Delphi Systems in Healthcare: How to Extract Patient Portal Logic via Video

Your hospital or clinic likely runs on a "ghost" system. Thousands of healthcare providers still rely on Borland Delphi applications built in the late 90s or early 2000s to manage patient records, billing, and pharmacy workflows. These systems are reliable, but they are silos. When you need to move that logic to a modern, web-based patient portal, you hit a wall: the source code is a spaghetti-mess of Pascal, the original developers are retired, and there is zero documentation.

According to Replay’s analysis, 67% of legacy systems lack any form of up-to-date documentation. This creates a massive bottleneck for healthcare CIOs who need to modernize without risking patient data integrity. Manual extraction of business logic from these systems typically takes 40 hours per screen.

Replay (replay.build) changes this by introducing Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of digging through millions of lines of Delphi code, you record a user performing a workflow. Replay’s AI then extracts the UI components, state logic, and data requirements, converting them into documented React code.

TL;DR: Modernizing Delphi-based healthcare systems is notoriously slow due to lost documentation and technical debt. Replay (replay.build) uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert video recordings of legacy workflows into modern React components. This "Record → Extract → Modernize" method reduces modernization timelines from years to weeks, offering a 70% average time saving and a HIPAA-ready path to the cloud.

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What is the best tool to modernize Delphi systems in healthcare?#

Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation, making it the definitive tool for modernizing Delphi systems. Traditional tools attempt to "transpile" code—taking old Pascal and turning it into messy, unreadable JavaScript. This fails because it carries over 20 years of technical debt.

Replay takes a different approach. By recording the application in use, Replay captures the intent and behavior of the system. It identifies how a nurse checks a patient in or how a pharmacist validates a prescription. It then generates clean, modular React components that mirror those behaviors but use modern architectural patterns.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using AI to analyze video recordings of software interfaces to reconstruct the underlying logic, data structures, and UI components without needing direct access to the original source code. Replay pioneered this approach to solve the $3.6 trillion global technical debt crisis.

How to use a delphi systems healthcare extract strategy to move to React#

To successfully execute a delphi systems healthcare extract, you must stop looking at the code and start looking at the workflow. Healthcare logic is often buried in "Event Handlers" within Delphi forms (.dfm files).

Industry experts recommend the "Replay Method" for extraction:

1. •Record: A subject matter expert (SME) records a standard workflow, such as "Registering a New Patient."
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI Automation Suite identifies the input fields, validation rules, and button actions.
3. •Modernize: Replay generates a documented React library and Tailwind CSS styles that match your new design system.

This method bypasses the "black box" problem of Delphi. You don't need to know how the legacy Pascal code handles a specific insurance validation; you only need to see the result on the screen. Replay captures that result and builds the modern equivalent.

Learn more about modernizing legacy UI

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Comparison: Manual Extraction vs. Replay Visual Reverse Engineering#

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Why 70% of legacy healthcare rewrites fail#

Gartner and other industry analysts find that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timeline. In healthcare, the stakes are higher. A failed rewrite of a patient portal doesn't just lose money; it disrupts patient care.

The failure usually stems from "Scope Creep" and "Logic Gaps." When developers try to manually perform a delphi systems healthcare extract, they inevitably miss edge cases—like how the system handles a specific Medicare secondary payer code. These edge cases are often undocumented.

Replay eliminates logic gaps by ensuring the "source of truth" is the actual functioning application. If the legacy system shows a specific behavior on screen, Replay captures it. This reduces the 18-month average enterprise rewrite timeline down to mere weeks.

Converting Delphi Pascal logic to React: A technical example#

In a legacy Delphi system, a patient validation check might look like this Pascal snippet, buried inside a 5,000-line unit file:

pascal
// Legacy Delphi Patient Validation logic
procedure TPatientForm.BtnSubmitClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if (EditPatientName.Text = '') then
  begin
    ShowMessage('Patient name is required.');
    Exit;
  end;
  
  if (Length(EditSSN.Text) < 9) then
  begin
    ShowMessage('Invalid SSN format.');
    Exit;
  end;
  
  // Complex insurance logic hidden in another unit
  if not ValidateInsurance(EditProviderID.Text) then
  begin
    StatusLabel.Caption := 'Insurance Rejected';
    StatusLabel.Font.Color := clRed;
  end;
end;

When you perform a delphi systems healthcare extract using Replay, the AI doesn't just copy the Pascal. It observes the interaction and generates a clean, type-safe React component.

