Week 6 - Arnold Chen

             This week, I continued to work on the mobile app that takes clinical images and uploads them to a database. Previously, I was attempting to figure out whether I need to create a database or what kind of database to upload to as I am not allowed access to the hospital’s IT systems. I was really glad to finally figure this out and excited that the app can now accomplish what the clinician mentioned, from taking a photo to uploading to an actual database. It seems that multiple sources use Google Firebase to sync with their mobile app, so I learned how to set up my app to connect with Google Firebase. I also chose this due to the relative ease of using Google Firebase. It simply requires a Google account then writing code to connect to the specific account, so I set one up for the clinic. Creating an actual database for example MySQL would require an actual computer that has a static IP address (i.e. one that uses an ethernet connection rather than Wi-Fi) and has more nuances to setting it up.   

            Compared to last week, the mobile app now incorporates the database upload to Google Firebase. It is also set up such that the photos are stored in folders with patient ID and folders with date so they are not all stored in the main directory of the storage system. I also double checked the dimensions of app components (text boxes, images, etc.) so they would instead depend on the dimensions of the mobile device (e.g. device width with a margin of 10 on all sides) rather than a fixed number (to prevent things looking fine on one device but going off the screen for other devices). Also tested it on both Android phone and iPhone, built in a flash button for the camera (the camera in this mobile app is different from the camera app on the phone, so I added custom buttons that allows the user to change the zoom value or flash status, etc.). On the development side, I cleaned up the code and added comments to describe what each section of the code corresponds to. Then I wrote up a detailed document explaining the workflow of this mobile app, step-by-step instructions of how a user can start using this app, and technical instructions/details for future potential developers who might want to change the code itself.

            One of the cases discussed at infectious diseases this week was related to the eye and nervous system. The patient has blurry vision, distance and near vision, as well as seeing black dots on peripheral vision in both eyes. From images of the eye, it was diagnosed to be bilateral placoid uveitis. The uveitis seems to be come from neurosyphilis. For the neurosyphilis, one of the treatments considered was penicillin along with probenecid. In the “Core Concepts in Disease” class last semester, my presentation topic was related to eye, so it was especially interesting to see this case.


Modified Upload page of the mobile app, where the photos and corresponding filenames are displayed here but also uploaded to Firebase storage, where they are organized in folders with patient ID and date  


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