BuddyPress.org

My team is working to build a comprehensive membership site focused on a specific medical niche. The core of this project is a web application focused on enabling the member to track their symptoms and treatment programs. This web application is being developed with cakephp / mysql. We need the site to also enable the users with all the social networking functionality that Buddypress appears to offer, but we need it to integrate with the functionality of our custom web application. So, how complete and effective are the buddypress API’s relative to communicating with an application not inside wordpress?

BTW- I am not a programmer but rather a business guy, so if possible try to explain replies with that in mind

The site we are building will encompass a deep content authority site with most content available to the public and we plan to use wordpress for this part of the site. The membership side, our custom web application, membership and billing function and social networking/media side….it could all be custom or it could be partial custom integrated with wordpress. I am trying to determine the most effective and fast plan for getting the concept to market and am struggling with which technologies to use where.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Terry