--- title: "Clinical Workflow Platform Case Study | Smart Data" url: https://www.smartdata.net/case-studies/scalable-emr-transformation-for-idocdata description: "Smart Data rebuilt iDocData as a clinical workflow platform with physician-built surveys, patient outreach and Epic HL7 integration, in production 15+ years." source: "Smart Data (smartdata.net). Markdown copy of the page; the HTML page is canonical." --- # A clinical workflow platform physicians configure themselves Smart Data rebuilt iDocData as a configurable clinical workflow platform with physician-built surveys, automated patient outreach and Epic HL7 integration. In production across multiple clinical sites for 15+ years. Built on AWS Java React 15+ yrs of continuous production across multiple clinical sites Industry Healthcare, clinical documentation Engagement Custom Development 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. iDocData asked us to rebuild its desktop application as a web platform, and we built it 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. ## The challenge The original iDocData worked, but it couldn’t scale across sites. - 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. - Physicians had built deeply personalized documentation flows over years, and a rewrite that imposed a generic UI would have lost them, so the customization had to survive the rebuild. - Deployment sites ran Epic, so iDocData had to integrate through HL7. - Zero data loss, zero downtime. Production data covered years of patient encounters. The migration window was effectively zero. 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. ## The solution 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. That way, physician-specific documentation flows 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. Today the platform runs as Node.js services in Docker containers on AWS, with PostgreSQL backing the configurable layer, and CI/CD pipelines support iterative feature delivery without site-by-site coordination. Migration approach: Rebuilt the original Java and XML desktop application as one multi-tenant web platform 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. ## The 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. Zero downtime during go-live, no patient data loss Multi-tenant onboarding for new clinical sites through configuration rather than code changes Physician administrators configure their own workflows without engineering involvement Since the rebuild, the platform has stayed in production and moved onto current cloud infrastructure without major maintenance events, while the systems around it have changed several times. > “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.” Daniel J. Dunaway, MD President, iDocData Software Client Healthcare Platform and technology - React - Java - AWS - PostgreSQL - Docker - Node.js - CI/CD - ETL & Data Pipelines How it unfolded ## In production for more than 15 years 2001 to 2010 Client-server desktop app Every new site meant a local install, IT support and version management 2010 Rebuilt as one multi-tenant platform The Java and XML desktop app became one configurable web platform for every site Zero data loss in production across multiple clinical sites - Sites added by configuration, not code - Epic through HL7 - Runs on AWS today Today ## Working on something similar? Tell us what you are building and what it has to connect to. Here is what happens after you reach out. ### A short call about the work What runs today, what needs to change and the date you are working toward. ### An engineer looks at what’s running Scope comes from your systems as they are, before anything is priced. ### You get a written proposal Covering scope, team, approach and price. [info@smartdata.net](mailto:info@smartdata.net) [(937) 886-9166](tel:+19378869166)