Aidendo

Dr. Lindsey VanDyke, Director at the Advanced Institute for Diabetes & Endocrinology is an endocrinologist, diabetes and metabolism specialist. Dr. VanDyke wanted to create a platform specifically for endocrinology patients, a platform that would capture patients’ health metrics, such as blood pressure, weight, blood sugar, etc. This platform would capture this information directly from their own personal bluetooth-enabled devices.

As a non-technical founder, Dr. VanDyke tried to first build this product on her own. She did her own research, sourced her own developers to interview from Fiverr, spoke to other doctors who have built apps in the past, and more. Ultimately, she got nowhere. At times she didn’t understand what the developers were saying/talking about. At other times, she didn’t know the right technology terminologies to explain her vision.

Dr. VanDyke needed a team to jump in and help her, as a non-technical founder, build her product to change the lives of her patients and eventually, all endocrinology patients.

Dr. VanDyke sought to address a significant market gap that she had identified through her experience. With a big vision and concrete insights from existing, yet imperfect services, she was ready to get going. Her first step was building out her user stories, but in doing so, she faced her first hurdle—the need for the product to comply with HIPAA regulations. In navigating this intricate landscape, Dr. VanDyke sought assistance to not only conceptualize the user experience but also to ensure the stringent adherence to healthcare privacy standards.

Within her professional network, other physicians echoed similar challenges in their pursuit of development partners. The intricate process of identifying suitable teams around the world with experience in the US healthcare system proved challenging.

A crucial aspect of overcoming these challenges involved pinpointing a team with the right blend of expertise. Dr. VanDyke's requirements called for a group with a proven track record in HIPAA compliance and health technology. Equally vital was their ability to demystify technical jargon, translating it into comprehensible steps.

Aloa was able to look through our global partner network to identify a team that not only had both the technical and industry experience to get the job done but also the discipline to work with a non-technical founder in iterating through her vision.

Aloa was able to organize the process in a manner that was manageable for Dr. VanDyke, given she was (and still is) still a full-time doctor during the day. The process had to be detail oriented, clear, and flexible.

We started off the engagement with a Design and Discovery phase so we could properly parse out all of the requirements that needed to be included in the final MVP. The goal here was ensuring that we included the features that were core to the functionality of the application while cutting out the “nice to have” components that weren’t worth the time and money at this early stage. 

Aloa was able to put a dedicated team on the project, individuals who not only had the technical chops but also could communicate effectively and flexibly. Within a year, the entire MVP was built for Dr. VanDyke, adhering to all of her requirements as well as satisfying all HIPAA and other industry related standards.

As an outcome, the team was able to build a fully HIPAA-compliant dashboard, now available to staff at Dr. VanDyke’s clinic for beta testing. Through our relationship, we were able to ensure that this dashboard had what Dr. VanDyke and her team needed to help her patients while also proving out the ease of use for her staff.

As she continues to test the product with her Beta group, Dr. VanDyke hopes to continue implementing more features and strengthening the capabilities of the platform in future versions. Once proved locally, the team will then look to license out this technology to endocrinology clinics across the US.