TWin Clinical Software for EEG, PSG & LTM
The Need
Astro-Med, Inc. had been working on their next-generation EEG, PSG and LTM software. Their
previous version was well received but showing signs of age. Astro-Med had been working on
modernizing their system for two years when management realized the team could not complete
the effort. The development effort had resulted in destabilizing the product as well as loss of
source code and documentation. Astro-Med had to act fast to recover the project and get the
product to market.
The Project
Astro-Med asked Full Spectrum to evaluate the status of the project to determine the severity of
the situation. By performing a a code review and by applying our automated tools, we determined
the product was in very rough shape. In many instances, code couldn’t even compile.
Third party libraries were missing or out of date. The code had almost no inline comments and
was riddled with memory leaks and incorrect coding practices. Astro-Med asked for our help in
stabilizing the product.
We began by tracking down sources for the missing third-party components, building a formal
test plan and starting to populate a bug tracking system. In two weeks we had the product
building properly and were applying Good Manufacturing practices to test the product. We
worked with Astro-Med to prioritize the bugs as they were discovered and worked quickly and
efficiently to resolve them. Within months, Astro-Med was able to release the product to it’s
eagerly awaiting user base.
Having seen our engineering talent in action, Astro-Med decided to retain Full Spectrum as it’s
development and testing team for continuing system enhancements including the addition of
a new portable amplifier.
Full Spectrum has produced six versions of the product with each new version adding features
that Astro-Med’s sales and marketing team deems desirable and competitive.
The Results
Our expertise allowed our client to recover a project that was in dire shape. They were able to
make good on their promise to deliver new versions of their product to their customers. The
product is now extremely stable, flexible and feature rich with synchronized audio, video and
waveform data. There is a new remote viewing capability which delivers video and waveform
data to experts across the internet. Real-time sleep and seizure analysis works quickly and accurately.
Full Spectrum ensured proper Quality Assurance processes were in place and proper testing
techniques used to support Astro-Med’s FDA approval process.
The Tools
To complete this product, Full Spectrum used Visual C++ .NET, ATL, ActiveX, C++, MFC and
Windows Media technologies.