GeneWise Health, an in-house genetics laboratory helping people manage disease risks with genetic testing and personalized health plans, in need of a major upgrade to meet a rigorous data security standard.
Ruby on Rails
Healthcare
Dedicated Team
Web
9 members
6 months
JetRuby Agency has undertaken several demanding projects across various industries.
In the healthcare sector, we worked with GeneWise Health, an in-house genetics laboratory offering proprietary clinical assays and analytical software.
GeneWise Health has been helping people manage disease risks for over two decades with genetic testing and personalized health plans.
Recently acquired by GenovaCare, a precision health management company serving the insurance and life science industries, GeneWise Health required SOC 2 compliance, a rigorous standard for data security essential in healthcare technology.
GeneWise Health’s core application, developed on Ruby on Rails nearly twenty years ago, needed substantial modernization to reduce complexity, streamline functionality, and strengthen security.
Limited test coverage increased the risk of hidden issues during updates, making compliance harder.
Since the software was for genetic lab testing, there was no room for errors. Upgrades had to be 100% ready and secure from the moment they went live.
The primary objectives of the project were:
We also realized that beyond the initial objectives, we ultimately had to leave our client with a modern, lean system that would allow them to integrate future updates and stay compliant seamlessly.
JetRuby’s team stepped in to create a foundation supporting GeneWise Health’s long-term growth under GenovaCare.
GeneWise Health’s platform is built on a custom Ruby on Rails (RoR) framework.
Our team used the following tech stack:
Initially, the team had one Lead Developer and two Middle developers.
When the most technically demanding portion of the update was complete, we rotated our Lead for a Senior developer to help structure refactoring efforts at an optimized cost.
A developer from GeneWise Health also worked closely with us, improving communication and speeding up our progress.
The project started with a three-month plan to upgrade Ruby on Rails from version 3.2.22.5 to 7.x.
Early on, the team found a lot of unused code that made initial test coverage estimates unreliable. However, JetRuby finished the upgrade on time by following these steps:
Standardized the code format, secured file permissions, and cleaned up the repository by removing unused directories. They also improved test coverage with more unit tests
Upgraded Ruby and Rails incrementally through several versions, replaced outdated functions with modern ones and switched to strong parameters for better security
Refactored the code to remove instance variables from views, made sure coding standards were consistent with RuboCop, and secured secrets by moving them to environment variables
The solution required further improvements, so we extended the project by three more months to focus on refactoring, cleanup, and live testing.
This extra time allowed us to focus on cleaning up the code and testing it in real-life conditions. The team prioritized data security and added new network and application firewalls to protect against unauthorized access and threats.
We also added two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect user accounts and implemented intrusion detection systems (IDS) to spot suspicious activities immediately.
During this extended period, the JetRuby team worked hard to refactor the code.
We kept all existing features functional while improving efficiency and reducing 20 years of technical debt.
Our team also set up monitoring systems using New Relic and Logstash to track system uptime, check data accuracy, and strengthen access controls for sensitive genetic information.
These efforts created a secure, efficient, reliable platform for GeneWise Health’s growth and compliance.
As we upgraded the GeneWise Health Ruby on Rails (RoR) environment to the latest versions, we can build on what we learned during this project. Using our knowledge of GeneWise Health systems, we can improve the platform effectively and cost-efficiently with a streamlined team.
In summary, following this roadmap, we aim to keep GeneWise Health systems secure, efficient, and scalable.
Our efforts on code quality, infrastructure updates, and thorough testing will support GeneWise Health in achieving ongoing success and compliance in the changing healthcare technology sector.
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