Q3 developed a solution for Mobile PDA device synchronizations for seamless data transfer

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Company Profile

Client is an established provider of mobile devices based software services catering to the needs of health and medical research sector.

Business Situation

Client needed mobile-based standalone application that would facilitate clinical trials – a type of medical research that is conducted in phases by means of health specific questions, initially on a small scale and then in a larger context. Client required the application not only to allow designing of questions, but facilitate dynamic updations in the design as well.

Practical Situation

A patient has been assigned a questionnaire for a particular form of disease, but the doctor diagnoses a new form of disease symptom in the patient. So a new questionnaire has to be designed for him. A new set of questionnaires is prepared by the administrator and it needs to be sent to the patient’s PDA.

Challenges

Q3 understands that the synchronization process, which is typically undertaken as part of a larger application or business process initiative, is frequently underestimated in terms of complexity and reach. Therefore, Q3 put in additional efforts to perform an extensive research and deduce the challenges that it might encounter while implementing the solution.

The challenges identified were:

• Complexity of data formats. It can result in an explosion of data definitions that lead to inaccuracies. Q3 decided to be very specific about data formats and keep in line with client requirements regarding the same.
• Different data integration needs. Some systems may require batch processing of bulk data. Other systems need to integrate changes as they occur in real time to support up-to-the-minute operations. Q3 decided to provide both options.
• Data quality. Inaccurate, inconsistent, or out-of-date data cannot be allowed to proliferate as it is synchronized between applications and systems. Q3’s tool was designed to take care of these issues.
• Security concerns. Data synchronization with partners or outsourced providers across WANs and corporate firewalls can raise security issues. Q3 used industry standard cryptographic algorithms to encrypt/decrypt data.
• Maintenance issues. Once data is loaded into an application, it must be constantly synchronized between the application and other operational systems. Q3’s tool was designed to take care of maintenance issues.

Solution

Since, the standalone application for designing questionnaires was to be built for mobile devices, it was implied that the dynamic updations in the questionnaires should be achieved remotely and automatically. Technically, it meant that the standalone application running on a Desktop machine should be able to synchronize with the application running on patient’s PDA.

Synchronization is the process of establishing consistency among data on remote sources and the continuous harmonization of the data over time. Synchronization refers to one of the two distinct, but related concepts, and they are:

• Synchronization of processes,
• Synchronization of data

In process synchronization, multiple processes are to join up, so as to reach an agreement or commit to a certain sequence of action. In data synchronization, multiple copies of a dataset are kept in coherence with one another, or to maintain data integrity. Process synchronization primitives are commonly used to implement data synchronization.

Q3 decided that a synchronization tool will be developed and installed on the server, which helps in the synchronization process; automatically copying changes back and forth. This tool will allow an incoming GPRS transmission to overwrite the application file with a new application. As a result, once an application build (containing questionnaires) is installed on the SD card of patient’s PDA, any changes made to the corresponding build on Desktop, will be updated on the SD card of the PDA. The SD card number and mobile number of the PDA will be used for synchronization purpose.

Benefits

• Allows uploading of new application file on the PDA. If a patient is diagnosed with a new problem, there should be a new set of questions designed for him to answer.
• Allows remote synchronization of data.
• Allows transfer of data from one server to other places.
• Transfer of data that takes place in synchronization is quite secure as it is in encrypted form and cannot be interpreted by unauthorized people.