Daffodil enables Shifo Foundation to leverage technology in order to curb preventable diseases across the world

The Daffodil team understood and analyzed the requirements that Shifo provided regarding the issues with their web application. The application code was scrutinized by our team of skilled Python developers. The developers monitored the use of ‘collections’ in the code such as dict, list, set, and tuple to eliminate over usage that impacts the scalability of the application. The generator function was also used to improve the scalability of the application by reducing memory usage. In addition to that, the Python codes were intelligently iterated to ensure a high code performance which provides a better user experience. We used Python data libraries such as ‘pandas’ which was used for data manipulation and analysis, ‘NumPy’ for fast and easy to use data structures and better runtime behavior, ‘Redis’ as an in-memory database, and ‘RQ’ for asynchronous task execution. PostgreSQL database management system was used for the application as it is extensible and additional features could be added to it as per requirements.

Apart from the enhancements of the existing proprietary application, a team of skilled Python developers having at least 5+ years of experience was added to the Shifo IT team to continuously maintain and improve the application as part of a long-term engagement with Daffodil Software.

Some major improvements that Daffodil has made in Shifo’s proprietary application include:

Data Loading Improvements: The information required for issuing health cards for every child is collected manually through forms. Details about child registrations, vaccine indicators, vaccination drives (%), dropouts (%), missing registrations, amount of wastage, the number of children covered, and stock details are collected in hard copy form. This data is first scanned into the Flexicapture database before it is transferred to the PostgreSQL database. Our team of developers ensured that this reloading of data is a seamless process, ascertaining that accurate data is transferred from the hard copies to the database of the proprietary solution. Also, for every country, there are different cards and vaccines for children and therefore there are different forms in accordance with that. To handle this and ensure that the data from all the forms are added systematically to the main database, a reload module was written in Python.

Report Generation and Automated sharing: Shifo shares a report of its health services to the high authority of the state. The supported format for reports generation was changed to Excel instead of the old PDF format for better data readability. The feature also automated the process of sending the official reports and important data statistics to the government official, it helped in a reduction in human intervention and maintained report records in an organized manner.

Daffodil is currently working with Shifo to create a POC to fulfill the vaccination and healthcare record management requirements and reporting for the Haiti healthcare sector. Shifo aims to achieve the same positive impact in Haiti that they previously experienced in the other counties they worked for.