Big Changes are on the Horizon!

by | Sep 30, 2024

A message from Dr. Van Merkle –

SBN members: Many of you are doing more testing, seeing more patients and buying more vitamins in this last year, especially with the PSS automated testing recommendations.  I’ve heard so many comments that patient compliance is much easier and many SBN members are enjoying their lab based nutrition practice more with the SBN additions and services. 

We are in the  midst of the largest and most advanced upgrade to the SBN system we have ever had.  We are very excited about what is being done and how much better it will be for you, your business and your patients.  The websites will be easier to navigate and many other updates and upgrades.  This is Phase 1, there are 2 other Phases that are in the pipeline to do next year.  Below are the notes from the company doing most of this work:

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Science Based Nutrition: Phase 1 – Week of 9/23/24

Hi SBN Team,

Highlights:

  • Sprint 5 concluded last week with 23 points completed on the development side. Sprint 6 starts this week with 25 points in to do and 11 WIP from Sprint 5. We are watching Velocity in the next few sprints to find our average sprint development velocity with 2.5 devs and an almost complete backlog.
  • All PMA wire revisions for Phase 1 screens were completed, sent to SBN, and reviewed with the dev team. Final/outstanding wire decomp is in progress this sprint (adding development stories to the backlog).
  • UX work is wrapping up this week with wires for our dev team on mobile screens and a basic treatment/overview of report themes.
  • Jxxxxx is moving through designs for the experience, focusing on the most complex elements first. We had another direction review with the team Thursday and got good feedback on our direction, which has helped solidify work to date. Links are also provided here to share with the rest of the SBN team.
    • Dashboard
    • Patients Main Page
    • Patient Profile
  • The Dev team continues working on PMA decomp listed in Sprint 6 (patient, reports, labs). These are producing many stories in the backlog, but we also realize these were the most complex screens to get approval from the client and to attempt to finalize all decomp on the PMA work this sprint.
  • This will give us the information we need to review the entire scope of the PMA work ahead of us.
  • The team is adding notes to the Endpoint document for the PMA, and they will review with Ray.

UX/Design:

  • Reviewed report comparison screens in the final PMA sign-off. Tracey has opted for all info to be included in an open-state expanded view.
  • We will also include sorting by last name in the table view. Future column sorting will be an enhancement in later phases.
  • Cxxxx is finalizing the mobile view for the PMA and guidelines for report themes, which he will hand off to the dev team. This will be his last week on the project.
  • Jxxxx continues to work on design after good feedback on the direction this week. We are on the right track with the sidebar and use of colors/icons shown to date.

Up Next & Progress Summary:

  • We will continue to call this out until we get a sense of our team’s velocity in the now (almost fully) scoped-out backlog on the PMA work: due to the PMA’s complexity, there are now many stories in the backlog, and we will have to monitor our progress closely.
    • We will also want to consciously increase our development velocity now that the screens are approved and over to the dev team. This will be a concerted effort on our side now that decomp is wrapping up.
  • Again, we will want also to monitor design iterations with an eye toward MVP once SBN approves major components so our dev team does not have to do a lot of rework.
  • We will meet early next week with Ray on the API work on the PMA. There is a lot of work to do here, and now that development work is being broken down, we need to get these conversations moving.
  • Jxxxxx and I will meet this week to review and get a sense of the PMA endpoints and gauge the level of effort on our side as well.
  • Our current inclination is to have the entire dev team on the PMA for the next few sprints.
    • We understand Ray is still giving thought to the PSS (how to package the APIs) so from that angle it also makes sense to keep with the PMA for now.

Budget

SOW (B) will not exceed 1,972 hours ($345,000).  (SBN members: this does not include $40,000 that was spent on the initial evaluation and research, Van)

  • We are projecting to use approximately 93 (estimated) hours this week.
  • As of this writing, we have used a total of ~857 hours to date and have 57% of the overall budget remaining (~1,113 hours). This takes us approximately through December 13, 2024.

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It has been needed for some time.  

This is going to change how you interact with SBN, it will be easier for you, your office and your patients and it will provide more features, making your nutrition practice even more effective and efficient with less staff.  There will be single sign on for everything SBN: PMA, store, ticket system etc. This will be great.

I’m sure that some of you might be apprehensive about change, but it is inevitable and once you use it a few times, you will appreciate what SBN has done. 

On another note, we have member docs around the country that are having exceptional practices using the SBN system and it will be even more practical with these upgrades.

If you need some help getting going or getting better, be sure to review some of the previous training videos and materials and I’m going to be doing more on a regular basis starting next month.

-Van

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