Summary
AssistGuide (AGIS) desired an Internet based electronic forms service to assist health and human service organizations in collecting information from consumers (e.g. applications for assistance programs) and assist consumers by saving their personal information and automatic pre-filling application forms. At the time, saving and pre-filling form data was in its infancy from Google, Microsoft and other browser vendors. Importantly,it was important the solution was browser independent. Therefore, a user could enter information into form A, on browser X, and sometime later securely have information pre-filled into form B, on browser Y. This service was integrated into more than 30 national, state and county organizations, including NCOA “Benefits CheckUp” to support 400 pharmaceutical assistance forms.
Role
In leading the discovery phase of the Hawaii “Real Choices” program, we recognized a repeating challenge faced by people accessing government and other assistance programs. Some forms (e.g. Medicaid) required entry of more than 1,000 data fields, and required periodic resubmittal. Individuals spent hours providing information that had previously been provided. We led efinition of the electronic forms solution concept, productization, support and evangelizing throughout new markets.
Outcomes and Innovations
- First known solution for saving/filling HTML forms independent of the browser
- Adopted HIPAA compliant processes to secure personal information
- Supported API transfer of submitted form data to partner organizations for efficient processing
- Information pre-fill was supported across organizations and across form types (i.e. pharma, Medicaid, transportation...)
- Patent 7,500,178 awarded by USPTO
Processes
Our team followed an iterative, incremental process, consistent with many Agile principles, but not defined as such. Our U.S. development and support team was spread across 8 different states, from Hawaii to Florida. On occasion we supplemented the team with offshore (Ukraine) specialists for high volume eforms conversion. Solution was transparent to users, so that information was automatically filled across forms.
Platform/Tools
- MS Office suite
- .Net
- c#, VB.net
- SQL Server