B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty

College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Project Context

With current technology era where mostly everything runs on smartphones

and applications, the need of quick and efficient services is almost important in

every aspect especially when it comes to medical services. The Philippine Red

Cross (PRC) is an independent and autonomous non-government organization

tasked to help the Philippine government in the humanitarian field and to adhere to

the obligations of the Philippines to the Geneva Conventions and International Red

Cross and Red Crescent Movements. Philippine Red Cross has truly become the

premier humanitarian organization in the country, committed to provide quality life-

saving services that protect the life and dignity especially of indigent Filipinos in

vulnerable situations. The services offered by the organization are: Disaster

Management Service, National Blood Service, Health Service, Welfare Service,

Volunteer Service, Red Cross Youth and Emergency Response Unit.

Transition of care is a critical period for ensuring important clinical

information is relayed among healthcare providers. Good handover has been shown

to be associated with improvements in patient safety, continuity of patient care, and

improved decision making. Documentation is an essential part of all prehospital

1
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

medical care. It must include, but not be limited to the documentation of the event

or incident, the medical condition, treatment provided and the patient's medical

history. The primary purpose of the Patient Care Report (PCR) is to document all

care and pertinent patient information as well as serving as a data collection tool.

Philippine Red Cross Batangas Chapter provides emergency responses to

accidents. Emergency never comes with prior intimation and real-world scenarios

detecting such emergencies and reporting them is the real challenge. The current

system has been managed by calling. They rely only on calls that gives information

about the patient. There are many difficulties faced by the emergency operator when

it comes to the situation of handling emergency calls for instance

miscommunications. Misalignment of communications between call-taker and

caller might end up in risking someone else’s life. The staff at the Philippine Red

Cross Batangas Chapter uses a Prehospital Patient Care Report form which is

manually filled up before deploying to the dispatcher.

Thus, developers came up with this study that promotes convenience and

efficiency to the staff of the Philippine Red Cross Batangas Chapter to easily

monitor the Prehospital Patient Care of the patient and respond to emergency

responses through a mobile application to fill the technological needs of this

organization.

2
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

Purpose and Description

The study

The study focused on the development of a mobile application to assist the

Emergency Response Unit when an incident occurs and an immediate action is

needed. As the use of mobile phones increasingly become a common aspect of our

everyday life, a mobile phone can be a lifeline in an emergency. The developers

designed a mobile app that can help faster communication and response in case of

emergencies.

The main purpose of the system is to provide a mobile application for

prehospital patient care of a patient. The mobile application would be beneficial to

PRCBC because it will provide an immediate response to reports and can make their

work faster, more accurate, manageable and reliable.

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to propose a mobile application for

Prehospital Patient Care Report.

Specifically, the study aims to:

1. Develop a mobile application that will make the Prehospital Patient Care

Report (PPRC) paperless.

3
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

2. Assist the Red Cross staff to easily receive the information of the patient

during an emergency response.

3. Store the patient’s information in the cloud for data security.

4. Generate reports about incident details through graphs or visualizations.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This research entitled “Pre Hospital Patient Care Report (PPCR) Mobile

Application”, focused on design and development of an android application that can

be used to maximize the benefits of the services of the PRC – Batangas Chapter by

helping the organization in giving an immediate report of the patient during

emergency responses and helping the user to stay-in-touch or have contact with

them.

This study provides an android app for the admin or the staff of PRC and for

other users like emergency response team of PRC. The emergency response team

is the one authorized to post real-time updates through the PPCR Mobile

Application. The admin can receive the PPCR of the patient so that they can find

out the condition of the patient and prepare the immediate action corresponding to

the patient’s situation.

On the other hand, the admin has the capability to forward the emergency

report sent by the emergency response team.

4
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

This app has a capability of reporting an emergency. This report contains

details such as Incident Information, Patient Information, Patient Assessment, Vital

Signs and Care Management. The sending, receiving and notifying was done by the

use Firebase Cloud Messaging.

In this research study, the developers focused on the emergency response

services offered by the PRC-Batangas Chapter and emergency reporting. This

research includes the whole province of Batangas and this application is intended

for the emergency response team of PRC – Batangas Chapter. The admin and the

emergency response team users are required to create an account in the app for

registration and all of the information will be saved in the cloud.