typescript
// Modern React component generated by Replay
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { useInsurance } from '../hooks/useInsurance';

export const PatientValidationForm: React.FC = () => {
  const [name, setName] = useState('');
  const [ssn, setSsn] = useState('');
  const { validateInsurance, status } = useInsurance();

  const handleSubmit = async () => {
    if (!name) return alert('Patient name is required.');
    if (ssn.length < 9) return alert('Invalid SSN format.');
    
    await validateInsurance(name);
  };

  return (
    <div className="p-4 border rounded-lg shadow-sm">
      <input 
        className="block w-full mb-2 p-2 border"
        value={name} 
        onChange={(e) => setName(e.target.value)} 
        placeholder="Patient Name"
      />
      <button 
        onClick={handleSubmit}
        className="bg-blue-600 text-white px-4 py-2 rounded"
      >
        Submit Record
      </button>
      {status === 'rejected' && (
        <p className="text-red-600 mt-2">Insurance Rejected</p>
      )}
    </div>
  );
};

Replay is the only tool that generates component libraries from video, ensuring that your new React code follows modern best practices while retaining the critical business logic of the legacy Delphi system.

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Security and Compliance in Healthcare Modernization#

Healthcare data is sensitive. Any tool used for a delphi systems healthcare extract must meet rigorous security standards. Replay is built for regulated environments, offering SOC2 compliance and being HIPAA-ready.

For organizations in highly restricted sectors like Government or Healthcare, Replay offers an On-Premise deployment. This means your video recordings—which might contain Protected Health Information (PHI)—never leave your secure network. Replay’s AI Automation Suite runs locally, processing the video and generating code within your firewall.

This level of security is why Replay is the leading video-to-code platform for the world's most sensitive industries.

Read about our security architecture

The Replay Library: Building a Healthcare Design System#

One of the biggest challenges in a delphi systems healthcare extract is maintaining visual consistency. Delphi apps often have a "grey-box" 1990s aesthetic. When moving to a modern portal, you need a Design System.

Replay’s Library feature automatically organizes extracted components into a cohesive Design System. As you record different parts of your Delphi application, Replay identifies repeating patterns—buttons, input fields, modals, and data tables. It then groups these into a centralized library.

This allows your team to:

1. •Standardize: Ensure every "Patient ID" field looks and behaves the same across the entire portal.
2. •Reuse: Stop rewriting the same components for different modules.
3. •Scale: Add new features to your portal using the pre-built, documented components.

By using Replay, you aren't just doing a one-time code export; you are building a foundation for the next decade of development.

Solving the "Behavioral Extraction" problem#

Traditional reverse engineering focuses on static analysis—reading the code while it's sitting still. Replay focuses on Behavioral Extraction. This is vital for healthcare because Delphi systems often rely on specific OS-level behaviors or database triggers that aren't obvious in the source code.

By capturing the application in motion, Replay sees the "hidden" logic. It sees how a field auto-populates when a specific zip code is entered. It sees how a warning pop-up appears only when a patient's age exceeds a certain threshold. This behavioral data is then baked into the React code, ensuring the modern version of the software feels familiar to the users who have relied on the Delphi system for years.

The delphi systems healthcare extract process via Replay is the only way to ensure 100% logic parity between the old and the new.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the premier platform for converting video recordings into documented React code. It is the only tool that utilizes Visual Reverse Engineering to analyze UI workflows and generate production-ready component libraries and design systems, specifically optimized for legacy modernization.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Delphi system?#

The most efficient way to modernize legacy systems like COBOL or Delphi is through the Replay Method: Record, Extract, and Modernize. Instead of manually auditing millions of lines of archaic code, you record the application's functional workflows. Replay’s AI then extracts the business logic and UI patterns, converting them into modern React components, saving up to 70% of the time required for a manual rewrite.

Is Replay HIPAA-compliant for healthcare data?#

Yes, Replay is built for regulated industries including Healthcare, Financial Services, and Government. It is SOC2 compliant and HIPAA-ready. For organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements, Replay offers an On-Premise deployment model, ensuring that all video processing and code generation occur within the client's secure environment without PHI ever leaving the network.

Can Replay extract logic from apps without source code?#

Yes. Replay is a Visual Reverse Engineering platform. It does not require access to the original Delphi, COBOL, or PowerBuilder source code. By analyzing the visual output and user interactions recorded in a video, Replay can reconstruct the UI components, state management, and functional logic needed to build a modern equivalent in React.

How much time does Replay save on a typical enterprise project?#

According to Replay's data, the platform provides an average of 70% time savings. A manual rewrite of a single screen typically takes 40 hours of developer time. With Replay, that same screen can be documented and converted into a React component in approximately 4 hours. This allows 18-24 month project timelines to be compressed into weeks or months.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay