Technology

Developing solutions on the Healthspace platform enables products for prototype or production to be developed and coded rapidly and at significantly lower cost. With the framework already complete, custom solutions can start to be coded on Day 1. Prototype solutions can be introduced immediately to existing Healthspace applications and shortly after distributed to customers on production environments.

Benefits of developing solutions and prototypes on the Healthspace framework include:

Commercial track record – Healthspace has been in use commercially since January 2009 for over 150,000 members and over 200 different clients. The system has been fully tested and is currently in use.
Reusable Gadgets – Because the system utilizes SOA, many re-useable gadgets can be incorporated into new features to speed development.
Cross Platform Usability – Web browser clients can be used on IE 6/7/8, Firefox 3, Google Chrome and Safari 4. Windows clients currently require the .NET 3.5 Framework.
Compliant – Designed to comply with fedral laws pertaining to personal health information and privacy (i.e., HIPAA).
Scalable Security – Designed with patent-pending roles- and relationships-based security essential to social networking.

 

Healthspace Architecture

Healthspace takes an industry proven, large scale, enterprise n-tier approach to architecture.

Stability, scalability and extensibility are factors that drive the Healthspace technical approach from prototyping through production.

Stability – Designed to operate even if one aspect fails.
Scalability – As the system load increases, work is distributed throughout the tiers. Healthspace can run on one or more physical servers and new servers can be added as needed to boost performance.
Extensibility – Extending the system is non-disruptive, as new features may be created and tested in isolation, then introduced without extensive reconfiguration.

Client

The top-level represents the client tier with browser clients, Windows desktop clients and mobile clients.

Healthspace Framework and Service Layer

The Healthspace Framework is the middle tier and has been engineered as a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The benefit of SOA is that the many different services that comprise a large scale enterprise application can be synthesized and made accessible. The Healthspace server acts as a warehouse for the various software services and features, while the Service Layer displays a subset of the available services.

Healthspace Data Storage

Two kinds of databases are included. A relational database is used for transactional data, or data that is frequently changing, while a multidimensional database stores data for analytics. Data is optimized for quick browsing.

External Resources

To use best in breed, off-the-shelf services, Healthspace supports the use of external resources using adapters to translate data, call Web-service proxies, access code libraries, etc.

ETL Platform

Our Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) platform takes raw data files and extracts them into a preparation area before being loaded into the target area in the Healthspace data store. Additional standard technologies used include Microsoft SQL Server Integration services, PowerShell scripts and SQL scripts.

 

The Client Tier Programming and Healthspace Markup Language (HSML)

Healthcare Interactive has developed a new language known as Healthspace Markup Language (HSML) using proprietary programming pattern of Model-View-Command-Model (MVCM) which is a variation on Model-View-View-Model (MVVM) programming. MVCM separates data and functionality from the graphical interface, allowing for declarative programming and greater re-usability of code.

Figure: MVCM Client Pattern

The user interface is split into three types of components:

Views – what the user sees
Models – the underlying data that is represented
Command Model – the component that links the View and Model, allowing for interaction between the user interface and the underlying data

The integration of HSML with standard XAML eases the development of access to Healthspace data services. As a declarative language, HSML makes specifying new user interface elements quick and simple. HSML promotes the use of configuration and administration tools to manage application content. The agile nature of the development pattern allows Healthspace solutions providers to quickly respond to client/user needs. The architecture has been developed to be flexible and cross platform capable. All server and client tiers of Healthspace have been written in C#. The Web service framework has been tested for compatibility with other types of clients: native mobile integration (iPhone/iPad and Android support), HTML/ASPX and Java based clients.

 

System Architecture

The figure below depicts the hardware architecture of Healthspace. Healthspace services reside in a load-balanced Web farm which accesses data stores behind a firewall/IDS. The main Healthspace data store resides in a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database (failover/cluster) and Microsoft Analysis Services (network load balanced).

 

Figure: System Architecture

This configuration allows for redundancy on the infrastructure, server, data, access control and network levels. Healthspace Services are housed inside a SAS-70 Type II certified location with a minimum of 2N redundancy on UPS, HVAC and carrier connection. This location allows for ultimate growth to 200Gb/s speeds and approximately 40,000 ft2 at 400W/ft2 of server enclosure space. Healthspace servers are fully redundant and configured for automatic failover. Database servers utilize Windows failover clustering and will accommodate additional nodes for expansion of services. Storage is distributed across external iSCSI SAN arrays with the capability to be ‘daisy-chained’ for any conceivable data growth. Healthspace Web content and OLAP servers are configured in a server farm environment behind redundant Linux network load balancers using stateless session technology to allow for transparent scaling through simple addition of servers.