A microservices-based architecture for digital health interventions
The objective of this research project is to investigate a microservice-based system architecture in order to realise scalable and easily adaptable digital health interventions in the future.
Factsheet
- Schools involved School of Engineering and Computer Science
- Institute(s) Institute for Patient-centered Digital Health (PCDH)
- Funding organisation Others
- Duration 01.12.2022 - 30.09.2025
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Kerstin Denecke
- Project staff Robin Glauser
- Partner INVENTUS BERN - Stiftung
- Keywords digital health interventions
Situation
Digital health interventions (DHIs) have grown increasingly important in recent years in that they offer scalable and cost-effective ways of helping people to develop and maintain health-promoting behaviours. Though diverse, many DHI systems share common functionalities that could be reused across different solutions to save time and money in development. However, this potential remains largely untapped. To address this issue, project sought to identify the core components (‘core assets’) of DHIs to make their development more efficient and systematic.
Course of action
In order to identify core assets of digital health interventions, we analysed selected applications from the BFH Institute for Patient-centred Digital Health (including SERO, SFK MindCare, Approches, eMMA, CLAIRE and Ana). We documented the similarities and differences between the solutions – a key step in software product line engineering. On this basis, recurring functionalities were identified and mapped into a comprehensive feature model. The project team then iteratively discussed, revised and refined the results multiple times until a consensus was reached.
Result
The project identified core assets of DHI that are suitable for reuse as microservices. This will reduce development costs, accelerate development, ensure regulatory compliance and improve the quality of digital health solutions. In addition, it investigated the variability within a specific DHI type. Future work will focus on the ongoing development and reuse of these core components. The primary challenge lies in the need to keep pace with third-party software updates and new development frameworks, which can compromise the reusability of existing components.
