HEALTHCARE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITYS

HEALTH CENTER

Ishola Dada Murainaa*, Azizah Ahmadb

ab

ITU-UUM ASP CoE,

Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok Kedah Malaysia

*ishod2001@yahoo.com
azie@uum.edu.my

ABSTRACT
Organizations, private or public, feel increasing pressures, forcing them to respond quickly to changing
conditions and be innovative in the way they operate. Such activities require organizations to be agile and
make frequent and strategic, tactical, and operational decisions. Making such decision may require
considerable amounts of timely and relevant data, information, and knowledge. Every semester university
admits new students; they do subject them to medical screening which sometimes includes the staffs and
returning students. However, the results of the medical test from the laboratory technologists and the
doctors, such as patient diagnosis, treatment and medical prescription are currently kept in the health center
data repository for record purposes without being further explored for their managerial activities. Therefore,
this paper applies Business Intelligence (BI) method for exploring the university health center database
repository. The data warehouse was built for the activities in university health center and a prototype was
developed at the end, while the system is evaluated by the prospective users of the system. The result of this
research helps the university health center management by simplifying the technique needed for managerial
decision making and forecasting future activities that would help the center. Also, the health care BI is also
useful to know the medical statistics of the patients in university community and the drugs that need to be
frequently ordered for.
Keywords: Business Intelligence (BI), University Utara Malaysia (UUM), University Health Center
Business Intelligence (PKUBI), Star Schema

1. Introduction
The business environment in which organizations operate today is becoming more complex and everchanging. Organizations, private or public, feel increasing pressures, forcing them to respond quickly to
changing conditions and be innovative in the way they operate. Such activities require organizations to be
agile and make frequent and strategic, tactical, and operational decisions. Making such decision may require
considerable amounts of timely and relevant data, information, and knowledge. Processing these in the
framework of the required decisions needs quick, frequent and some computerized support which is traced
to business intelligence (BI) (Efraim, et al. 2008).
Healthcare organizations are swimming in an ever-deeper pool of data. But without a program in place to
target, gather, deliver and analyze the most relevant data, these organizations will continue to be data rich
but information poor (Eckerson, 2003). Forward-thinking healthcare organizations realize that data and,
thus, BI is at the center of informed and precise decision-making will improve patient and service outcomes
in ensuring their organizations future (Hyperion Solution Corporation, 2004). To achieve the full benefits
of BI in healthcare organizations, there must be a strategic approach to tactical projects and realize that the
greatest efficiencies come from integrating data historically in operation and clinical systems (Microsoft,
2009).
University Utara Malaysia (UUM) at Northern part of Malaysia is a public university which is located in a
small town called Sintok, Kedah State. The university was officially established on February 16 th, 1984 and
its mission is to play leadership role in developing the country by providing high quality management
education in the country. On top of that, the university has offered excellent education areas which are
represented as College of Business (COB), College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), and College of Law,
Government and International Studies (COLGIS).
In addition, UUM exempts itself in such a way that its students and staffs health are guaranteed by
conducting medical-up for them at the University Utara Malaysia Health Center (PKU) during the new
intake admission and in the time of need to see the medical officers. This medical related information is kept
for record purposes in the database repository of UUM. The data in the database can be manipulated using
BI techniques and tools in order to provide PKU with faster and more accurate reporting, improved decision
making and better customer service, and eventually increased revenue.
Furthermore, BI is operationally described as a collection of data warehousing, data mining, analytics,
reporting and visualization technologies, tools, and practices to collect, integrate, cleanse, and mine
enterprise information for decision making (Inmon, et al. 2000). Todays BI architecture is usually designed
for strategic decision making, where a small number of expert users analyze historical data to prepare
reports or build models, and decision making cycles for previous activities (Umeshwar, et al. 2009).
The major objective of BI is to enable interactive access to data, to enable manipulation of data, and to give
business managers and analysts the ability to conduct appropriate analysis on the historical and current data,
which will reveal the situations and performance for making better decision (Zaman, 2005). Data from
distributed sources such as online transaction processing (OLTP) systems is periodically extracted, cleansed,

integrated, transformed, and loaded into a data warehouse (DW), which in turn is queried by analytic
applications (Chaudihuri, et al. 2001).
Every semester UUM enrolls the new intakes with the target of having 40% of graduate students and 60% of
undergraduate students as a research university, the PKU conducts medical test for the new students before
they are allowed to continue with their academic activities. Both the staffs and returning students are
subjected to medical screening whenever they need medical attention from the physicians throughout the
semesters. The results of the medical test from the laboratory technologists and the doctors, such as patient
diagnosis, treatment and medical prescription are currently kept in the data repository for record purposes
without being further explored for their managerial activities. However, there have been a fewer research
that explores BI for PKU in managerial decision making which should help in speeding-up the processes in
dealing with their patients and day-to-day activities of the PKU. Therefore, this research intends to use the
medical record of PKU at UUM by performing business analytics which boosts their services.
Finally, this paper produces answers to the following questions like
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

