Problem
A large US healthcare group was building a unified digital platform spanning prescription management, patient records, and pharmacy operations. Multiple product teams were making independent technical decisions with no central architecture oversight — leading to inconsistencies across regulated workflows. PHI (Protected Health Information) considerations had to be factored into every frontend decision, but there were no shared standards documenting how.
Role
Lead Frontend Architect, remote. I worked alongside a client-side frontend architect — together we provided architectural oversight across the engagement. My initiative: introduced the ADR process from scratch to document and socialise decisions across teams. Worked primarily with 2 delivery teams (12+ engineers total), though other teams existed on the wider programme.
Stack
- Architecture governance: ADR (Architecture Decision Record) process — initiated from scratch, covering data-fetching patterns, state boundaries, and error handling standards
- Micro-frontends: Dual distribution — each module shipped as both an npm package and a Web Component; consuming apps within the org chose based on their own architecture constraints
- Data layer: Apollo Client for GraphQL — used across teams for API communication
- Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA compliance baseline across prescription and patient workflows
- Component documentation: Storybook — shared component library documented for use across teams
- Constraint: PHI handling factored into all frontend decisions — data exposure, state scope, and error messaging reviewed against compliance requirements
Outcome
- ADR process established from scratch — architecture decisions documented and socialised across delivery teams
- Shared technical standards introduced across 2 primary delivery teams (12+ engineers)
- PHI-aware frontend standards embedded into the development process
- Architecture governance maintained remotely across a multi-team programme