Vethem – vet appointment booking app

People love pets, treating them sometimes almost like family members. According to statista.com 80 million European households have at least one pet. Without any doubt having a pet is a great pleasure and a great responsibility, one should provide care and regular health check to the animal he or she has chosen.

Task

Vethem – an application for appointment booking or online consultancy with the veterinarian in Sweden. It was acquired by Swedish insurer Agria Djurförsäkring in September 2020. Now the app for Android has 100,000+ installs.

Unfortunately, sometimes pets require medical treatment as well. To simplify the life of pet-lovers in Sweden we have developed an app called Vethem. It helps the pet owners to get a vet consultancy online or schedule the appointment with a specialist in no time. More than that, the application is able to store the pet’s health diary, keep notes with photos and to create reminders about the scheduled vaccination or next visit.

Stfalcon.com task was to create an app for vet appointment booking or online consultancy with the veterinarian. Besides, we had to develop a web gallery with veterinary physicians’ profiles and provide the possibility of video calling between the clients and the specialist, with the possibility of online examination in case of necessity.

Technical Solutions

Vethem app for Android. We are keeping up with the times, that’s why for Android we used Kotlin programming language. The application architecture follows all the principles of Clean Architecture and MVVM through Android Architecture Components. It provides flexibility in development and saves time during changes in design or business logic alterations. Vethem for IOS is based on MVVM architecture, which allows changing design quickly, without altering the business logic of the app. It’s advantageous that Vethem is written in Swift, as we had used all the capacity of protocol-oriented programming.

User Authorization

Every user wants site authorization to be quick and hassle-free. In Vethem we did our best to make it as simple as possible. The app was developed for Sweden, that’s why BankID authorization option was chosen. This method of authorization through Swedish Banks is widely used in the country because it provides the opportunity to easily identify any user. In the process of BankID Authorization, the BankID App is called out and the user has to confirm the authorization in it. It couldn’t be any easier!

Just like stfalcon.com used Bank ID Authorization for Sweden, we can customize the method of authorization in accordance with the preferences of our customer, regional peculiarities and convenience of the users.

Vet Search

When it comes to veterinary practitioner search, Vethem suggests not only the specialists’ list but also the nearest free time for the potential visit. It’s extremely convenient because the pet owner does not need to go anywhere to book the appointment with the doctor. As soon as the user has chosen the veterinarian, he proceeds to the appointment booking process. In case the client wants to choose another time, the system offers such an opportunity during the booking procedures.

Booking

When a user starts booking, he has to create his pet profile or choose the one already existing. He must also specify the reason for the vet consultancy so that the specialist can get preliminary acquainted with the problem. Then the user can change the time of the appointment or proceed directly to the final step — the payment.

Video Call

For video calls, we chose Twilio. The same platform was also used for audio calls inside the system. Video calls are arranged in a simple way: 5-10 minutes before the call the vet receives a warning SMS and an e-mail about the scheduled call, the user, in his turn, gets a push notification. We used Twilio Programmable Video SDK in the clients’ apps. Several people can join the created video call room, the client, the vet, and the administrator, for instance. The latter can only supervise the call, but cannot see the video or listen to the audio. A video screen resembling Skype window is available to the user in the app.

At the end of each call, the vet makes notes to the pet chart, which is automatically sent to the pet owner when saved. The veterinary physician can also send the copy of the chart to the nurses or doctors from other clinics if it’s necessary.

Payment through several payment systems

As we have already mentioned above we created Vethem for Swedish users. That is why the priority was given to the 2 most popular payment systems in the country: Klarna and Swish.

When paying via Klarna a special widget is called out, and the user has to fill in his personal and card details or enter his personal BankID in it.In case of using Swish a special payment app aggregator is called out, which uses BankID for the money transfer. Swish is a more convenient method for Sweden market because minimum clicks are required to make the payment. However, the money transfer is longer than in the case with Klarna.

The most challenge we faced during these payment systems integration was debugging and operational testing. Both systems are local Scandinavian facilities, which are not used worldwide. However, we managed to adjust both systems’ flawless functioning. Though Vethem was developed as Swedish user-oriented service, Stfalcon.com can customize all the developed apps and products in accordance with the requirements and preferences of the customer and locale. So any system, payment method, form or option can be integrated into the product we work on by the customer request.

Reviews

At the end of every appointment with the veterinary physician, the user can optionally leave a review about the vet. He or she can rate a specialist on a five-star rating scale, and leave a text message providing his opinion and feedback. Later on, the review will be displayed in the admin panel of the veterinarian and administrator. We have already received a review on our work from the customer, who is happy to get a well-polished application, which is rated high on the Google Play and App Store. Vethem users appreciate its intuitive interface and convenient functionalities.

Result

We have developed an application that not only allows you to quickly appoint a veterinarian consultation or get it online but also to create a portal that contains profiles of veterinarians. However, there is no limit to perfection, and we continue to improve and optimize the product for the convenience of users.