Tips and hacks – FMath 22

How to Develop a Telemedicine App: Trends, Features and Costs

Brandy Quitzon — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 07:16:05 +0000

The healthcare industry has continuously been one of the most conservative industries. We’re used to seeing doctors in person for a consultation, receiving a paper prescription for medicine, etc. This gives us more peace of mind about the quality of the medical treatment we get.

Over the last ten years, there has been a noticeable change in how consumers acquire goods and services. Telemedicine is now beginning to transform, changing the healthcare industry. It is projected that it will rapidly become the diagnostic and treatment method used by most people.
The Importance of Telemedicine App Development
If you are still confused as to why this industry has such great potential, look at the benefits available for patients and medical personnel.

Patients’ perks

Saving time and money
The inconvenience of spending time on the road to a hospital and managing to babysit kids while visiting a doctor is eliminated.

Access to Medical Care

People of various ages and abilities, such as children, the elderly, and those living in rural or isolated areas, now have increased access to medical treatments that were previously only available to individuals in more urban settings since telemedicine has made them more accessible.

Selection of the Best Experts

Patients now can arrange appointments with medical specialists in any part of the globe due to the advancement of telemedicine.

Preventive Care

People are encouraged to take better care of their health daily due to the accessibility to online appointments and the capability to check their health remotely. This approach has proven to be quite successful. For instance, a study carried out in 2012 on people with coronary artery disease found that preventive telemedicine improved their overall health.

Market Research and Product Concept

Before launching a product or service into the market, you need to research the telemedicine industry since this sector is undergoing fast growth. We recommend that you analyze the leading products and services and then look for a niche market that other companies do not yet hold.

App Development Using the Latest Technologies

As soon as you have identified your specific market segment and the target audience, it is time to start thinking about the technologies that will be integrated and used in your product. You won’t be able to release a simple app since the most successful telemedicine companies have already adopted the most recent industry developments.

MVP for a Telemedicine App

Now we’ve reached one of the most exciting points in the product development process – identifying the feature set that our potential product has will go forward. Please keep in mind that this is not a mandatory instruction and that you are free to experiment with the various functions according to the vision that you have for your product.

Sign Up/Sign In

Your app’s launch to the public is the most important phase; thus, it should be fast and easy. We recommend implementing a phone sign-in/sign-up in the initial edition as it helps to simplify the process and simultaneously confirms the identification.

Personal Profile

The user will be prompted to identify themselves as either a patient or a doctor immediately after the sign-up procedure. The profile creation will need various data inputs according to the response provided.

For patients: name, age, gender, photo, location, and language.
For doctors: name, age, gender, photo, location, language, area of expertise, license, introductions, available types of services, and prices.
The data can be updated later in the user’s profile.

Last but not least, patients and doctors must be able to deactivate their accounts without losing all of their personal information by downloading, for example. This means that you should provide secure and trustable storage for users’ information inside your app.

Search for a Medical Specialist

The patients can search for the appropriate doctor depending on their choices, which may include location, field of expertise, price, rating, language spoken or time slots that are available.

If you want the search results to be more convenient, we can add the sorting capability so that consumers can filter the list of doctors based on a variety of criteria, such as price or rating, etc.

Reviews and Ratings for Doctors

Detailed information on the specialists, reviews, and feedback from other patients and a doctor’s rating should be accessible.

Messaging

Not only can you utilize chat for a quick consultation, but you can also use it to share crucial information such as medical records, photos, test results, and other relevant content. Therefore, the ability to send photos, videos, and documents should be an integrated chat component.

Video Calling

This is the primary feature of the first app version. Patients and medical professionals are going to interact with one another here.

Appointment and Scheduling Management

The content of this section will change based on the type of user.
For patients: The ability to see a list of consultations (completed, upcoming, or canceled) and to change or cancel an appointment.
For doctors: The list of consultations (finished, upcoming, canceled, paid/unpaid), the schedule with the opportunity to establish free time slots for the calls, and the choices to approve, cancel, or postpone the call.

Payments

Based on the monetization model that will be adopted, patients or doctors should be able to simply pay for the services offered by the app while they are still inside the app. Let’s say that we’ve decided to go with the approach in which patients are responsible for paying for each consultation.

Final Thoughts

It is difficult to cover all facets of the telemedicine sector in one article due to the breadth and depth of the subject. Because it offers so many growth opportunities, the discovery of new niches, and the use of the most recent technology, telemedicine is an area that is impossible to ignore. We have every reason to assume that telemedicine will soon become the standard in our society and that, over the long run, it will greatly boost the level of care provided by medical professionals and, as a result, the overall health of the population.

