Consulting

Design

Truly valuable analytics guide us to find the hidden patterns in the world around us. At HealthDataViz, we help our clients see those patterns using the best practices of data visualization.

Data visualization is still a young science—and very different from graphic design. Few are proficient at it; that’s why so many initial attempts at visualization fall short. Done well though, it leads to real, often rapid, transformation within an organization.

Our team members study the most current research on and best practices of human visual perception—the way people process visual information. This knowledge affects and strengthens everything we do, from the choice of graph types and colors to the way information is ordered, labeled, and layered.

HDV uses a four-step design process that puts your audience’s needs front and center.

1. Define the Audience, establishing the scope, roles, and decisions of those who will be using management and performance dashboards and reports; identifying message and audience for infographics and presentations; clearly defining problems to be addressed, story to be conveyed, functionality required.
2. Generate Ideas, collaborating with your team to research the project and generate ideas using techniques such as creating personas and mapping mental models. We sketch possible solutions with teams—an under-valued, under-used (and very powerful) exercise.
3. Create Prototypes that are fully operational and provide crucial, real-world insights into what works well and what could be improved before moving on to building final data visualizations.
4. Test, Evaluate, and Iterate until we are confident that a proposed solution is functional and valuable.

Build, Deploy, & Publish

HealthDataViz has developed a smooth, adaptable build/publishing process that ensures you can support and manage solutions long after we have left the building. Here’s how it works from start to finish.

• Data. We work with your internal team (or, if you prefer, bring in our database experts) to model and structure the underlying data, ensuring top performance by the interactive dashboards, reports, and infographics we create.
• Development. Working from the designs and prototypes described above, we develop the displays, and iterate with stakeholders.
• Quality Assurance. We work with your team on regression testing to the source data, then transfer our knowledge to your team members, so you all fully understand the end product, and feel confident about the final sign-off.
• Documentation. We create plain language, end-user documentation, and detailed, technical documentation for each project.
• Publish and Distribute. The final product is distributed via secure custom data portals and | or cloud tools.

Technology & Capabilities

The good, the bad, and—yes—even the ugly. We’ve seen and worked with them all, including but not limited to:

• EHR’s | EMR’s: eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, Practice Fusion, EPIC, CERNER, Meditech, athenahealth, Kareo, NextGen, CureMD, Greenway, iPatientCare, e-MDs, NueMD
• Healthcare Systems and Data Sources: Clarity, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR)
• Transactional and Database Systems: Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Access, and Excel spreadsheets (yes, even those!)
• Data Visualization Tools: Power BI, Qlik, SAS Visual Analytics, Tableau, and more

Don’t see a tool here? We’ve designed value-packed dashboards in all sorts of platforms for a variety of health and healthcare data sources. Want to build it yourself from a high-impact design? We’ve worked with many groups to make their favorite tools generate insightful visualizations.

Government Services

We work with local, state, and federal government agencies to make health communications clear, accurate, and compelling. Whether we design and build visualizations for you, or provide technical assistance as you create them yourselves, your dashboards, reports, and infographics will engage and inform to drive action. Our staff includes not only data viz gurus, but experts in biostatistics, and offers substantial direct experience with public health and government organizations. Clients include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), twenty state Medicaid agencies, and the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH).

See our Government and Prime Vendors on our client list.

Our work falls within these NAICS codes:

Tableau Services

Our comprehensive Tableau services integrate the design, development, and distribution of dashboard suites with formal training and informal knowledge-sharing for your staff. A dashboard suite is one Tableau workbook that has a summary overview dashboard, supporting zoom reports, and associated detailed lists. Workshops and courses are available to augment your organization’s data literacy and Tableau development skills.

Development of Tableau Dashboards

• Discovery: We begin the engagement with an onsite kick-off meeting to meet the staff assigned to the project, review goals and timeframes, and gather information. We review the available data and your high priority reports to determine the work effort needed by your team and HealthDataViz.
• Dashboard Suite Design and Development: Once Discovery is completed, we will provide design prototypes in the form of sketches or mockups incorporating the best practices of data visualization. This is an iterative process with you to gain agreement on the final designs of the dashboard suite(s).
• Data Source Specifications and Optimization: Based on these final designs, HDV will determine the best structure for all data sources to be used and provide technical specifications to you (or our database partners) to perform any data manipulation, pivoting, or aggregations necessary to optimize the data for use in Tableau.
• Development, Iteration, Quality Assurance, and Distribution: Once data sources are made available according to these specifications, HDV will develop the workbooks, iterating with your stakeholders to make sure they present actionable, insightful views of the data. We then hand off the completed builds to your assigned analyst(s), educating them on all aspects of the design and calculations through our four-step quality assurance process. The analyst(s) will conduct a final QA of the dashboard prior to distribution. HDV will provide end-user and technical documentation for the completed workbook.

Tableau “Jump-Start” Program

For organizations looking to hit the ground running with their new Tableau investment, our Tableau “Jump-Start” offering bundles a collection of our a la carte services to set your team up for success and demonstrate an immediate return on your investment.

We offer a “Fundamental Jump-Start” for organizations only using Tableau Desktop or a “Comprehensive Jump-Start” for teams with both Desktop and Server:

Tableau Server Implementation

HDV works with your team to organize the Tableau Server environment and implement best practices, customized to your organization’s specific needs. We thoroughly cover all topics to make sure that your Tableau Server environment is fully set up for scalability, data governance, security, and ease of use. Our recommendations are tailored to your requirements in project organization, inheriting default security, leveraging security groups, live | extract | published data sources, and Tableau administration best practices.

Data Portal Development

It can be difficult for end users to find the workbooks they need on Tableau Server, especially when the library of reports grows large and hard to manage, filled with ad hoc and custom reports. Tableau Server also has an intimidating interface that can frustrate report audiences.

A well-designed, HDV-built Data Portal showcases the highest value reports and dashboards for your end users, and provides a clean, friendly, easy-to-navigate interface. The manual created and maintained as a separate Tableau Workbook can be embedded directly in an intranet website, requiring no additional web development.

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