With Web-Based Application Towards More Efficient Evaluation of RT-PCR Tests

DIANA Biotechnologies is a biotechnology company that develops innovative products and services within clinical diagnostics and new medicines. It has its own patented DIANA technology that provides highly accurate detection of substances from clinical samples. In 2020, it entered the PCR diagnostics market through its DIANA Lab and became the largest Czech manufacturer of COVID-19 tests.

Challenge

Efficient registration and evaluation of RT-PCR test samples

During the first waves of the coronavirus pandemic, the company began supplying non-invasive RT-PCR tests from saliva to sampling sites, companies and also, for example, to schools. As tens of thousands of samples had to be processed, the vision was to register them using 2D barcodes on the sampling kits and thus optimize the whole process.

DIANA Biotechnologies also wanted to increase the testing capacity in the Czech Republic to hundreds of thousands of tests per day.

DIANA came to INVENTI with requirements for a solution that included sample collection and registration, fully automated measurement, evaluation and reporting of results to databases.

Solution

System development beyond the original scope

The first step on our part was to prepare an analysis and technical requirements. The software architect designed the architecture and together with the senior developer and the product manager defined the necessary features.

We chose an agile type of development, so we could define further sub-goals on the fly in cooperation with the client. In addition to that, the client was able to change the priorities and assignments during the development cycle. This type of development also enabled the finished functionalities to be used immediately and provided an absolute overview of the already completed, currently performed and planned work.

Within a month, we delivered an MVP that enabled:

• completing the sample verification form,
• reading QR codes,
• creating a database and storing data,
• client administration,
• exporting registered samples,
• importing test results,
• export for other organizations (data on users and their test results)

For example, we comprehensively changed the data model beyond the original plan, made integrations to third parties (e.g. Safe2Travel) and modified database structures.

The next round of development included new features that expanded the possibilities in the web application and in the administration of internal users. Thus, we implemented features that increased user-friendliness and standard, but were not critical in the first version, which needed to be launched as soon as possible.

We also extended the client administration with features such as full-text search, user dashboard and features to manage user logins or rights. Finally, we provided an integration layer for automatic integration to other systems.