“I am particularly proud of the positive impact the Clinical Information system has had on healthcare delivery, my technical excellence in addressing complex challenges, and my commitment to making the system well-organised and extensible,” said Boštjan when we asked him what makes him most proud in his work.
Boštjan Vester is a technical lead in the Clinical team, who has been with Better practically from the very beginning. In all those years, he has been a vital part of several systems, solutions, and healthcare applications developed. At the moment, he leads the development team, conducts daily code reviews, mentors team members, and ensures the implementation aligns with the architectural vision. “My responsibilities are driven by both my technical knowledge of the Clinical application and my personal inclination to perfection (some might argue I push this a bit too far),” he told us. Boštjan is also an enthusiastic hiker and makes his own miniature railways as well as plane and figure models. Get to know Boštjan in the interview below.
You have been with Better almost from the very beginning. What has kept you with the company all these years, and how do you see the company’s evolution?
I have joined Better’s predecessor, Marand Inženiring, in the previous millennium! The year was 1998. The company’s slogan, “advanced IT company”, emphasised its focus on being at the forefront of technology and innovation in the field of computing and information technology. It was a software solutions provider, focusing on developing applications for various industries, including healthcare, telecommunications, and energy. We developed several healthcare, customer care, and billing applications, many of which are still alive today. In 2019, the company, now Better, shifted its focus more explicitly towards digital healthcare solutions and a broader market reach. Better established collaborations with prominent healthcare institutions, which helped tailor solutions to specific needs and facilitated the entry into the European market.
At the same time, adoption of new technologies and methodologies and innovation were not only allowed but encouraged. For me personally, this was always key because it empowered us to be innovative in developing foundational infrastructural libraries and high-level, customer-facing applications and products while ensuring high-quality and efficient development processes. Another big factor for my persistence at the company was its shift to healthcare. Working in the healthcare sector has been incredibly important to me because it directly impacts the wellbeing of actual people and patients. Knowing that my work contributes to improving patient care and health outcomes has been a significant motivator. Seeing our solutions help healthcare providers deliver better care to patients has kept me engaged and passionate about my work.
What are your prime responsibilities, and what does your work day in the Clinical team look like?
In my role as a technical lead in the Clinical team, my responsibilities are driven by both my technical knowledge of the Clinical application and my personal inclination to perfection (some might argue I push this a bit too far). Technically, I design and implement clinical modules and ensure the adoption of best practices such as object-oriented design principles and unit testing. I continuously add new features and perform refactorings to optimise and improve the Clinical application. Personally, my pedantic nature drives me to thoroughly review and refine my work, conduct daily code reviews, and emphasise the importance of comprehensive technical documentation for such a complex project.
A typical work day on the Clinical team involves participating in meetings to discuss progress and plans, conducting code reviews to ensure quality, and designing and implementing Clinical (and other) systems and/or modules. I collaborate with team members, mentor newcomers, and promote proven best practices in software development. Throughout the day, I focus on adding new features, performing refactorings, and maintaining comprehensive technical documentation, all while striving for perfection in every aspect of my work.
How has the role of a software architect in the context of digital healthcare evolved since you started?
When I started, the role of a software architect in digital healthcare primarily involved architecting basic applications to digitise patient records and streamline administrative tasks. Over the years, the role has evolved, and today, there is a strong emphasis on integration and interoperability, ensuring seamless data sharing across systems.
As a software architect, I was responsible for designing the overall architecture of our systems, making high-level design decisions, and selecting the appropriate technologies. I created comprehensive documentation and provided technical guidance to ensure our solutions were scalable, secure, and aligned with business goals. My role has evolved from a software architect to a technical lead, reflecting a shift from high-level system design to hands-on team leadership. Now, as a technical lead, I lead the development team, conduct daily code reviews, and mentor team members. I actively participate in coding, manage tasks, and ensure our implementation aligns with the architectural vision. This transition has allowed me to apply my technical expertise while also fostering a collaborative and productive team environment.
Better products and solutions have developed and changed over the years. What was the most important and complex product you have worked on, and what are you most proud of?
The most important and complex product I have worked on is definitely the Clinical Information System. This comprehensive clinical solution enhances the management and accessibility of clinical data, directly impacting patient care by improving clinical workflows. I played a key role in designing and implementing the system, addressing numerous technical challenges to ensure it was scalable, efficient, and secure. I am particularly proud of the positive impact this system has had on healthcare delivery, my technical excellence in addressing complex challenges, and my commitment to making the system well-organised and extensible. Leading the development team and mentoring team members has also been a fulfilling aspect of this project.
