Data Warehousing in Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare: An Industry Perspective

This paper aims to describe the data warehousing process for the Pharmaceutical and the Healthcare industries. We will first examine the reasons and needs for the data warehouses and the expected benefits. Based on this, a general process for data warehousing emerges that utilizes a host of tools and techniques. These are then illustrated by two case studies as follows: (1) A Clinical Trials Data Warehouse for the Pharmaceuticals and Biotech companies, (2) A Utilization and Claims Warehouse for the Drug Manufacturers and the HMOs. Each of these warehouses has different design philosophies, objectives and utilization. Each of these case study warehouses uses a different set of tools for populating the warehouse, data transformation and data extraction. While discussing these case studies, we will also delve into the subjects of: (1) User Requirements (2) Design Specifications (3) Validation and Testing (4) Documentation (5) User Training and Setup