Aquila: How we build it — Blurb

This essay is basically the story of our company. You might find it interesting, or you don’t. (wink!)

Motivation

The year 2018 has been full of misfortunes and tragedies. In the first month of the year, my grandmother suffered from a stroke. It was very difficult for the whole family. We needed to take turns in taking care of her at the hospital and needed to leave work. It was an emotional roller coaster since just weeks before that happened my great-grandmother died.

We were in a public hospital because as we all know healthcare is very expensive and we’re not really well off. Public hospitals here in the Philippines are not really the type of hospitals you want to be staying in. The emergency room is very crowded and there were no more rooms left. We stayed in the emergency room lobby for three whole days before we were transferred to a room.

In the same year, my father-in-law’s illness worsens. He had gout and a failing kidney. We were in and out of different hospitals. It was very difficult. You need to book at least two weeks in advance to get treatment and in case of an emergency, you need to wait in line for hours. Not including the countless medications, diagnostics, and all other medical procedures.

This is when I realized that there is really a serious need for an upgrade in our medical system.

The Start

The year wasn’t all that bad. After all, this is also the year where we caught our first hundred thousand contract with In-Vitro Fertilization Laboratory Inc.

This is where we realized that the industry is ready for technological advancement. Not only that, we were able to build connections that led to what we have now, Aquila Clinic System.

The Concern

Fast forward to 2020. The year where everything, everyone, suddenly stopped. The economy crashed, businesses closed, and worse of all, the healthcare industry took a great hit. People are dying at a very unprecedented rate.

Healthcare services have seen plenty of endeavors because of this pandemic. With this being said, concerns in the healthcare system have been emphasized. We have listed down three of the major concerns in healthcare services:

a. Patient Data Management

- Due to the increasing number of patients; clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities encountered a sudden rise in patient number. With this, handling patient records is becoming a major concern.

b. Accessibility of Healthcare Services

- The current pandemic has magnified the importance of accessibility in healthcare services. As the number of patients increases, it’s getting more challenging to access healthcare services such as clinic check-ups, diagnostic laboratories, and many more. The added restrictions on face-to-face transactions made medical concerns less of a priority.

c. Medical Emergency Reduction

- Because of the difficulty in getting medical assistance, a lot of patients are losing the desire to go to hospitals and have their selves checked by doctors. As a result, medical emergencies are rising.

We decided to take action and build a roadmap to provide solutions for these rising concerns.

The Product

Aquila Clinic Systems or A.C.S — is a web and desktop application that stores and manages patient records. From booking an appointment to printing medical prescriptions and certificates with historical data. As of now, there are a couple of features that are still in the pipeline. An example is the lab and pharmacy feature where patient prescriptions and requests are automatically forwarded to partner laboratories and pharmacies for faster transaction and monitoring. We are also planning to integrate vaccination features that store the vaccination records of patients.

Having this system as the foundation of a much-integrated system, we believe that it has the potential to become one of the leading tools for healthcare service. Having said that, we developed a product roadmap to follow and make the development process more streamlined.

The Product Roadmap

Given the severity of the task at hand, we devised a roadmap to tackle each concern. Starting with: Phase 1: Patient Data Management. This will solve the problem in the day-to-day clinic, laboratory, and pharmacy operations. This will serve as the core of the integrated system we will be building and will hold the bulk of patient data and records.

Phase 2: Accessibility of Healthcare Services. This phase will connect the patients(users) to the existing Clinic System. This will ensure that patients will have better access to medical treatments, medicines, and diagnostic laboratories anywhere.

Phase 3: Medical Emergency Reduction. This is where everything comes together. From patient data to laboratories and pharmacy records. By building an intelligent machine that would process data to predict and prevent medical emergencies such as stroke, heart failure, and many other illnesses, we are aiming to lessen the fatalities brought by these diseases.

Our Clients

The Doctors — these professionals have clearly a lot on their plate. One major challenge they’re facing is managing all patient records. Imagine a clinic with at least a thousand patients. Aquila Clinic System (ACS) will serve as a storage and manager of patient data. This will surely diminish their time and effort in managing patient records and the day-to-day clinic operations.

The Patients — imagine needing to wait for a week just to see your doctor and having to wait at least three hours in the doctor’s clinic having to leave from work. No wonder a lot of people is thinking that getting medical attention is a hassle, they’re really not mistaken. We would really love to solve this concern by building an application that would cater to appointments and doctor meetings, integrated with pharmacy and diagnostic laboratories, we will truly provide a lasting solution to this problem.

Product Vision

We aim to reduce deaths by medical emergencies by gaining and processing information through cutting-edge technologies and provide every medical facility in the country with the right tools to better serve its patients.

Milestones

For the next 12 months, we will complete the optimization of ACS and launch a full version of both desktop and web versions of the application. We will also strengthen our marketing team and focus most of our efforts on growing our client list by opening new markets in nearby cities. We aim to hit the 100-subscription goal by December of this year.

For the team, we will hire more talents, specifically project managers, UI/UX designers, and additional developers.

Challenge

Starting a business is never easy. There are certainly a lot of ups and downs. However, my challenge to you is to keep going! As they say, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going!”

If you’re interested in partnering with us, please feel free to contact me through my email paulo.rodriguez.biz@gmail.com.

We need you to further advance our vision.