In part one of this blog I wrote about why I think Microsoft Power BI is a superior data analysis and reporting platform for MEDITECH Data Repository compared to SQL Server Reporting Services. In this second part of a a two-part analysis, I continue the discussion by reviewing the user presentation and interactivity experience.

I’ve been working with MEDITECH Data Repository since 2000. That’s longer than I care to note, but I still remember when SQL Server Reporting Services was first included with SQL Server, in version 2000: after struggling to find an easy way for our small hospital to share DR data and reports without having budget dollars for software like Crystal Reports, suddenly we could share it on our intranet. 

In our previous Power BI blogs, we’ve introduced the Power BI platform and described why it’s such a great tool for developing custom business and clinical analytics reports for MEDITECH Data Repository. In this blog, we’ll discuss a vitally important concept at the heart of all Power BI report development: the data model.

In our first Power BI blog, we introduced the Power BI platform and reviewed the desktop applications and cloud-based tools we can use to develop and share reports and dashboards. In this blog, we’ll look more specifically at the ins and outs of using Power BI with MEDITECH Data Repository.

MEDITECH’s Data Repository has come a long way since its inception over twenty years ago. In the early days of DR, usable front-end reporting tools were few and far between: Microsoft Access and Crystal Reports were common choices for many hospitals. Fast forward to 2021 however, and DR is an integral part of the MEDITECH EHR and report developers have a variety of tools to use: the ubiquitous SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) from Microsoft; MEDITECH’s BCA with MicroStrategy; and third-party software like Tableau and Qlik, among others.