Definition of Terms

To understand and clarify the terms to be used in the development of the

system, the following are hereby defined:

Cloud Storage. Cloud storage is a cloud computing model in which data is

stored on remote servers accessed from the internet, or "cloud” (Techopedia). It is

maintained, operated and managed by a cloud storage service provider on a storage

5
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

servers that are built on virtualization techniques. In this study, the patient’s Commented [WU1]:

information is stored in the cloud.

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). An open cloud service from Google that

lets app developers to send notifications and messages to users through a variety of

platforms. In this study, the FCM is used to send and receive reports during

emergency responses.

Emergency Response Team. A group of people who prepare for and

respond to any emergency incident, such as a natural disaster or an interruption of

business operations (Wikipedia). In this study, it refers to the team from Red Cross

Chapter that responds to the incidents reported. They are the one who will mainly

use the app.

PPCR (Pre-Hospital Patient Care Report).

Any initial medical care given an ill or injured patient by a paramedic or other pers

on before the patient reaches the hospital emergency department (Elsevier, 2009).

In this study, the PPCR is developed into a mobile application.

Red Cross Batangas Chapter. One of the chapters of Philippine Red Cross

humanitarian organization committed to provide quality life-saving services that

protect the life and dignity especially of indigent Filipinos in vulnerable situations

(Generoso, 2013).

6
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

Visualization. A general term that describes any effort to help people

understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context (Basu, 2015). In

this study, it is used to visualize data for better decision making.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED SYSTEM

This chapter primarily presents the different researches and other literatures

that have significant bearings on the variables.

Technical Background

This section includes the programming tools used to develop the system. In

developing a mobile application, a variety of elements such as hardware, software

is needed.

Analytics is the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful

patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns towards effective decision

making. In other words, analytics can be understood as the connective tissue

between data and effective decision making within an organization. Especially

valuable in areas rich with recorded information, analytics relies on the

simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming and operations

research to quantify performance.

7
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

Firebase provides a real-time database and backend as a service. The service

provides application developers an API that allows application data to be

synchronized across clients and stored on Firebase's cloud.

Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for

Google's Android operating system, built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software and

designed specifically for Android development. It is available for download on

Windows, macOS and Linux based operating systems.

Java was designed to have the look and feel of the C++ programming

language, but is simpler to use and enforces an object-oriented programming

model. Java can be used to create complete applications that may run on a single

computer or be distributed among servers and clients in a network.

Related Systems

The following are various studies that will provide information about the

development of the proposed system. Relevant ideas on the different sources formed

the bases in the conceptualization and development of the proposed system.

The study entitled “Design and Development of Crowd Sourcing Mobile

App For Disaster Response”, the researchers design and develop a crowdsourcing

mobile app for disaster response based on several requirements: user friendliness,

user anonymity, real-time updating and viewing of geographic information, bi

8
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

directional communication between users and emergency responders, simple

interface design and easy download that the current researchers also consider in

developing the android app.

The study entitled “A Mobile Based Emergency Reporting Application For

the Philippine National Police Hotline 911”, the researchers use pictures and test to

report the emergency to the office of the PRC when online. It helps to provide more

accurate details about the incident by means of geotagging of the situation by the

help of built-in GPS of the user’s mobile phones.

The idea of using Firebase for the development of the application is the study

entitled “Android Application for Collaborative Mapping in Emergency

Situations”. The study has employed three fundamental functions of Firebase:

Firebase Storage, Firebase Real-time Database and Firebase Authentication. The

researchers use four fundamental functions of firebase in developing the application

which are Firebase Storage, Firebase Real-time Database, Firebase Authentication

and Firebase Cloud Messaging.

A system developed by Alcantara (2017) focus on a free mobile application

that can provide user with the real time access data on active hazard, multi hazard

monitoring application, search the places and addresses, choose in map view and

street view to get direction, see evacuation parameters, report incidents and design

to help the citizens and the staff of CDRRMO to handle emergency situations during

9
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

disasters in Batangas City in an organized way. It can immediately generate reports.

The system can also produce monthly and yearly reports.

The system developed by Ocay et. Al (2016), “iReport: An Android-Based

Real-time Incident Reporting App for PNP Urdaneta”, the development of a mobile

application that will help individual to report an incident anonymously and

conveniently without the hassle of going to police stations. It allows the police

department to get information about the incident quickly through online reports,

viewing the photos or videos of the incident along with the map, thus, responding

to such cases will become easier and faster. Moreover, the police department can

plot the statistic of incidents by looking at a graph, allowing them to decide which

one will be prioritized to receive an immediate action. The application shall be used

by the public in a specific area where the database was deployed in a certain police

station.

