NHS’ N365 ecosystem will allow for faster development of Power Apps than with a native environment. Our connectors will supplement this convenience. Additionally, the reusability of connectors means that all businesses can utilise our connectors for their apps.
The general principle is that the connector would be developed in the Microsoft connector development environment; the connector would have a series of actions added to it which define its functionality.
Our WhatsApp connector utilises the Meta API to be able to send messages from a business account to a registered WhatsApp number. The message template is something that must be independently created by the user; our sample app does have a Meta approved template which has been showcased in our demonstration.
The Webex connector uses the Webex API which allows the end user to create/edit/view meetings that have been created.
Both these connectors have been used in our sample power app where we a GP or a doctor would interact with the UI to send a link to a patient who cannot physically attend by setting a time and date, then sending the link to the associated number for the patient. The doctor can then follow up by sending the link through WhatsApp as well as a reminder of the time and date of the patient’s appointment. The power app also uses an existing outlook connector which adds the meeting to the doctor’s calendar (which also means that he cannot have conflicting appointment times).
Reflection
The platform is relatively new and so we did encounter a few bugs which we reported to Microsoft. Using the platform itself did not pose too great an issue per se. However due to lacklustre documentation, many of the issues we faced were believed to be errors on our behalf rather than the platform which was very time consuming. Nonetheless, once these bugs were reported, Microsoft were quick to start looking at these issues and were very helpful in providing workarounds. Once we got accustomed to how Power Platform and custom connectors work, development became smooth, and we really experienced the convenience of the low-code philosophy ourselves.
It was also terrific insight into working in industry where we would be mainly using existing software and platforms to create products and solutions. Learning API’s, how to test them, creating connectors and getting them validated by creating pull requests really gave us a taste of how development takes place at one of the world’s biggest companies. Overall, this experience was invaluable, and we are very grateful for it.
Working with industry specialist such as Lee Stott and Julia Miururi allowed us to learn how to go about leading a project and overcoming hurdles. We refined our management and problem-solving skills through weekly sprint meetings with them and so feel much more ready for a career in tech and look forward to working with Microsoft again.
What’s next
With the connectors being open source, there is potential for any developer to expand upon the functionality of the connectors which broadens its utility. There are some additional features we wish to add:
Receiving meeting transcripts
This would aid in documenting the condition of the patient and verify prescriptions made. Furthermore, it would help the patient if they were to forget anything the doctor said. Additionally, it broadens the versatility as deaf/mute patients would also be able to use the online consultation as well.
Allowing two-way communication with WhatsApp
By configuring a webhook, we could be able to allow patients to reply to the WhatsApp message using pre-written queries allowing them to perform quick tasks such as rescheduling or cancelling appointments and more.
Join meeting using connector instead rather than the link
The link is verbose and unclear which can confuse non-technical doctors or patients. Using the connector itself would get around this issue.