Need help with website design/programming!

[sphinx]

I have a customer who uses my LIS (Lab Information System), he has a website and asked me to allow his patients to view/get their test results from the internet (e.g. each patient should have a user name and password to access the website and view/download his/her test results, Only his/her results).

I am thinking of :
1- I can generate a PDF/BMP/GIF of the results and upload it to his website to a specific location and the URL of the file will be printed in the patient receipt.
2- Make a database on his server and upload the results to it and get/preview results as needed.

I have a limited experience with web design/programming and I hope you help me figure it out or point me to some tutorials/examples to help me achieve this goal.

I was thinking of generating random and time limited URL (to the PDF/BMP/GIF results file) which expires after say a week or so, I know it is possible but no clue how to do it as I think it will be easier than the web database approach.

Any help is really appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[Zach]

I think using the database approach, although it may seem more difficult at first, may be more economical in the long run, and once you implement a system to manage it. It would be really easy to work with.

A database entry full of text fields will consume a lot less space than an image file, or PDF. Which helps keeps hosting/bandwidth costs down. This is somewhat a primary concern for almost any web platform based project. Although you really can't perform a hard comparison without knowing how much information will be generated, etc.

However if you were to go with the database route, I imagine the process would be something like this..

Your LIS program should be modified so that the particular file for the patient has additional information generated, when their info is input into the program. I don't know how your system works, but I'll just assume it has some kind of project based information management going on, to keep track of each users individual data.

Basically just have the program generate a unique ID and password for that user, forever tied to their account. Or use the patient account number that the physician uses would work too.

All you really need after that is to build a "Publish to web" option, that takes the URL and login/pw to access the database and you can push all data in your program into the database.

This way you can keep records of multiple tests if you want as well. And the doctor and patient can also look through the history of their tests, when a certain test was done, etc.

However if you really don't know much about PHP / MySQL then it would be best to have this done right, and contract out to a professional who writes stuff with these tools all the time.
You might even suggest to your client that he contract out, and then you can write changes into the program necesarry to connect to the database and make the changes.

Either way you are looking at changes within your program that will require you to generate the necessary data to talk to a database of some sort, and either update/push new user accounts & or data into, or to generate some kind of expiring URL of some sort. So you might as well look into the prospect of having a Web interface of some sort built.

Of course this all relies on what your client's web host capabilities are. You definitely need to start there. If you can't even make a user/password .HTACCESS file on his server then you have no way to prevent other patients from guessing each others ID's somehow, and looking at their data, or finding another way to snoop around.

This is really dealing with private and confidential data, so you need to make sure whatever way you decide to do this, is based on user accounts and remains transparent on the user end. This is likely going to involve a database of some sort that can control access to privileged data.

Or I could be wrong, someone may have an easier solution

[codewalker]

sphinx, user, joined oct 2006, 49 posts - - -
so this smells like looking for answers here and post them in their own forum.

I have a limited experience with web design/programming

So you should not have accepted this project in the first place and start learning
some decent php, it's the only way. You can find tons of free php scripts on the net
that suit your project. Joomla and mysql can make your project more easy.
- - - - - - - -

[Zach]

You know, if you want to accuse me of something you should at least make your accusation comprehensible.

[Zach]

I responded because I have a long history of dabbling in, and currently run a web site. So I happen to know what kind of advice to give him.

If that's the way you feel about it, you would do well to report genuine concerns to a moderator and refrain from insulting others with baseless claims.

And you can hardly fault the original poster for trying to come up to a solution to a request made by a client using software that, by the sounds of it, was not originally designed to be web integrated.

[codewalker]

ok so it's obvious that at least you are not a bot, crawler or irc script.
will edit my post.
cw

[LuCiFeR[SD]]

sphinx, user, joined oct 2006, 49 posts - - - zach, user, joined dec 2010, 29 posts
so this smells like looking for answers here and post them in their own forum.

I think you maybe jumping to conclusions a little here

I see no evidence of them doing any such thing even after an extensive search of the internet. I must admit that asking for web programming advice on a PureBasic programming forum is probably not the best place to ask such questions... even if it does involve PureBasic to a degree.


One thing that does worry me a little though is the legality of making patients data available online. In the UK, the laws are very strict on what medical data can and cannot be published (even privately), So my advice would be to first find out about your local countries laws for making any medical data available... and then (if your software is available elsewhere in the world) check their laws too. otherwise you could find yourself in some quite serious trouble legally... as could your customers.

Other than that... I suggest that you and/or your customer hire a professional web developer and you work together with a way to interface your software with whatever server setup he uses.

[sphinx]

Zach, Thank you very much for your help and support

sphinx, user, joined oct 2006, 49 posts - - -
so this smells like looking for answers here and post them in their own forum.

I have a limited experience with web design/programming

So you should not have accepted this project in the first place and start learning
some decent php, it's the only way. You can find tons of free php scripts on the net
that suit your project. Joomla and mysql can make your project more easy.
- - - - - - - -

I really do not know on what facts you built your accusation?!
My few number of posts against the date I joined!!
It does not seems a good nor logical way to judge people, it would be even worse 'IF' you had taken my location into your calculations too!
It would be a disaster if I have my religion posted along with my info/signature too and in that case you would have treated me like a terrorist!
Anyway, thanks for the info.

One thing that does worry me a little though is the legality of making patients data available online. In the UK, the laws are very strict on what medical data can and cannot be published (even privately), So my advice would be to first find out about your local countries laws for making any medical data available... and then (if your software is available elsewhere in the world) check their laws too. otherwise you could find yourself in some quite serious trouble legally... as could your customers.

I am aware of the legal stuff in my country...thanks for your concerns luCiFeR[SD].
I know you from the Blitz community a long time ago if I recall right, right?

[cas]

How about sending results to their e-mail address?

[sphinx]

I already have this feature along with faxing ability too.
It will be a good addition if my program can link to online (secure) database and it brings more money on the table too

I started reading about PHP & MySQL and everything is getting clear....I think I will be able to do it in a week or so, wish me luck

[Nituvious]

Hi, PHP(server side) has functions for generating dynamic images. You can also use HTML5's canvas(client side) however it relies on javascript so you might not want this option.

Most web hosts give you MySQL, but there are some exploits you'll need to take care on before considering using it as your database system.
You can generate unique URL's with PHP and retrieve data from the URL with $_GET[].

[LuCiFeR[SD]]

I am aware of the legal stuff in my country...thanks for your concerns luCiFeR[SD].
I know you from the Blitz community a long time ago if I recall right, right?

Yeah, I used to be on there many many years ago I doubt I am missed lol. Same as I doubt many people would miss me here if I suddenly went silent lol.

[Rook Zimbabwe]

Thats where I knew you from!

You might ask Lucifer to assist you as he has talent int he web design area!

[LuCiFeR[SD]]

Thats where I knew you from!

ROFL, I thought you knew already

[Rook Zimbabwe]

OK so too much sex at 45 makes you senile AND bald!!!