What are the requirements needed for business intelligence in UUM Health Center?
What type of model necessary for BI in making decision at UUM Health Center?
Which prototype needed for making decision in UUM Health Center?
Does the UUM Health Centers BI system easy to use?
In addition, the application of BI in UUM health center is an important measure which is used as a
computerized support for managerial decision making. This is achieved by viewing the performance through
the help of visualization of important data, while the services receive by the students and staffs of UUM is
also increased. This research is also contributed to the body of knowledge in the areas of healthcare and BI
domains (helping the PKU know the common diseases among the patients and medication that need to be
supplied frequently).
2. Business Intelligence (BI)
Raisinghani (2004) described BI as an umbrella term that includes architectures, tools, databases,
application, and methodologies. This means that BI is a content-free expression that reflects different things
to different people. He added that BI enables interactive access to data, enables manipulation of data and
provides business managers and analysts the ability to conduct appropriate analysis. Zaman (2005) stressed
that analysis in BI is based on the historical and current data, situations, and performances which make
decision makers to get valuable insights upon which they can base more informed and better decision.
Therefore, the process of BI is based on the transformation of data to information, to decisions and finally to
actions.
In industry, BI is finally achieving an increased prominence record and existed in many forms for over three
decades, initially being called Decision Support Systems (DSS), while the umbrella term is still most widely
used in academia. The term Business Intelligence has existed even longer, but in its present form has been
attributed to historical data (Watson & Wixom, 2007). In addition, BI has evolved into a managerial
philosophy and a business tool, which can be referred to as an organized and systematic process by which
organizations acquire, analyze, and disseminate information from both internal and external information
sources significant for their business activities and for decision making (Lonnqvist & Pirttimaki, 2006).

3. EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

The BI was brought newly by the Gartner group in the mid 1990s from the area of management information
system (MIS) reporting systems of the 1970s. During the introduction of BI, the reporting systems were
static, having two-dimensional features and had no analytical capabilities. In early 1980s, the concept of
executive information systems (EIS) was emerged by expanding computerized support to top-level
managers and executives. The EIS concept consists of dynamic multidimensional reporting systems,
forecasting and predicting, trend analysis, drilling down to details, status access and critical success factors,
while all of these features leaved to the mid 1990s. The BI evolved with the existing capabilities, but built of
the EIS with few features and believes that all the information needed by the executives can be in a BIbased enterprise information system. In the year 2005, BI system started to include artificial intelligence and
powerful analytical capabilities (Efraim, et al. 2008). Figure 1 shows the interconnectivities of features that
lead
to
business
intelligence
(BI).

Fig. 1: Evolution of Business Intelligence (Source: Efraim, et al. 2008)

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Inmon (2005) submitted that set or tools and methodologies of BI have the following
characteristics:
i.
ii.

iii.

Accessibility to Information: The business intelligence is known to be flexible and

allows end users to gain access to data regardless of the source of data.
Support in Decision Making: Business intelligence presents the information and
gives access to analysis tools that will allow the users to select and manipulate data
that are important to them.
Strategic Advantage: The business intelligence creates fewer barriers to entry for
new competitors to enter and possess globalization features for readily available
supply chain and e-commerce.

5. BENEFITS OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Eckerson (2003) reported that many executives do not insist on a rigorous cost-justification for business
intelligence projects due to its numerous intangible benefits, while Thompson (2004) noticed that the most
common application areas of BI are general reporting, sales and marketing analysis, planning and
forecasting, financial consolidation, statutory reporting, budgeting and profitability analysis. Meanwhile,
Eckerson (2003) highlighted the benefits of BI as saves time, improves strategies and plans, and improves
tactical decisions, more efficient in processes and cost saving.
In another contribution by Thompson (2004) shows that the major benefits of BI are; faster, more accurate
reporting, improves decision making, improves customer service and increases revenue.

