All case studies
Healthcare
Incremental modernization of a healthcare platform
Evolving an OpenEMR-based healthcare platform to Laravel without disrupting patient care — new modules running alongside the legacy system, with SSO across both.
- Legacy modernization
- Integrations
- Security and SSO
Context
A live healthcare platform built on OpenEMR needed to evolve: new features, a more modern experience and a codebase that is easier to maintain. Meanwhile, clinicians and care units relied on it every day — stopping for a rewrite was not an option.
Challenge
- A full rewrite would carry high risk and a long period with no delivered value.
- Authentication and permissions lived in the legacy system, and users could not lose access during the transition.
- Users, care units and organizational links had to stay consistent across both platforms.
Approach
I designed an incremental modernization following the strangler fig pattern: the legacy system keeps handling what already works, and each new capability is built in Laravel, running alongside OpenEMR.
- Cross-platform SSO with Laravel Fortify and Sanctum, gradually shifting security responsibilities from the legacy system to the new application without forcing users through a new login or sign-up.
- REST APIs and synchronization processes for users, care units and organizational links, handling the data-consistency edge cases that only show up when two systems share the same information.
- Docker-based environment so legacy and new modules run side by side reproducibly.
Outcome
- A modernization path with no big-bang cutover: each module migrates when it’s ready.
- Users kept their access while authentication responsibilities were transferred.
- A foundation to keep evolving the platform with security, maintainability and business continuity.