Ignite: Reliable software solutions for the health sector

Ignite provides custom software solutions from mobile applications to large-scale Europe–wide information systems that enterprises can profit from. Ignite aims to introduce user-friendly solutions and provoke digitisation in the health sector.

Dea Oja, Ignite’s managing director, and Andres Pihor, its export manager, believe that results-orientation, close collaboration with the client and several stages of implementation are the basic components for achieving the business goals of the client and succeed in software developing.

“Our vision as a software development company is that IT can be of assistance in any field of activity. Specialists working in different areas are focused on the specifics of their own field, just as they should be, though at the same time, opportunities offered by IT solutions are often not taken advantage of. There are so many opportunities for improving work methods by using IT solutions and, thereby, to increase the effectiveness of work. We concentrate on our client and offer software solutions beneficial for the client. In cooperation with our client, we try to figure out the work phases that could be improved by implementing IT solutions. Meeting the needs of the client, we develop a software solution that leads to desired results,” Oja explained.

At Ignite we create software in short developement cycles, involving quality specialists from the start and developing the product incrementally until it is finished.

Software solutions in the area of eHealth

“Health sector solutions are demanding due to the complexity of healthcare processes.” Ignite’s bywords in the medical field are the following: a flexible approach to software integration in healthcare processes and a user–friendly introduction to a digital way of thinking in a conservative environment.

According to Pihor and Oja, the development of a new version of the Estonian patient portal has been the biggest eHealth project. The patient portal is a modern e-services platform (environment) which enables the patients to get an overview of their personal health information and manage their health records. Patient data is highly-secured.

According to Pihor, one of the most interesting projects of Ignite is the solution for the Estonian start–up FibroTX: “Our customer FibroTX provides innovative tools for personalized dermatology and skin care. Various biomarkers can be measured directly from the skin surface, producing colored panels. Our task was to create a mobile application to read and analyze the panels of skin biomarkers. The problem at hand required a new smart solution for image recognition as well as rigorous logic for distinguishing skin biomarker panel color hues from each other. Our knowledge of mobile technologies, Android as well as iOS, was a key consideration when we were selected to carry out the project.”

According to Oja, the solution for Fibro-TX is very innovative, and such a thing had never been done before. This project highlights the importance of cooperation with the client. We hope to create innovative solutions, such as mobile applications, information systems, patient portals, for other health sector enterprises, too,” Oja said.

Broad knowledge base

According to Pihor, Ignite’s strength lies in its competence in different areas: “We have provided banking software for the financial industry. One of the latest issues is cryptocurrency development. We have also developed telecommunication solutions and undertaken various development activities to the benefit of the medical sector.

Ignite is one of the few Estonian enterprises which can undertake technology development involving cryptocurrency. In the health sector, Ignite has experience on both the Estonian X–road and ID–card solutions.

X–road, the data exchange layer for information systems created in Estonia, makes it possible to arrange secure web-based data exchange between digitally maintained databases. “Block­chain, which underlies cryptocurrency, is another secure solution. It would be possible to base authentication on this,” said Pihor.

Drawing on these experiences, he went on, the vision is to take analogous solutions beyond Estonia. “We are aiming to apply our competencies in foreign markets. We would like to reach to a point when we can develop different health systems even outside of Estonia.”

Ignite – multicultural working environment

“We have people here from Italy, Slovakia, Columbia, and Georgia. This is why our working language is English,” Pihor said. An international team ensures a creative and innovative flow of ideas in the office. In addition, this simplifies the entering of foreign markets, since Ignite has contacts from almost every part of the world.