Do you share the passion for this field to the same degree as we do? We hope this little trip into the exciting world of telehealth app development has provided you with various innovative ideas on how to dominate the industry. In addition, we are available to assist you in completing this task and await your call. Just let us know what you have in mind, and one of our specialists will provide you with a free consultation and an estimation of the project’s cost.

The post How to Develop a Telemedicine App: Trends, Features and Costs appeared first on FMath 22.

5 DevOps tips to help the novice developer

Brandy Quitzon — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:07:15 +0000

DevOps is in high demand in technology today, from CI/CD (continuous software integration and deployment) to container management and server preparation. You might even say it’s a buzzword… on the ear. As a developer, you can be part of the DevOps team – not necessarily preparing servers for work and managing containers, but creating great software.
A lot of what developers, DevOps engineers and IT teams do in today’s software development lifecycle is tools, testing, automation and server orchestration.
Especially if the team is involved in a large Open Source project or we’re talking about one person. Here are five DevOps tips for developers who want to work more efficiently and faster.

YAML makes frontend work easier

Introduced in 2001, YAML has become one of the languages for many declarative automations – it is often used in DevOps and development of different interface configurations, automation and so on. YAML stands for Yet Another Markup Language. YAML markup is easy to read. It puts less emphasis on round and curly bracket characters and quotes {}, [], “.
Why is this important? By learning or even improving your YAML skills, you can more easily save configurations for applications, such as settings in an easy to write and read language.
YAML files are everywhere, from corporate development workflows to open source projects. Lots of YAML files on GitHub, too (they support a product we really like: GitHub Actions, but more on that later).

DevOps tools help speed things up

Let’s get something straight first: DevOps tools are a broad concept that covers cloud platforms, server orchestration tools, code management, version control, and more. These are all technologies that make writing, testing, deploying, releasing software easier and leave any worries about unexpected failures in the past. Here are three DevOps tools to speed up workflows and focus on building great software.
Git
You probably know that Git is a distributed version control system and source code management tool. For developers, it’s the foundation of the basics and a popular DevOps tool.
Why?

Cloud-based integrated development environments (IDEs)

I know, it’s kind of hard to say out loud (thanks, marketing). A simpler way would be cloud IDEs. But these platforms are worth exploring immediately.
And here’s why. Cloud IDEs are fully hosted development environments that allow you to write and run code, debug it, and quickly deploy new, pre-configured environments. Need validation? We launched our own cloud-based IDE, Codespaces, at the beginning of the year and started using it to build GitHub. It used to take us up to 45 minutes to deploy new developer environments – now it only takes 10 seconds.
With cloud IDEs, it’s very easy and fast to deploy new, pre-configured development environments, including one-offs. Plus, with them, you don’t have to think about computer power (hello to all those who dare to write code on tablets).

Server orchestration for greater flexibility and speed

If you’re building a cloud application or even just using different servers, virtual machines, containers or hosting services, you’re probably dealing with multiple environments. Being able to make sure that the application and infrastructure fit together reduces your dependence on the development team trying to run software on your infrastructure at the last minute.
This is where server orchestration comes in handy. Server or infrastructure orchestration is usually the task of IT and DevOps teams. These include setting up, managing, preparing, and coordinating systems, applications, and underlying infrastructure to run software.

Try writing repetitive tasks in Bash or PowerShell

Imagine: you have a bunch of repetitive tasks running locally, and they take too much time each week. There’s a better, more efficient way to handle them – write scripts with Bash or PowerShell.
Bash has deep roots in the Unix world. It’s the backbone for IT, DevOps teams, and many developers.
PowerShell is younger. Developed at Microsoft and launched in 2006, PowerShell replaced the command shell and early scripting languages for task automation and configuration management in Windows environments.
Today, both Bash and PowerShell are cross-platform (although most people used to working in Windows use PowerShell, and most people familiar with Linux or macOS use Bash).

The post 5 DevOps tips to help the novice developer appeared first on FMath 22.

Mathematics for the programmer

Brandy Quitzon — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 22:43:37 +0000

One of the most frequent questions that newcomers, people who are far from programming, and one of the biggest stereotypes of our time ask: does a programmer need mathematics? And no one will give a complete answer to this question. This is due to the fact that there are many directions in programming.

