Aquifer^TM is Solventus' general healthcare data model and web application framework. Supporting a broad range of workflows, intricate business rules, role based security, and intuitive yet powerful and vivid user interfaces, it is at the core of all of our applications. Aquifer components can be added with automatic and complete integration as the needs of your organization or practice require them. Because of Aquifer's power and flexibility, we can also create highly customized solutions in a fraction of the time and cost of other healthcare software and consulting companies.

Built with Microsoft^® .NET

The Aquifer platform is built with Microsoft's innovative .NET platform. .NET makes developing powerful, manageable and secure web applications and services far easier than with other technologies. Learn more...

The ASP model is a software deployment model where applications and data are hosted and maintained at a remote site by the provider and accessed by customer via thin clients (generally web browsers). There are tremendous functional advantages and cost savings in deploying software this way. The client is completely shielded from the need to host and maintain complex computing hardware, software and data, resulting in a massive saving in time, personnel, and equipment. Since all that is required is a functional web browser and Internet connection, the client is also relieved of the need to install software and updates on their computers, and of the need to routinely replace computers with newer, faster ones because the latest software demands it. To find out more about the ASP model and why it is so compelling, click here.

Solventus believes that the advantages of the ASP model are overwhelming, and we prove it by passing the savings on to you. While we still offer our software with a traditional client/server on-site deployment option, it is primarily to serve as a contrast with the ASP model.

Solventus' software is totally new and designed from the ground up with modern methodologies. The two most important methodologies for developing enterprise-class applications are:

1. Object-oriented architecture. Object oriented architectures allow very complex workflow to be built up from simple components. It's virtually impossible to create a complex application that is also highly maintainable without it.
2. N-tier architecture. N-tier architectures logically separate (and, in some cases, physically separate) the application into serial layers. Minimally, these layers consist of a data access layer, business logic layer, and presentation layer, but other layers (such as a workflow layer between the business logic layer and presentation layer) are possible. This division means that changes in one layer are not going to affect other layers, making updates and maintenance far easier. Because the layers can be physically separated, it also greatly promotes scalability.

Unfortunately, few healthcare software products advertised as 'new' use these methodologies. The most common ways that 'new' products are developed are:

• A thin UI veneer is placed over the same old legacy products. Because this UI layer is in a new platform (e.g. web-based), the product certainly looks new. This strategy is frequently employed when a company needs to have a product available under a new platform primarily for marketing reasons. This type of development gives virtually no benefit to the client, and may create new problems because unreliable technologies like screen scrapers may be used to get information from the legacy products to the new UI.
• An application is cobbled together that is a patchwork of new development and code that was cut and pasted from legacy products. There is no unifying architecture to speak of. This frequently happens when a company has stuck with their old products until both the software and the platforms they operate on have become obsolete. They are desperate to simply have any product available on a new platform in as short a time period as possible, and have been in maintenance mode for so long that they no longer know how to create new software. Software designed this way is always a house of cards and invariably (yes...literally invariably) leads to disaster, with the added beauty that it's an agonizing, death by a thousand cuts, kind of disaster. People who have had to deal with this kind of software have our deepest sympathies.
• Citrix Metaframe or a similar product based on terminal services technology is used to make existing legacy applications available via a web browser or other thin client. This is better than the above two strategies, in that it generally doesn't add new problems, and does add genuine new utility, like scalability and a thin-client model. Of course, it doesn't give any new features and if the underlying software is buggy and unmaintainable, then it will remain so under this implementation. There are other issues with terminal services technology, which can be viewed here.