Using Innovative Technology to Better Visualize
Healthcare Data and Generate Actionable Insights
Customer: IMS Health
Website: www.imshealth.com
Customer Size: 15,000 employees
Country or Region: Global
Industry: Healthcare
Customer Profile
IMS Health is the world’s leading
healthcare information, services, and
technology company. IMS Health was
founded in 1954 and today operates in
more than 100 countries, generating
revenue of US$2.6 billion in 2014.
Software and Services
 Services
− Microsoft Office 365
− Microsoft Excel Online
− Microsoft Power BI
− Microsoft SharePoint Online
Hardware
 PPI by Microsoft Touch Device
“IMS Health has a culture of continual innovation.
Using technologies like Q&A in Microsoft Power BI
with our wealth of healthcare data enables our clients
to answer their business questions faster.”
Damien Caldy, Director of Global Technology Innovation, IMS Health
IMS Health, a leading global information and technology
services company, provides clients in the healthcare industry
with comprehensive solutions to measure and improve their
performance. Applying advanced analytics and proprietary
application suites, IMS Health connects more than 10 petabytes
of complex healthcare data to deliver powerful insights to its
clients. Its Global Technology Innovation team recently
developed a new analytics and visualization solution utilizing
Microsoft Power BI and a PPI by Microsoft Touch Device.
Customers will be able to use the new solution to query, analyze,
and visualize the company’s wealth of complex healthcare data
in new and innovative ways, generating analytics and strategic
insights.
Business Needs
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IMS Health is a leading global provider of
information to the healthcare industry.
The company sources information through
more than 800,000 data feeds from
100,000 data suppliers across more than
100 countries. IMS Health draws on
insights from over 55 billion healthcare
transactions processed annually and
connects more than 10 petabytes of
unique healthcare data, including more
than 500 million anonymous patient
records. IMS Health serves key healthcare
organizations and decision makers around
the world, spanning the breadth of Life
Sciences companies, including
pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer
health, and medical device manufacturers,
as well as distributors, providers, payers,
government agencies, policymakers,
researchers, and the financial community.
All depend on IMS Health for data and
insights to inform operational and strategic
decision making that supports operational
efficiency, cost reduction, and reduced risk.
The company’s strength is its ability to
convert data into intelligence—integrating
and analyzing information to generate
insights.
The volume of healthcare data is growing
exponentially, and new structured and
unstructured data types—such as social
media conversations—are becoming
available. The key is being able to use this
data to generate valuable insights that
support decision making. Often the tools to
extract these insights can be difficult to
handle, and the volume of disparate and
complex data has traditionally limited its
use to specialists who have the necessary
skills to analyze large volumes of
information. The growth and complexity of
data increase the need for a self-service
business intelligence solution that can turn
data into decision-ready insights.
Solution
IMS Health wanted to determine how new
technologies could support the insight
needs of nonspecialists. The solution
needed to be intuitive and easy to use, and
able to analyze large amounts of
information in near-real time. Microsoft
Power BI was a good fit. Damien Caldy,
Director of the Technology Innovation team
at IMS Health, explains, “We picked
Microsoft BI because the tool proved very
strong in analyzing large amounts of
complex data and provided innovative
features to interact with and visualize data.”
Security also factored into the decision.
In a proof of concept (POC), the IMS Health
team selected complex oncology data from
Europe and Asia. Within three months the
team created a first-pass product that
included natural-language querying
capability with Power BI Q&A and
sophisticated context-sensitive visualization.
The resulting solution enables users to
intuitively interact with complex patient
data via natural-language queries using
either a browser-like search box or voice
recognition. For example, a user can ask
“What are the top drugs for lung cancer?”
The solution translates the question into
an analytical query and instantly returns
the answer in the form of an interactive
chart or graph. The visualization changes
as a question is modified. So, for example,
if the question is “How many patients have
lung cancer by country?” the default visual
for the answer is a map.
The solution can be accessed using any
Internet-connected device via Microsoft
Excel Online and the built-in Microsoft
Power View for Excel Online. Users can
share their analysis with colleagues
through a dedicated portal based on
Microsoft SharePoint Online. The addition
of a Yammer feed enables users to
comment on the analysis using a social
media–like approach and ensures that
comments are retained with a document
throughout its life.
Taking the POC a step further, an 82”
Microsoft PPI touch device—a precursor to
Microsoft Surface Hub—was deployed so
that users could use touch to interact more
directly with the technology.
Benefits
Using Microsoft Power BI, IMS Health has
delivered a new analytics and visualization
solution and enabled users to query,
analyze, and visualize the company’s
wealth of complex healthcare data in new
and innovative ways to generate
meaningful analytics and strategic insights.
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published April 2015
Access to data for regular users
With its intuitive natural-language query
functionality, and voice-activated interface,
the solution makes it is easy for regular
users to interact with large volumes of
complex data. Adds Caldy, “What’s great
about natural language in Microsoft Power
BI is that anyone—a healthcare
professional, business executive or sales
representative—can immediately get an
answer by asking a simple question.”
Ability to self-serve
Users can access the data and insights
they need independently and quickly with
minimal instruction. Caldy says, “Instead of
asking a data analyst to provide the
information, non-power users can get the
information they require directly by asking
simple questions in plain English.”
Answering business questions faster
Data is returned quickly and graphically,
reducing the need for experts to analyze,
format, and chart the information. Notes
Caldy, “If a user is in a meeting discussing
brand X, he or she can use the solution on
their phone and ask, ‘What is the market
share of brand X in Germany?’ and
instantly get the answer.”
Next Steps
The Technology Innovation team at IMS
Health plans to further develop the
solution using other data sources, as well
as assess new features such as a built-in
virtual assistant with Microsoft Cortana
and multilanguage voice controls using
Skype Translator.