Modern programming languages, which are very popular at the same time, now, can solve many problems very quickly, and their toolkit is specially made so as not to cause discomfort for developers in the development process.

Of course, most modern developers prefer to go more to Frontend, Backend and not to create problems with learning languages of any level.

Programmers who work in these areas and write in JavaScript, Python, PHP, etc. earn good money, work in high-level programming, know several technologies and do not perform complex mathematical calculations. Most of the time. It’s all good, especially when people know what they want. And when they are asked the question, “Do you need math?” they say that they only need basic math for this kind of work, but for more complex projects and technologies it is worth studying something even more complicated than the school curriculum.

And it is different when the same developers, who work only with high level and program sites, answer the same question. They say that the math is not necessary at all. Maximum is addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And that you don’t need to go further than the law of combinatorics.

That makes sense. However, it is worth thinking about one important detail, which almost no one ever voiced. The fact that all computers and computers work with mathematics. And that at the origin of all programming is mathematics.

All software arithmetic is about numbers. Computers use a binary code (1 and 0). This is the code upon which systems run, from operating systems to neural networks. Anything that has to do with computation always interacts with numbers.

When complex calculations had to be done, pencil, paper and mind were used. But in the process of progress, realizing that such solutions require a lot of time. That’s why they started creating computers to automate certain processes. And for these processes to be automated, templates had to be developed. After all, all computerized machines work on the basis of previously created patterns. And so it turned out that the information space created today is the modernized patterns of the past.

Recall that all the people who created such things in the computational sciences always had a good knowledge of an unloved school subject. And modern computer technology hasn’t taken that science anywhere.

All complex low-level programming languages are based on mathematics, and modern high-level ones too, because they are based on nothing. And the higher the level of the language, the harder it is to create something complex and large.

Therefore often all try to avoid learning C/C++, Java and other similar languages, and prefer to go into web development, where the process of understanding of the direction and technology is easier, and pay is not worse.

Think about it, all the complicated stuff is written in low languages and includes mathematical knowledge. Of course you don’t need to learn an entire course of higher mathematics, but if you seriously want to create, for example, your own OS, write a cool framework, or a unique artificial intelligence, it will be almost impossible to do without a good mathematical knowledge and appropriate skills in the NLP.

Answering the question, “Does a programmer need math? “, I can safely answer, “Yes.” Whatever the programmer is and whatever he does, the more knowledge he has in the exact areas, the better it is for him as an expert.

This science should not be neglected, and it certainly cannot be said that only knowing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division will suffice.

The post Mathematics for the programmer appeared first on FMath 22.

Explanation of the Kalman filter in pictures

Brandy Quitzon — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 19:09:59 +0000

Surprisingly, not many software developers and scientists seem to know about it, which saddens me because it is a very generalized and powerful tool for combining information in the presence of uncertainty. Sometimes its ability to extract accurate information seems almost magical, and if you think I’m talking too much, take a look at this video in which I show how the Kalman filter determines the orientation of a free-floating body by looking at its velocity vector. Amazing!

What is it?

The Kalman filter can be used in any domain where there is uncertain information about some dynamic system, and you can make an educated guess about what the system will do next. Even if chaotic reality intervenes and affects the clear motion we assume, the Kalman filter often does a pretty good job of predicting what’s actually going to happen. And it takes advantage of correlations between crazy phenomena that you might not even think of using!

Kalman filters are ideal for continuously changing systems. They don’t take up too much memory (because they don’t need to store history other than the previous state) and are very fast, making them well suited for real-time and embedded system tasks.

In most of the articles you’ll find on Google, the math of the Kalman filter implementation looks pretty daunting. And that’s too bad, because in fact the Kalman filter is very easy
and easy to understand if you look at it from the right angle. So it makes a great topic for an article, and I’ll try to expose it with clear and understandable images and colors. You don’t have to do much, just know the basics of probability theory and matrices.

I will start with a vague example that can be solved with the Kalman filter, but if you want to go straight to pretty pictures and math, you can skip this section.

What can you do with a Kalman filter?

Let’s look at an example: you have created a little robot that can wander through the forest; in order to do the moving, it needs to know exactly where it is.

Our little robot.

Suppose our robot has a state $\vec{x_k}$, that is, just a position and a velocity vector.

Note that the state is just a list of numbers specifying the configuration of our system; it can be anything. In our example, it’s a position and speed vector, but it could also be the amount of liquid in the tank, the temperature of the car engine, the position of the user’s finger on the touchpad, or any number of objects you need to track.

