The unexpected pandemic that brought the world to its knees hardly shows receding, as is evident from the global development. The 1st quarter of 2021 showed some promise, but since April, the second wave of the pandemic has kept the medical community on its toes. The doctors, healthcare entities and clinical workers are relying on digital technology and data more than ever before. They are gathering and analyzing massive amounts of data every day to evaluate infection rates, growth trajectory and recovery patterns.

Why is using Power BI is useful in this situation?

Given the fact that the medical community is dealing with enormous amounts of data, and that is a prerequisite for controlling the pandemic and enhancing recovery, using suitable data analytics software is necessary. This is where Power BI steps in. It is Microsoft’s BI and data analysis tool, aimed at versatile usage. It can be quite useful for the doctors, clinical staff and healthcare entities. Taking the aid of agencies offering Power BI development services can be useful.

Listed below are the reasons why using Power BI can be useful in the pandemic situation for the healthcare sector:

  1. Simple to use- One advantage of using Microsoft Power BI is that the learning curve is not steep. So, the doctors and clinical staff will not need a lot of time to learn using the application. Since the beginning of the pandemic, they are quite stressed and offering them a Data analysis tool that can be mastered without hardship is prudent. While the tool does come with advanced features, you need not be tech-savvy to start using it.
  2. Support for multiple data sources- The healthcare sector workers are procuring data to find out more on the Coronavirus and infection patterns, symptoms etc., from multiple sources. They are using digital data sources, media sources, video footage, pharmacy reports and published reports etc. Power BI is useful for gathering data from myriads of sources.
  3. The flexibility of usage- The healthcare entities can use Power BI in various ways to facilitate workflow. They can make use of the free desktop version and mobile app, for example. So, health workers on fieldwork can keep in touch with their colleagues working at clinics or hospitals. Large-scale healthcare entities can use the premium versions with cloud support.
  4. Report creation and sharing- To make the best use of Covid-19 data healthcare entities, need to generate reports using key parameters and share them with other agencies. Report creation and sharing in Power BI is a breeze. In fact, it is possible to share such reports with people who do not use the application.
  5. Flexible visual data representation- The doctors may need to demonstrate visuals obtained from analysis of Covid-19 related data to clinical staff and other healthcare sector workers. Using such data-driven, easy to comprehend visuals in Power BI is simple. The doctors may, for example, use pie charts or bar charts showing Covid-19 infection and recovery rate in a region per month.

Different types of organizations involved with pandemic-related work can benefit from using Power BI. These include the government. agencies, vaccination companies, medical setups treating Covid-10 patients etc. They can use the tool to analyze data related to the pandemic and gain useful insight on the vital metrics. This, in turn, can help them in making strategic decisions. They may have to hire the top Power Bi services to get the benefits of the platform.

How to use Power BI for analyzing pandemic data and get useful insights?

Using Power BI can be useful for a number of scenarios in healthcare entities dealing with the Pandemic situation. These include keeping track of infection patterns, monitoring recovery rate, tracking vaccination progress- region wise. This is how this can be done:

  • Step 1- Setting uplink with sources of data

There are many online sources and cloud services that can be synced with Power BI to serve as reliable sources of pandemic data. These include the WHO website, the ECDC site, The United Nations site etc.

  • Step 2- Choosing the Power BI version

As it is, Microsoft Power BI is offered in many flavours. The desktop version is quite capable, and it is ideal for small medical entities. However, large-scale medical entities should rely on cloud-based premium editions. They also hire skilled Power BI developer agencies.

  • Step 3- setting up Dataflows and Data sets

In Power BI, A dataflow is like a set of entities, somewhat like tables. After setting up dataflow, you can use Power BI service and Desktop to generate dashboards, datasets, and reports, forgetting major insights into business activities. Power BI datasets are like data sources that can be used for generating visualizations and making reports. Data sets can be set up in numerous ways. You can use the Power BI service, an Excel workbook, or an external data model.

  • Step 4- report creation and sharing

After the application is fed with data sources and sync is set, it is time to generate reports and share them. It is possible to use reports using various data metrics. These include time period, infection rate, recovery rate, percentage of the vaccinated population in a region, number of deaths in a region etc. There can be district, state and country-level reports. Once created, such reports can be shared with other Power BI users and even with those who do not use the tool.

Other Power BI usage scenarios for Healthcare entities coping with the pandemic

It is not only for tracking infection, death and recovery rate of Covid patients that Power BI can be used. The healthcare entities can also make use of the application for getting insight on operational aspects. Without a doubt, many hospitals have incurred huge losses in running operations amidst the pandemic. They have to cope with supply chain frictions, escalated COVID-19 treatment costs, enhanced sanitization cost etc. They can track expenditure patterns, pending regular surgeries and many aspects related to an operational workflow using Power BI.

Healthcare sector entities that have embraced Power BI successfully

Since the onset of the pandemic last year, a number of mid to large-sized healthcare entities have embraced Power BI. They are using this versatile data analytics and BI solution to make the best use of data. The Washington State Department of Health is utilizing interactive Power BI dashboards for making useful pandemic data available to the citizens. The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services has been using the platform as a health emergency response tool.

Wrapping up

Microsoft Power BI is a flexible and versatile Data analytics solution that can be very useful for any healthcare sector entity coping with the ongoing pandemic. It can help such entities utilize gathered data and use it to generate reports that help gain insight into the nuances of the pandemic. The solution comes in many forms, and learning it is not hard either. However, in some instances, they may have to hire veteran Power Bi consultants to extract the most out of the platform.