Last Updated 6 Mar 2020
Release 6 (R6) represents a significant shift in Reveal from a fixed software system that supports pre-defined Malaria workflows toward a platform that can support dynamic workflow definition across multiple contexts. We’re shifting the terminology from “system” to “platform” with release 6 because we are laying the foundation to support a more broad range of services. This document presents a narrative of the major changes that will go into Reveal in 2020 to set the tone and establish a common understanding by which we will build the underlying features.
Big Changes in Reveal
R6 represents the third large iteration of the Reveal platform over the past 18 months. The first version of Reveal was delivered in December 2018 and focused on supporting structure based IRS workflows with a map-first user experience. The second major change focused on expanding that experience by implementing plans, tasks, families, and family members. It was delivered in June 2019. This third change focuses on making the relationship between plans, tasks, families, family members, and forms dynamic so that we can build workflows based on the patterns implemented to date. R6 will be accompanied by a major shift in how users, roles and access controls are handled.
Current State
Reveal is built to deliver a specific set of indoor residual spraying, mass drug administration and focus investigation workflows. It has evolved over time to support planning, interventions at multiple levels within the health system, and longitudinal health records for malaria interventions. The system allows implementers to perform full life cycle operations on entities such as locations, households, household members, and points of interest. These items operate within a fixed technical pattern that requires code changes to update. For example, forms are all hard coded for each deployment, so any changes require a release and deployment.
Below is a summary of features that are available in the system:
Configuration
Manual import of locations using a Python script
Manual user and practitioner creation from a CSV
Form cascading drop-down values
Android Client admin password is able to be turned on or off and set globally or at the team level
The distance required to activate the admin password is configurable in the server
User accounts can be created through the OpenMRS user interface
English and Thai support in the Android client and Web UI
Planning
IRS map based planning
IRS and FI Routine and Recurring plan generation from the Web UI
Team Management (Add practitioners, teams and link them to plans and locations)
Automatic creation of Focus Investigation plans from Thailand when cases are reported in the BIOPHICS system
Update existing plans by changing their state
Tasking
Automatic bulk task generation in the server when a plan’s status becomes active
Offline task generation when a location, household or household member is added
Offline task generation when Mass Drug Administration Round 1 is completed
Reset tasks to their original state
Sync task changes across teams
Automatic Index Case Confirmation generation, completion and display
Data Collection Forms Available (across all implementations)
Structure Based Forms
Add Location
Register Household
Update Household
Indoor Residual Spray
Possible Area of Transmission (PAOT)
Mosquito Collection
Larval Dipping
IRS Verification
CB Spray Area
Household and Household Member Based Forms
Add Household Member
Update Household Member
Bednet Distribution
Blood Screening
Case Confirmation
Mass Drug Administration Dispense (Step 1)
Mass Drug Administration Adherence (Step 2)
Operational Area Based Forms
Behaviour Change Communication
Other Forms
Daily Summary
Field Officer
SA Decision
Mobilization
Team Leader
Android Client Features
Peer-to-Peer sync
In App Reporting
Operational area charts as the user makes changes
Map tile downloader so users can specify the areas they wish to download before they go out to the field and better manage the memory on the device
Reporting
IRS tabular drill-down reporting with country-specific customisations
Focus Investigation plan views with links to other plans in that operational area
IRS CSV Exports
Data Warehouse access and reporting through Apache Superset
Custom reporting solution for the Thailand BIOPHICS system
Reveal Future State
Release 6 and the accompanying technical debt work are comprised of a number of core features that are broken out into individual tasks that need to be developed. This section lists those features and builds a narrative to describe how the pieces fit together.
Feature List
Form Configuration by system administrators
Dynamic Task generation
Entity persistence (households, household members, locations) and updating tasks offline across plans
Web UI CSV Import for risk files
Web UI importing coverage targets
Web UI see historical index cases
Remove the OpenMRS dependency
Add user accounts, roles and rights to OpenSRP
Remove OpenMRS Location dependency
Streamlining Data Warehouse sync process to reduce resource consumption
Narrative
Our target is to develop Reveal into a platform that is dynamic, configurable and able to be deployed with minimal coding. We will build off of the features listed above to achieve this. The future allows system administrators to configure the list of activities available in plans, link them to forms that are defined in the server and generate tasks when plans are set to active for any intervention type at the operational area, structure, household, and household member levels. households, household members and locations will persist across plans so that you only have to register a household once. Any changes to these will update tasks in other active plans on the user’s device. The web UI will be improved to support this dynamic task generation in a straightforward way including determining if a particular plan type should follow the tabular drill down pattern, or plan view. Map based planning in the web UI will also be improved so users can import coverage targets different geographic levels and import risk files to better inform intervention planning. System administrators will be able to create users and assign their roles with improved access controls that support granting specific permissions in the Android client and web UI. Finally, the entire platform will be able to be run on less hardware than is currently required because we are removing OpenMRS and streamlining the data warehouse process.