One Codebase, Every Device: Why It Matters for Patient Communities

In clinic I see patients on every kind of device: a cracked Android phone, a shared family tablet, the library computer, a laptop borrowed from a grandchild. So when we started talking about bringing our patient support space to mobile, my first question to the developers was simple. Will it work the same for all of them?

Their answer was a monorepo: one project that holds the web app, built with Next.js and installable as a PWA, and the iOS and Android apps, built with React Native and Expo. I don't write code myself, but I have sat in on the team's planning calls since spring, and here is why I think this approach suits health communities in particular.

• It reaches people where they are. One codebase covers the website, the installable web app, both app stores and even desktop. For a caregiver with ten minutes on the bus, "just open the link" can be the difference between joining and not joining.
• Consistency lowers anxiety. Shared components mean the "ask a question" button looks the same and sits in the same place on every device. That sounds minor. For someone who is tired, worried or not confident with technology, it is not.
• Fixes land everywhere at once. When testers told us the daily check-in form was confusing, the fix went to the web and both apps in the same release. The initial setup took a little longer than building for one platform, but shared tooling for building, testing and deploying has already paid that back.
• Feedback loops are short. Because changes appear on web and mobile together, the team can show a prototype to a few patient volunteers on a Tuesday and adjust it by Friday. Their feedback is the most useful evidence we have.
• Nobody starts from zero. Next.js and React Native both have large, active communities, so a small team rarely has to solve a problem nobody has met before.

As always, the space itself is for peer support, not medical advice. But the easier it is to reach, the more people get to benefit from that support.