Our robot also has a GPS sensor that has about 10 meters accuracy, and that’s good, but it needs to know its location more accurately in this 10 meter diameter. There are a lot of ravines and precipices in this forest, so if the robot gets a few meters wrong, it could fall off a cliff. So the GPS by itself is not enough.

We can also learn something about how a robot moves: it knows the commands given to its wheel motors, and it knows that if it’s going in one direction and nothing is in its way, in the next instant it’s very likely to move in the same direction. But, of course, it doesn’t know anything about its movement: it might get blown by the wind, its wheels might get a little boggy or roll over bumps; so the number of wheel revolutions might not accurately reflect the robot’s movement, and that prediction won’t be perfect.

The GPS sensor tells us status information, but only indirectly, with a degree of uncertainty or inaccuracy. Our prediction tells us something about how the robot is moving, but only indirectly, with a fraction of uncertainty or inaccuracy.

But if we use all the information available to us, can we get a more accurate answer than each of the approximations in isolation? Of course, the answer is yes, and that’s what the Kalman filter is for.

The post Explanation of the Kalman filter in pictures appeared first on FMath 22.

How to easily parse an algebraic expression

Brandy Quitzon — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 19:11:23 +0000

The purpose of this article is to show how to solve an algebraic expression as a string, by converting it from infix to postfix form and parsing the transformed string.

It is recommended that you read the following before reading it:

Prefix, infix, and postfix forms

The infix form is the most common form, because it is easier to represent. It is an expression where the operators are placed between the operands. This is where the name of the form comes from.

The prefix form, on the other hand, is an expression in which the operators are in front of the operands.

Correspondingly, the postfix form is an expression in which the operators are after the operands.

To calculate an expression written in the infix form, we need to analyze it beforehand, taking into account the precedence of operators and parentheses. Prefix and postfix forms, on the other hand, require no such analysis, since operators are written in the order they are evaluated and without parentheses.

Expressions written in the prefix or postfix form are also called parentless or Polish. They are called Polish after their author, the Polish mathematician Jan Lukasiewicz.

You can read more about the presented forms of recording algebraic expressions on Wikipedia.

Dijkstra’s algorithm.

We will use Edsger Wiebe Deikstra’s improved Deikstra algorithm to convert to postfix form.

The principle of Dijkstra’s algorithm:

We go through the original string;
When we find a number, we put it in the output string;
When we find an operator, we put it on the stack;
Push all operators that have a higher priority than the one in question from the stack to the output string;
If we find an opening bracket, we put it on the stack;
When a closing bracket is found, we push all operators before the opening bracket from the stack, and delete the opening bracket from the stack.

Implementation of Dijkstra’s algorithm

We implement the Mather class, where we define private fields infixExpr for storage of infix expression, postfixExpr for postfix expression and operationPriority, where we define the list of all operators and their priority.

In the operationPriority field the bracket (‘(‘) is defined only to avoid parsing errors later on, while the tilde (‘~’) is added to simplify further parsing and represents a unary minus.

Let’s add a private method GetStringNumber, designed for parsing integer values.

Next, create a ToPostfix method , which will convert to a reverse Polish (postfix) entry:

Algorithm for calculating a postfix record

After getting a postfix record, we need to calculate its value. To do that, we will use an algorithm that is very similar to the previous algorithm, but this one uses only one stack.

Let’s analyze how this algorithm works:

We go through the postfix notation;
When we find a number, we parse it and put it on the stack;
When finding a binary operator, we take the last two values from the stack in reverse order;
When finding a unary operator, in this case unary minus, we take the last value from the stack and subtract it from zero, since unary minus is a right-hand operator;
The last value, after working through the algorithm, is the solution to the expression.

Implementation of the algorithm for computing the postfix entry

Let’s create a private method Execute, which will perform the operations corresponding to the operator and return the result.

Now let’s implement the algorithm itself by creating a Calc method in which we define the following.

Testing algorithms

Let’s try running the expression 15/(7-(1+1))*3-(2+(1+1))*15/(7-(200+1))3-(2+(1+1))(15/(7-(1+1))*3-(2+(1+1))+15/(7-(1+1))*3-(2+(1+1)) through the composed algorithm and see if it works correctly.

Although the algorithms implemented here work, they do not take into account spaces between characters, fractional values, check for zero in the division operation, functions are not implemented, etc., so this code is provided only as an example.

The post How to easily parse an algebraic expression appeared first on FMath 22.