appropriate start on a Dentist Application

Question

I have been planning to build a Dentist Application for the use of the Dentist to add patients(with medical profiles...), organize visits, manage balance/fees....etc

I know Java, .NET( C#) (some windows forms), and Python. Do you have any suggestions with the language I should maybe start with and the framework and IDE that will make my life easier (and help me finish in a good amount of time). This program will be connected with a database of at least 1000 patients...

IDE's I am familiar with : eclipse, Netbeans, and Visual Studio.

I want suggestions with reason explanations (why would you favor C# over Java ....compatibility....etc)

Thanks,

Answer 1

You can write such an application in any of the languages you have mentioned.

Research the features you will need and the support you can expect from each language and the different available libraries.

You need to come up with a good design first (regardless of language/platform), and make sure you have all the requirements - how many people should be supported in the system, how many concurrent users, privacy of data, security features, access patterns etc...

You should probably use the language you are most comfortable with, in particular if the features you require have similar support in the different languages/frameworks.

Answer 2

I suggest to start with some research on the subject (the dentist domain) and to make a decent functional design before you start to think about IDE's and languages.

And then try to figure out some other things: For instance, will you make a SAAS or a windows client, do all your customers have internet access. Iis the sensitive patient data allowed to be stored on the web.

Answer 3

I believe that question is very relative to the person programming. I think as the developer you have to figure out where you would be most successful at or what you want to get out of the project. If you are using this project to make money then do what you are comfortable with. If you are using it to better yourself as a developer then pick a language you are less confident in.

The one thing I want to add, is remember PHI (Protected Health Information). So, you have to have patient privacy in mind when building an app like this.

If it were me... I would write something in .NET and use Visual Studio which works very well for windows forms. Windows forms would work very well in an office environment.

Just my 2 cents.

Answer 4

It's not the database side, or even the programming environment, that will be the issue for a dental practice.

I consult for a dentist friend of mine, and the opportunity arose to sell him a fully-functional contact/document management application to run his patient database.

In the end, I couldn't in good conscience recommend my own application, because not being designed for the dental sector, it lacks the specialised interfaces with dental imaging systems.

Databases, appointments, invoices, etc, are easy.

But what a dentist needs is something that integrates with the dental records themselves - the X-ray images of teeth. It needs a simple UI, easily usable by the dental nurse while she works with the dentist while he has his hands in the patient's mouth.

We could have written a suitable graphical interface to an image library (imagine a diagrammatic representation of the teeth in their relative positions in the mouth, linked to the images themselves), but it wasn't worth it - especially as there are several highly specialised dental packages around already.

Answer 5

First introduce yourself to the business knowledge. Healthcare programs aren't written overnight and you have to take into account that you need to have a very secure application and probably also need to keep years of information (the program I was involved in in 2001-2002 had to keep 30 years of patient history due to Belgian law).

Choosing the technology is actually entirely up to you: what are you good at? Can you find already prebuild pieces of code or controls ...