A Clinical Workflow Platform Physicians Configure Themselves.
Smart Data rebuilt iDocData from a 2001 client-server application into a configurable, multi-tenant clinical workflow platform. Physicians build their own survey flows, scoring algorithms, and automated patient reminders without engineering involvement. The platform has been in production across multiple clinical sites for 15+ years and continues to support clinical trials nearing publication.
Client
iDocData
Industry
Healthcare, clinical documentation
Deployment
Multiple clinical sites including a major regional health system
Timeline
Since 2010 (ongoing enhancements)
Project Overview
iDocData began in 2001 as a client-server application for generating and managing electronic medical record documentation across physician offices and ambulatory surgery centers. By 2010, scaling the desktop client across new locations had become operationally expensive: every new site meant local installations, version drift, and a growing maintenance load that the founding team could no longer carry.
The brief to Smart Data was deceptively narrow: rebuild iDocData as a web platform. The work that actually shipped was broader. Smart Data redesigned iDocData as a configurable clinical workflow platform where physicians and clinical administrators (not developers) build their own surveys, scoring algorithms, and automated patient reminders. The platform deploys to multiple clinical sites from a single codebase, integrates with Epic through HL7, and runs on AWS with multi-tenant isolation. It has been in production across multiple sites for 15+ years.
Project Challenge
The original iDocData was working software. The problem was structural, not functional.
Client-server architecture did not scale. Every new physician office or ambulatory surgery center required local installation, IT support, and version management. Costs grew linearly with sites.
Customization was the product. Physicians had built deeply personalized documentation flows over years. A rewrite that imposed a generic UI would have lost the user base. Customization needed to survive the rebuild.
External integration was non-negotiable. Deployment sites ran Epic. iDocData had to integrate cleanly through HL7, not as a side channel.
Zero data loss, zero downtime. Production data covered years of patient encounters. The migration window was effectively zero.
The deeper challenge was that none of these were the kind of problem you solve with a code refactor. Each one required a platform-level decision about how clinical work would be configured, by whom, and how it would integrate with the systems clinical staff already used.
Project Approach
Smart Data managed the full redevelopment of the iDocData platform, then continued as the engineering partner through 15+ years of ongoing feature work.
Architecture decisions that shaped the rebuild:
Configurable clinical workflows. Clinical administrators (not engineers) build surveys, scoring algorithms, and document templates through the platform UI. Reference-name conventions handle variable uniqueness across complex multi-question-set scoring. The result: physician-specific documentation flows that survive engineering turnover.
Automated patient outreach. SMS and email reminders for survey completion with handlebars-style templating. Cadence is configurable per study: notify after X days, remind every Y days, send up to Z reminders. Patient outreach is not a separate vendor; it runs inside the platform.
Multi-tenant deployment. A single codebase serves multiple clinical sites with isolated data, branding, and configuration. New sites onboard through configuration, not code.
Global Pages pattern. Screen-level components are reusable across clinical acts and study contexts. Physician-specific UI customization happens through HTML and CSS overrides at the page and control level, without forking the platform.
JSON-configured reporting. Administrators define custom reports queryable by date, study, and survey path through configuration, not code.
Epic HL7 integration. Patient demographics and clinical context flow through HL7 to the production deployments running Epic.
Containerized cloud architecture. Node.js services in Docker containers on AWS, with PostgreSQL backing the configurable layer. CI/CD pipelines support iterative feature delivery without site-by-site coordination.
Migration approach: Re-engineered the original Java and XML codebase to React and JSON while preserving every existing physician workflow. The custom UI engine that allowed physicians to maintain personalized documentation flows was rebuilt, not replaced. Migration completed with zero data loss and minimal downtime.
Daniel J. Dunaway, MD
President, iDocData Software
"Without the help of Smart Data, our software would still be in the dark ages. We are now scalable and ongoing costs are minimal. The software has now been running at multiple sites for many years with really no maintenance. It just runs. The docs love it."
Project Results
The rebuild shipped with no data loss and minimal downtime, and the platform has been in production at multiple clinical sites for 15+ years without significant maintenance overhead. The configurable architecture has expanded the platform's reach beyond clinical documentation into clinical research: iDocData currently supports several clinical trials, with two studies nearing publication.
Zero downtime during go-live, no patient data loss
15+ years of continuous production operation across multiple clinical sites
Multi-tenant onboarding for new clinical sites through configuration rather than code changes
Physician administrators configure their own workflows without engineering involvement
Platform expanded from clinical documentation into supporting active clinical trials
The deeper pattern: iDocData is the kind of long-running engagement that compounds. Year one was the rebuild. Years two through fifteen are the platform doing the work it was designed to do, without rebuilds, without re-platforming, without major maintenance events. The configurable architecture is the reason the platform is still in production while the systems built around it have changed multiple times.
Key Technologies
Multi-tenant configuration allows different clinical sites to run with site-specific UI customization, study configuration, and reporting schemas from the same platform codebase. Sites can adopt new features on independent timelines without forking the platform.
