The Challenge

A radiopharmaceutical imaging company faced challenges in monitoring patient statistics and clinical trial logistics. A lack of visibility and awareness into this data hindered conversations with leadership regarding the status of active clinical trials, ultimately putting clinical trial results at risk. The company needed a trusted, single location to ask relevant business questions about their data and to see trends or anomalies across multiple clinical trials. They faced challenges, however, due to trial data being sent by various vendors in different formats (no standardized values across trials). To mitigate these issues, the company engaged Enterprise Knowledge (EK) to provide Semantic Data Management Advisory & Development as part of a data normalization and portfolio reporting program. The engagement’s goal was to develop data visualization dashboards to answer critical business questions with cleaned, normalized, and trustworthy patient data from four clinical trials, depicted in an easy-to-understand and actionable manner.

The Solution

To unlock data insights across trials in one accessible location, EK designed and developed a Power BI dashboard to visualize data from multiple trials in one centralized location. To begin developing dashboards, EK met with the client to confirm the business questions the dashboards would answer, ensuring the dashboards would visually display the patient and trial information needed to answer them. To remedy the varying data formats sent by vendors, EK mapped data values from trial reports to each other, normalizing and enriching the data with metadata and lineage. With structure and standardization added to the data, the dashboards could display robust data insights into patient status with filterable trial-specific information for the clinical imaging team.

EK also worked to transform the company’s data management environment—developing a medallion architecture structure to handle historical files and enforcing data cleaning and standardization on raw data inputs—to ensure dashboard insights were accurate and scalable to the inclusion of future trials. Implementing these data quality pre-processing steps and architecture considerations prepared the company for future applications and uses of reliable data, including the development of data products or the creation of a single view into the company-wide data landscape.

The EK Difference

To support the usage, maintenance, and future expansion of the data environment and data visualization tooling, EK developed knowledge transfer materials. These proprietary materials included setting up a semantic modeling foundation via a data dictionary to explain and define dashboard fields and features, a proposed future medallion architecture, and materials to socialize and expand the usage of visualization tools to additional sections of the company that could benefit from them.

Dashboard Knowledge Transfer Framework
To ensure the longevity of the dashboard, especially with the future inclusion of additional trial data, it was essential to develop materials for future dashboard users and developers. The knowledge transfer framework designed by EK outlined a repeatable process for dashboard development with enough detail and information that someone unfamiliar with the dashboards can understand the background, use cases, data inputs, visualization outputs, and the overall purpose of the dashboarding effort. Instructions for dashboard upkeep, including how to update and add data to the dashboard as business needs evolve, were also provided.

Semantic Model Foundations: Data Dictionary
To semantically enhance the dashboards, all dashboard fields and features were cataloged and defined by EK experts in semantics and data analysis. In addition to definitions, the dictionary included purpose statements and calculation rules for each dashboard concept (where applicable). This data dictionary was created to prepare the client to process all trial information moving forward and serve as a reference for the data transformation process.

Proposed Future Architecture
To optimize data storage in the future, EK proposed a medallion architecture strategy consisting of Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers to preserve historical data and pave the way for matured logging techniques. At the time EK engaged the client, there was no proper data storage. EK’s architecture strategy detailed storage preparation considerations for each layer, including workspace creation, file retention policies, and options for ingesting and storing data. EK leveraged technical expertise and a rich background in architecture strategies to provide expert advisory on the client’s future architecture.

Roadshow Materials
EK developed materials that summarized the mission and value of the clinical imaging dashboards. These materials included a high-level overview of the dashboard ecosystem so all audiences could comprehend the dashboard’s purpose and execution. With a KM-angled focus, the overall purpose of the materials was to gain organizational buy-in for the dashboard and build awareness of the clinical imaging team and the importance of the work they do. The roadshow materials also sought to promote dashboard adoption and future expansion of dashboarding into other areas of the company.