But there is also an infrastructural project which was technically superior to known libraries and frameworks of the time: MAF (Marand Application Framework). We created a unified and scalable framework designed to simplify and standardise application development, allowing developers to build presentation technology-agnostic front-end applications. The developer would use presentation-neutral programming constructs and decide later, via configuration, which presentation technology to use: Swing or HTML. This was critical at the time because current Swing desktop applications were starting to show deficiencies, but HTML applications were not quite there yet. By using MAF, we were able to delay the decision to use Swing or HTML to a later day (after the product was already finished). MAF is actively being used in the Webdoctor application at the Institute of Oncology.
In your opinion, what makes Better’s approach to digital healthcare unique?
Better solutions have always been designed with the patient in mind, aiming to improve patient care and health outcomes. The company has always maintained a patient-oriented approach, even when developing applications with primarily administrative or financial requirements. Moving to vendor-neutral data for life via the Better platform was a logical next step.
After so many years of hands-on experience, what is one thing you would still love to build or improve in the product?
Currently, my mind revolves mostly around Clinical. I would love to focus more on extracting different clinical functionalities into separate modules to transition Clinical into Clinical Modules, especially because the project complexity is starting to significantly impact the efficiency and reliability of the development process. After all, the Clinical code base is 1 M+ lines of code!
Being a senior technical lead, you mentioned that you offer mentoring and guidance to your younger colleagues. How do you approach mentoring new developers on the team?
It is part of my nature to mentor and guide younger colleagues. I try to provide constructive feedback to help them learn and grow, but I am sometimes a bit too direct in my comments. I conduct daily code reviews, providing detailed feedback on code quality, adherence to best practices, and areas for improvement. In such a complex project, unit tests are vital for ensuring the health of the developed code! I emphasise the importance of writing unit tests and ensure that new developers understand how to create effective tests. This practice helps maintain high code quality and reliability.
You are a big fan of hiking and cycling, exercising almost every day. What does this exercise bring you, and how do you squeeze it into your day?
This has become more than a habit throughout the years. The days I don’t go hiking for an hour or two, I have more hours to do other things, but I lack something. It all started years ago as a response to some of my health problems, but I have outgrown this. I actually need to go out into nature. It helps me clear my mind and reduce stress while keeping my heart (and weight!) in check.
You are also making your own miniature railways and various plane and figure models. Where did this passion come from, and what does the process of building such a model look like?
The miniature world has always fascinated me. The ability of a modeller to create realistic, lifelike miniature models of real-world objects, detailed to almost microscopic levels, was highly inspiring. I have wanted to be able to do this since I was a child. At the beginning, this meant slapping (too much) glue on badly prepared plastic parts and bashing them together to result in a blob of plastic hardly resembling an unpainted plane. But after years of practice and learning from pros, the results are becoming more and more “real”. After starting to win competitions, I knew I was at the right level.
My modelling hobby is actually three hobbies combined: plastic modelling, figure painting, and miniature model railroading. They are all similar, but different at the same time, as they require slightly different skills and attention to detail. Building a model plane requires the ability to glue factory-manufactured plastic parts together, painting them using an airbrush and masks, decaling and weathering the model to represent a concrete plane at a specific time and place in history. On the other hand, painting a miniature figure focuses only on realistic hand-painting the assembled model (which is much harder to achieve most of the time). Model railroading combines skills from both previous examples while adding freedom to construct the layout with scenery as one wishes. Since trains actually run on a model railroad layout, the mechanical and engineering aspects of the hobby are also important (which opens the door for yet another “sub-hobby”: engineering of electrical control devices for – automated – running of trains). All hobbies are very time-consuming; it might take years to complete a single plane, and it will take me a lifetime to finish my latest railroading project.
Has this hobby ever inspired you or given you new ideas for problem-solving at work?
It goes hand in hand with my passion for excellence and perfection. I believe it doesn’t affect my work directly, but is rather a demonstration of the same skills, attention to detail, and commitment to perfection that I use at work. Always being in the top three places in national and international modelling competitions mirrors that.
What does Better mean to you?
Considering all the years working here? My second home, obviously! The family has grown quite substantially in recent years. 🙂
