Driving Digital During Covid-19: Helping an Enterprise Healthcare Company Develop an AI Mobile Telehealth Product During a Pandemic

On January 1st, 2020, just as the spread of Covid-19 was gaining momentum, Foxbox Digital collaborated with a leading enterprise healthcare organization—as their mobile development partner—to launch an AI mobile telehealth app. This sophisticated AI product allowed any consumer to easily access healthcare providers via real-time video and text chat, without ever physically going to a doctor’s office.

This was more than just the impressive launch of a mobile telehealth app. It’s the foundation for our client to support the accelerating evolution to digital and virtual healthcare services.

By mid-March 2020, the spread of Covid-19 accelerated, forcing many professionals to work from home, and preventing critical care for many non-Covid patients. The mobile application became a critical application for many people who needed limited care, preventative care, and also consumers with chronic illnesses.

“We built a solution that some of our customers have reviewed as being ‘life-changing.’ The ability to identify and diagnose issues without physically going to a doctor, and in the comfort of their own home, is a rewarding experience to be part of, and we continue to see the growing impact of our telehealth platform.”
- Chief Data Officer

This was a mission-critical, well-coordinated project with many enterprise integrations and coordination partners. We acted as a fast-moving, agile startup within their organization to enable them to bring this next-generation app to market in under six months.

On the launch date, both iOS and Android apps were available for download from their respective app stores. As of August 25, 2020, the telehealth app has been downloaded nearly 250,000 times, while hundreds of customers continue to utilize the application daily to diagnose symptoms, and seek guidance for their health conditions from a device that lives in their pockets.

Some of the core benefits of the mobile application include the ability to:

• Identify possible conditions with the AI-based symptom checker
• Chat in real-time over video and text with healthcare providers
• Receive prescriptions at the customer’s pharmacy of choice
• Pay via credit, debit, or via insurance provider, all within the app
• Receive a Covid-19 assessment as well as a formal certification that the customer is ready to go back to work.
  

But it didn’t stop there.

Once the pandemic hit, our mobile and backend development teams worked hard to develop mission-critical mobile product updates enabling consumers to get back to work as quickly and safely as possible.

What we admire about our client is their dedication to driving better customer healthcare experiences, and it shows with the final result of the product.

“I spoke with a doctor about my allergies using the video chat option, and I was able to pick up my prescription in under 45 minutes! I never had to physically visit a doctor, or sit in a waiting room for the single doctor at the office to come see me. I think I found a new way to do healthcare. Very impressed.”
- Customer review, iOS App Store

Here’s how it all worked out.

Moving Purposely: We Operated as a Startup Within the Enterprise and Accelerated Delivery

We are always excited to work with partners looking to push the limits in terms of digital innovation. And when we had a chance to lead mobile development for a leading healthcare company that was operating as a startup within their enterprise organization, we jumped on the chance.

“We picked Foxbox Digital because of their React Native skill set. Their ability to integrate into our environment quickly, be agile, and push through roadblocks was an amazing feat. We are grateful to have them on our team.”
- Staff VP of Engineering

Our client had a very similar operating vision to ours: Move quickly while moving purposely.

We developed and published the initial mobile solution in under six months, which enabled our client to get to market even faster than originally planned and respond to the growing pandemic in a significant way.

It’s All About the (Customer) Experience: We Developed and Integrated Complex Mobile Features for iOS and Android Using React Native

Our client initially hired us for one big reason: We had deep, proven technical expertise in mobile and the React Native platform.

They continue to engage with us as a long-term partner for another reason: We execute with strong project management, a diversified skill-set in digital and mobile delivery, and the ability to integrate with a large organization while still being nimble and agile.

“They operated as our React Native experts and partners, and their knowledge of React Native was truly incredible. We could always rely on them to lead us in the right direction.”
- Staff VP, AI & Architecture

Foxbox’s responsibility was clear: Bring this technology to life in the easiest, most intuitive way possible. A successful launch will result in a single, powerful, life-changing application that is constantly learning.

Even with many complex moving parts, various integration partners, and a global, enterprise IT infrastructure, we accomplished their goal of creating a powerful, mobile app for their digital-first healthcare platform.

Here are the main capabilities delivered by leveraging existing technologies and seamlessly integrating them into the native mobile application.

AI-Based Symptom Checker

In collaboration with our client, we integrated our client’s AI-based symptoms triage functionality into the app, allowing a native experience for consumers to check their symptoms and get personalized guidance.

Integrated Video and Chat for Virtual Doctor Visits

Considering that the video chat and text chat functionalities were separate technologies developed by our client, it was an even bigger feat to integrate this feature natively into the mobile application to create a secure, easy-to-use, native experience.

