A conceptual model of data warehousing for medical device manufacturers

Required information for management decisions in an organization can span across many internal functions and external sources, particularly for decisions with strategic ramifications. In recent years, increasing numbers of organizations have employed data warehouses to meet their needs of accurate and timely information. A literature research has been performed to understand data warehousing applications in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. With lessons learned from these applications and situation analyses of medical device organizations, a conceptual model of data warehousing for medical device manufactures is proposed. This model proposes an enterprise-wide data warehouse, which will link information generated or obtained from different local systems. This data warehouse is the focal point of an integrated system where data from all sources are stored in predefined formats and will provide information of interest to various users in the organization. Some practical applications of such an integrated data warehouse in areas of product portfolio planning, sales/marketing, and clinical/regulatory are discussed. The future trends of data warehousing applications for medical device manufacturers are also envisioned.