Volumetryx: a cancer trial imaging demo pharma can click through

Cancer trials need scans on a strict schedule, and the files are huge and sensitive. Hospital staff upload whole studies of about 1.5 GB each, and they won't put up with a slow upload tool. Sponsors need to see at a glance whether every site, visit and patient is on track.

The budget mattered as much as the tech. The founders wanted to test the product with buyers by showing it, not describing it. So the priorities were low cost, speed and a convincing demo. A deeper backend could wait for the next phase.

We worked in steps, so the client could change course after each one. A small team ran weekly sprints and showed a live demo at the end of every week.

How it went:

1. Discovery: scope, estimate and a list of the riskiest technical questions.
2. Prototype: a clickable Figma design of the full flow, signed off before development.
3. Tech demo: large uploads and the scan viewer tested in the browser before the main build.
4. Build: about a month of weekly sprints to a product ready to demo.

The client wanted a design that showed we understood how imaging trials run. Sponsor views lean on charts, so a sponsor can read the state of a trial in seconds. Hospital screens stay short and simple for busy clinic staff.

The Rocketech team:

• Project Manager
• UI/UX Designer
• Frontend Developer
• Backend Developer

The first risk was upload speed. Hospital staff will only use the tool if a big study goes up without a long wait. With AWS S3 Transfer Acceleration and multipart upload, a 1.3 GB study reached the cloud in under 5 minutes.

The second was the viewer. Writing one from scratch, or running an imaging database behind it, would have cost a lot. We tested the open-source OHIF viewer instead. It reads files straight from S3 and covers what cancer reads need, including PET-CT fusion, 3D views and measurements.

• Trial setup: sign up, then add sites, visit schedules with allowed time windows, and scan types.
• Dashboards: site performance, visits on time and patient progress, plus an activity log.

• Patients and visits: each site keeps its own patient list and visit schedule.
• Check before upload: staff confirm the date of birth and a code from the sponsor, which stops scans from landing on the wrong patient.
• Drag-and-drop upload: a ZIP of scans with live progress and file checks.

• Locked viewer: the browser viewer opens one patient's studies only. Editing the link doesn't reveal anyone else.
• Sample trial: realistic made-up data comes preloaded, so the sales team can demo from the first click.