The ability for a consumer to access a healthcare professional from their personal devices without leaving their home is an incredible convenience.

Direct Integration with Consumers’ Insurance Providers

We developed the application so consumers were able to quickly pick their insurance from a select list of our client’s partners to pay through their insurer when necessary.

“I tried this service out for the first time and within 20 minutes, I was able to speak to a doctor and get a script sent in, and this includes the time filling out the required information. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.”
- Customer review, iOS App Store

In Response to the Growing Pandemic, We Quickly Pivoted to Develop and Publish a Robust Covid-19 Attestation Solution in 10 Days

Covid-19 caused a lot of confusion for critical service providers who desperately needed to keep their employees safe while operating during the pandemic.

To help employers identify which employees are safe to come to work, we pivoted quickly to prioritize the creation of a new “back to work” functionality. This enabled employees to provide an employee authorization form they can give to their employers to alert them if they are ready to come back to work.

This functionality—developed and published on the app store in 10 days—in addition to a previously created Covid-19 assessment solution, allowed our client to partner with a large technology company to offer “back to work” services for 30,000+ employees, with many more partnerships to come.

Getting It Done with Talent and Execution: We Met Delivery Milestones Through Strong Agile Project Management and Collaboration

With so many global partners that developed critical parts and technology for this telehealth solution, we followed our agile principles to make this consumer product a seamless, easy-to-use customer experience.

We interacted with our client’s Product, UX, Business, Integration, Authentication, Backend Development, and Security teams to make this happen.

“Foxbox doesn’t have a meeting culture. They know how to get stuff done, and we saw it first hand.”
- Staff VP of Technology

Hand-Picked, Highly Qualified Engineers and Project Managers Across Many Technical Disciplines

We take pride in our selective hiring process. It isn’t just about skill-set, it’s also about culture-fit and communications skills. It’s baked into our culture, which we call The Foxbox Way.

“Foxbox was very transparent about what they knew and what they didn’t know. Every engineer and project manager we worked with was top-notch and well-versed in their respective areas.”
- Staff VP of Engineering

Strong Engineering Execution Alongside Enterprise Product Teams

Our React Native engineers and architects have worked alongside many partners to build native, integrated experiences. With the added complexity of working within an enterprise environment, we continued to be flexible and agile in our approach of acting like a startup within an enterprise.

Flexible Project Management

Working inside an enterprise organization is always a challenging feat, regardless of the organization. Our team worked alongside their teams to build the best experience possible and tear down any roadblocks that came our way.

We shifted our resources to the challenges that needed the most attention.

“Foxbox Digital helped us build internal knowledge, and worked to help us scale our technical training internally. They went above and beyond in terms of knowledge sharing and training. That was really appreciated.”
- Senior Director, Product Engineering

We started this engagement by building out a React Native bridge, and through this experience, we expanded our team to build other aspects of the solution and provide technical expertise along the way.

As the scope of this project grew, we expanded our product teams with hand-picked engineers and project managers that would enable the teams to continue moving forward quickly and purposely.

New Product Improvements Every Two Weeks

Post-launch, we continue to release new functionality every two weeks. This new continuous development framework has enabled our product teams to focus on the highest priority items and get them to the consumer as soon as possible.

Here are some of the more technical things we built.

A Look Behind-the-Scenes: The Technical Work to Make the App Experience Seamless

Third-Party Video Chat Component

A crucial component of the app, and one of the most complex, was creating a video chat experience that existed natively within the app. Because the third-party chat SDK was only available natively within iOS and Android, we engineered a React Native bridge that allowed us to create a native experience within React Native.

The result was a native video chat interface that connected patients and doctors in real-time, virtually.

Enterprise Single Sign-On

We were focused on getting the consumer to their desired outcome as soon as possible. To make the experience as thoughtful as possible, we created a login-less experience for existing customers, as well as integration with other insurance providers.

Enterprise-Grade Security

The security of consumers’ data is of utmost importance and was a crucial aspect of a successful experience. With the guidance of our client and integration with their security systems, we implemented all of the technical enterprise security protocols needed without sacrificing the experience of the consumer.

Better Healthcare Experiences Start With a Seamless Digital Experience

Together, with the partnership of our client’s robust global design, product, and integrated teams, we developed an easy-to-use, direct-to-consumer mobile telehealth solution.

We’re honored to work alongside a leader in healthcare and innovation. We continue to partner with them to evolve their telehealth product and drive better healthcare experiences.

“They are professionals, talented, smart. They are committed with a very strong core team. They owned the problem.”
- Staff VP of Engineering