Building OTConnected: A Smarter Way to Recommend, Share, and Sell Medical Equipment

About Client

Our client is AskSAMIE — a health equipment marketplace with a mission to make accessible living possible for everyone. In addition to the equipment, they offer educational content and personalized support curated by decades of occupational therapy (OT) experience. Founded by Dr. Brandy Archie, an experienced occupational therapist, the company supports older adults and people with disabilities in their independence at home.

AskSAMIE insists that aging in place should be possible for anyone.

As practicing OTs, the founders saw a significant challenge in how much time therapists spend searching for the right equipment. To solve this, they envisioned a platform where OTs could quickly create and share personalized equipment lists. No more guessing, no more unnecessary purchases. This idea evolved into OTConnected, a tool for simplifying care, supporting professional growth, and building a therapist community.

Since AskSAMIE runs on Shopify, they contacted us to make OTConnected as a modular solution that can be integrated into other Shopify stores and open a new revenue source.

The Challenge

The key challenge was adapting the module to a Shopify-based store and therapist workflow while maintaining scalability across multiple platforms. The module had to integrate smoothly with Shopify, be supported by various stores in the future, and be flexible enough to meet the unique demands of healthcare professionals using it daily:

• Scale across Shopify-based stores with minimal adjustments.
• Customize default Shopify features to match therapist use cases.
• Secure token-based integration between the module and client stores.

Dev Process

Flow Design

The client came with a raw concept and two basic screens. We kicked off with a discovery phase to map out the user flow and define the product logic. This included adapting the experience to real therapist needs and ensuring an intuitive shopping flow. Once aligned, we moved forward with a development roadmap.

Shopify Integration

One of the most complex tasks was integrating with Shopify. Most of the work involved handling edge cases in real-time data sync between Shopify and the app, ensuring accurate pricing and availability. Third-party integrations always come with risks, especially in how apps communicate and pass data between systems.

Admin Panel that Mitigates the Risks

We developed an admin dashboard with future-ready features to support scale and safety. While the MVP allows general access, the panel is designed to eventually support therapist verification and license checks. Even at this early stage, it lays the groundwork for protecting patients from unqualified recommendations — the most important legal consideration in healthcare.

Design Process

Adaptive Discovery

In the discovery phase, we aligned closely with the client to define the actual design needs. Both we and our client follow a lean design strategy and prefer working functionality over polished visuals at MVP development. That’s why we chose to use ready-made solutions and AI-powered tools.

Lean Approach to the MVP Design

To reduce costs and speed up the MVP launch, the team proposed a lean design workflow. At this stage, we focused on efficiency by using component libraries, AI-powered tools, and the prototyping skills of our developers. The project manager coordinated closely with the team to shape key user flows and build structural mockups directly in HTMX and React Material UI, allowing for fast iteration.

Brand Alignment

Although we didn’t go deep into custom UI design, maintaining brand recognition was still important. We used Material UI components to style the interface in a way that visually aligned with the client’s existing AskSAMIE store.

Outcome

Working in smooth collaboration with the client’s team, we managed to present the MVP in record time. The app was successfully integrated with the AskSAMIE Shopify store and became available for testing and collecting user feedback.

As our client says, “Better care starts with better tools.”

OTConnected was built so that occupational therapists could spend less time managing and more time treating. The platform eliminates guesswork and streamlines equipment recommendations. With prebuilt carts organized by diagnosis, therapists can customize treatment plans in seconds and share them directly with clients. The MVP also created a more direct path to revenue by shortening the customer journey from recommendation to purchase.

Since the co-founder of OTConnected is a developer, we also set up the infrastructure to ensure the client had complete control and flexibility over the codebase. This allows them to test new hypotheses and continue building features independently. One of the future goals is to grow OTConnected into a collaborative space for therapists to share their experiences. We at Jellyfish.tech wish them every success in the journey ahead.