A system developed by Habib et. Al (2015), “Android Based Healthcare

Management System”, which is an android-based healthcare application which can

assist people to check their health-related issues on daily basis, which can improve

their health. The application was developed in android operating system

environment. A Google product, namely App Inventor tool, which is a Visual

block programming language, is used to develop the system. The results reveal

that the system provides an easy and user-friendly interface for end-users. The

10
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

main purpose and focus of developing the healthcare application are to help people

to maintain their health. This healthcare application includes the four modules,

namely target heart rate, calorie level, blood volume, and diabetes app.

A system developed by Malhotra (2016), “MedTrack: A Mobile

Application for Patients, Physicians and Pharmacies; Track Your Med-Health on

the go”, the application allows patients to scan their medicines and activate system

alarms based on the dosage schedule fed in by the user. The application sends real-

time notifications to the viii patients on their android mobile devices, helping them

to keep track of their medicine intake. It also integrates with the Walgreen

pharmacy through their Prescription API to allow patients to order prescription

refills on the go. The Walgreen Prescription API is used as a ‘proof-of-concept’ in

the application. All the medical data registered with the application is stored

securely in the AWS cloud using DynamoDB as the database.

CHAPTER 3

DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the discussion of the conceptual design and system

architecture of the proposed system. The data gathered will be evaluated and

11
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

analyzed to provide good result. The methodology to be used is also discussed in

this chapter.

Requirements Analysis

Requirements specification discuss the functional and non-functional

requirements in developing the system. The requirements needed for the

development of the application are the hardware, software and development tools.

The hardware required for the application are Smartphones or Tablet and Android

OS. For the software requirement, Android with Jelly Bean Version (or higher

version), the size of the RAM and resolution. The development tools needed are

Android Studio, Firebase Cloud Messaging and Java Programming Language for

coding.

Software Requirements Specifications

The software requirements used in developing the PPCR Mobile

Application. It includes the software that contains operating system, database

programming language and other tools needed. The developers choose java as a

programming language use for the development of the application. It is object

oriented and most efficient for complex programming task. The suitable database

management system and notification that the developer will use is the Firebase

12
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

Cloud Messaging (FCM). To make the system become a mobile application the

developers will use Android Studio.

Hardware Requirements

The presented hardware requirements were intended to suit the needs of the

system. It has minimum and recommended requirements so that the user can choose

either one of it. By means of this hardware, errors that may occur can be prevented

like poor processing of data.

Table 1
Hardware Requirements
Hardware Minimum Suggested
Requirements Requirements
Memory 1GB RAM 1GB RAM or higher

Phone Storage 500 MB 500 MB or higher

Functional Requirements

This section entails the functional requirements that define the things that system

needs to accomplish and activities that a developed system must be executed.

13
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

1. Generation of Password

1.1. The system should generate the password which is composed of

minimum of 8 random digits and letters.

2. Registration of Accounts

2.1. The user should add new account. The user should update the account.

The system should detect if there is an existing username.

3. System Login

3.1. The system can secure the user account.

4. Generate Report

4.1. The system should retrieve the reports at the client database. The

system should generate the real time report. The system should can

group/sort the patient’s incident and information. The system should

summary reports based on the PPCR.

5. System Logout

5.1. The system can navigate through the login form

Non-Functional Requirements

The following non-functional requirements are considered to create a better

outcome of the study.

14
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

1. Availability

1.1. The system can be accessed as long as there is an internet connection.

2. Security

2.1. A feature wherein the user must log in with a username and a

password.

3. Reliability

3.1. This refers to delivering accurate and truthful data.

Testing and Evaluation Method

The first test done by the developers was functional testing which is to

ensure that the requirement were properly satisfied. The test conducted for this is

driven by the user interface. The developers tested the forms for receiving of

information from the user to interact with the system such as reporting patient’s

information.

User Acceptance Testing

15
 B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

In user acceptance testing, after the testing of the system the developer

conducted a survey. The survey contains a set of questions about the system. Each

respondent rated the system under the criteria given.

User Interface Design

Pre Hospital Patient Care

INCIDENT INFORMATION

PATIENT INFORMATION

PATIENT ASSESSMENT

CARE MANAGEMENT

Figure 1. Home Page

Figure1 shows the Home Page of the proposed system. In this page, all the

categories should be filled up.

16
B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

17
B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

18
B a t a n g a s S t a t e U n i v e r s i ty
College of Informatics and Computing Sciences

19