Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of a digital health management application for zoos, created to address persistent challenges in maintaining complete and reliable animal health records in facilities without in-house veterinarians. The application unifies medical history, clinical notes, examination scheduling, and invoice management within a single, role-based platform to improve efficiency, accuracy, and continuity of care. Built using the Extreme Programming (XP) methodology, the system emphasizes short iterations, continuous integration, rapid feedback, and active user participation from zookeepers, administrators, and external veterinarians. Key features include QR-coded animal identification, appointment reminders, structured examination templates, attachment support for laboratory results, configurable billing items, and audit logging for traceability. Basic security controls authentication, authorization, and encrypted data at rest and in transit were incorporated to safeguard sensitive information. Black box testing of core modules (user authentication, inspection data entry, scheduling, and invoice processing) yielded a 100% pass rate against predefined test cases. Quantitatively, the streamlined workflows reduced operational delays and decreased transcription errors in medical recordkeeping, while dashboards improved oversight of pending examinations and outstanding invoices. Qualitatively, user acceptance testing confirmed that the application met the defined acceptance criteria and better aligned daily tasks with standard operating procedures. Overall, the system demonstrates how an XP-driven, user-centered approach can enhance zoo operations, support veterinary care continuity with limited on-site expertise, and improve documentation quality and payment management, providing a scalable foundation for future interoperability with laboratory information systems and national animal health reporting.

Concepts :

Access to Document

Citations by Year