6. TYPES OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DATA SOURCES

Adelman & Larissa (2000) emphasized that one of the challenges in building a BI decision-support
environment is to merge data from different types of data sources. The authors stated that there are three
major types of data sources: operational, private and external.
6.1 Operational Data Source
An operational data source is a database repository which can be used to store and retain runtime data. The
operational data source application can read and write data to and from this data source throughout the life
of the application unlike the metadata data source. The metadata source is primarily written during the
implementation stage of development and read mostly during startup of the server. Also, because data stored
in the operational data source is of a transient nature, users do not need to back-up, restore, or transfer the
underlying database during upgrade. Both online transaction processing (OLTP) and batch systems provide
internal operational data about subject areas, such as financial, logistics, sales, order entry, personnel,
billing, research and engineering.
6.2 Private Data Source
Adelman & Larissa (2000) referred to internal departmental data as the data that usually comes from the
desktops and workstations of business analysts, knowledge workers, statisticians, and managers which
include the Product Analysis Spreadsheets, Regional Product Usage Spreadsheets and Prospective Customer
Databases.
6.3 External Data Source
Demarco (2001) submitted that organizations are often purchase external data from vendors that specialize
in collecting specific industrial information that are available in the public domain like Healthcare Statistics,
Customer Profile Information, Customer Catalog-Ordering Habits and Customer Credit Report.
Therefore, Kimball & Richard (2000) added that external data is usually clustered around the following
categories:
i. Sales and Marketing Data: this is the list of prospective customers.
ii. Credit Data: individual credit ratings, business viability assessments.
iii. Competitive Data: products, services, prices, sales promotions, mergers, takeovers.
iv. Industry Data: technology trends, marketing trends, management science and trade
information.

v. Economic Data: currency fluctuations, political indicators, interest rate movements,

stock and bond prices.
vi. Economic Data: income groups and customer behavior.
vii. Demographic Data: age profiles and population density.
viii. Community Data: raw material prices.
ix. Psychometric Data: consumer profiling.
x. Meteorological Data: weather conditions, rainfall, temperature (for agriculture and
travelling industry).

7. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) ARCHITECTURE

According to Eckerson (2003), BI consists of four major components that are merged together to form BI
architecture; a data warehouse (DW), business analytics (BA), business performance management (BPM)
and a user interface. The BI architecture with its components is shown in Figure 2 below.

Fig. 2: A high level architecture of BI (Source: Eckerson, W. 2003)

7.1 Data Warehouse

Data warehouse and its variants is the cornerstone of any medium-to-large BI system. Initially, data
warehouse included only the historical data that are organized and summarized, and allows end users to
easily view or manipulate data and information. While data warehouse in the new versions is known to
include current data in order to provide real-time decision support.

7.2 Business Analytics

Efraim, et al. (2008) added that business analysis as one of the components of BI architecture is a collection
of tools for manipulating and analyzing the data in the data warehouse without segregating the data mining.
The author said business analytic makes it possible for the end users to work with data and information in a
data ware house by using a variety of tools and techniques that are classified into three categories below:
i.

ii.
iii.

Reporting and Queries: This includes both static and dynamic reporting, all types
of queries, and discovery of information, multidimensional view and drill-down to
details.
Advanced Analytics: Advance analytics includes statistical, financial, and
mathematical and models used in analyzing data and information.
Data, Text and Web Mining: This is a process of searching for unknown
relationships or information in large database or data warehouse, using intelligent
tools like neural computing and predictive analytics techniques.

7.3 Business Performance Management (BPM)

Business performance management (BMP) is always referred to as corporate performance management
(CPM) which is an immerging portfolio of applications and methodology that contains BI architecture and
tools. BPM does measure, monitor, comparing of sales, profit, cost and other performance indicators by
introducing the concepts of management and feedback. It also performs functions like planning and
forecasting as the core belief of a business strategy. Unlike DSS, EIS and BI which support the bottom-top
extraction of information from data, BPM provides a top-down enforcement of corporate-wide strategy.
7.4 The User Interface (Dashboards and Other Information Broadcasting Tools)
Dashboards provide a comprehensive visual view of corporate performance measures, such as (Key
Performance Indicators) trends and exceptions from multiple business areas. The graphs do show actual
performance versus desired metrics and provide at-a-glance view of the health of the organization.
John (2007) stated that dashboards provide an at a glance view of business performance for many
individuals in an organization. They give companies a factual and timely window into performance and help
to identify anomalies that could turn into significant business issues, and therefore provide an entry point for
digging deeper into root causes. Meanwhile, data consistency is crucial to the success of any dashboard
solution which means that no matter how spectacular the interface is, it has to be fed with trusted data from
an enterprise-class platform. Without reliable and consistent data, the value of predictive analysis is limited
at best. Moreover, John (2007) added that the following as the characteristics of BI dashboards:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

BI dashboards deliver a high degree of visualization with graphs, gauges and

charts.
BI dashboards offer personalized views of trusted key information.
BI dashboards can easily be delivered in multiple formats to suit specific needs of
business users.
They are easy to manage from an IT perspective.

8. HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
Maria & Abdel-Badeeh (2010) stressed that Healthcare organizations (HCOs) are information-intensive
enterprises, while Healthcare personnel requires sufficient data and information management tools to make
appropriate decisions. Clinicians assess patients status, plan patients care, administer appropriate
treatments, and educate patients and families regarding clinical management of various conditions. Primarycare physicians and care managers assess the health status of new members of a health plan. Medical
directors evaluate the clinical outcomes, quality, and cost of health services provided. Administrators
determine appropriate staffing levels, manage inventories of drugs and supplies, and negotiate payment
contracts for services. Governing boards make decisions about investing in new business lines, partnering
with other organizations, and eliminating underutilized services. Collectively, healthcare professionals
comprise a heterogeneous group with diverse objectives and information requirements.
In addition, the authors submitted that the main objective of HCO in a highly competitive environment is to
reduce operating costs while maintaining a consistently acceptable level of patient treatment. Reduce
operating costs at all levels, such as:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

Cost of healthcare Professionals.

Cost of lab equipment & consumables.
Cost of pharmaceuticals / medical material.
Cost of a treatment per Diagnosis related grouping (DRG).
Cost per type of medical intervention (specific medical operation).

Meanwhile, an acceptable level of patient treatment involves:

i.
Evidence based medicine, accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment.
ii.
On time admittance in the Hospital and healthcare treatment.
iii.
Treatment with respect for the Patient- analysis of options.
iv.
Reduction of risks during treatment.
v.
Capture of medical history of the patient in to support evidence based medicine.
9.

HEALTHCARE ACTIVITIES, SERVICES AND PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT

OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Health care organizations typically prescribe how their processes have to be performed; especially those
processes that represent complex routine work, that involve many persons and organizational units and that
are in general frequently performed (Yorozu et al., 1987). In the context of BI, medical processes are those
activities and work practices within a HCO and focused on the health services delivery (nursing and medical
treatment). Business processes comprise activities that are needed to effectively run the health care
organization. Support processes are used from both kinds of processes but only have an indirect impact on
medical and business activities (supply of materials) as shown in Figure 3.

Fig. 3: Healthcare Process in the Context of BI

10. TECHNOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF BI IN HEALTHCARE

Maria & Abdel-Badeeh (2010) submitted that intelligent technologies can be seen as enabler for managing,
storing, analyzing, visualizing, and giving access to a great amount of data in the context of BI. For this
purpose, a wide range of intelligent technologies such as; expert systems, online analytical processing, data
mining and knowledge discovery, grid computing, cloud computing are used in developing BI system in
healthcare sector. Technology is required to provide an integrated view of both, internal and external data
(data warehouse) which is regarded as the base for BI.
10.1 Types of Operational Databases
Maria & Abdel-Badeeh (2010) highlighted the essential parts of database technologies and intelligent
technologies from BI perspective, and concluded that three types of operational databases should be created
in healthcare organization (HCO) as shown in Figure 4.
i.

ii.

iii.

Clinical Operational Databases (CODB): these include all kind of medical data
which is needed for health care service delivery to the patients; such as electronic
patient records, and laboratory results.
Administrative Operational Databases (AODB): these contain the entire business
data which is required for running the health care organization; like personnel
data, and financial data.
External Operational Databases (EODB): these can either be clinical or business
data from an external provider (medical reports, insurance forms, and statistical
data).

Fig. 4: Technology of Business Intelligence in Healthcare

11. BENEFITS OF BI IN HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

The benefits from applying BI in the healthcare environment can be tremendous. BI serves an increasingly
wide variety of departments in the provider market with an assortment of unique reporting and analysis
applications (Kornack & Rakic, 2001). Thus, the authors added that a robust BI environment offers
healthcare organizations a host of business benefits including, which include the following:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

The ability to optimize resources (including physical space, equipment and

devices, staff and supplies) in individual departments such as Surgical Services.
The ability to develop and monitor key performance indicators and clinical
indicators to improve performance and quality.
The ability to conduct planning, budgeting, and forecasting more efficiently and
accurately across large organizations.
The ability to effectively understand and manage the supply chain and logistics to
contain costs and ensure consistent supply.
The ability to better ensure patient safety through efficient diagnostics and the
identification and enforcement of best practice treatment protocols.

vi.

The ability to contain costs and improve performance and quality through human
resources management and physician profiling.

12. RELATED WORK ON BI

Diana et al. (2010) submitted that a disorder characterized by an excessive sweating was treated by
endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy which improved the patient overall quality of life. Therefore, the
patients daily activities are not affected, or are less affected, by this disorder, and their emotional state
verifies a significant improvement, from a situation of shame and self-punishing to what we could say a
normal life. The authors presented the analysis of the quality of life of 227 patients that were treated by an
endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy, using business intelligence technologies which allowed the storage,
the analysis and the reporting of all the relevant findings. Meanwhile, the authors illustrated that database
and data analysis developments were needed in a specific healthcare application domain. Such as, a data
mart (data storage) which was designed to address the relevant
attributes. Also, On-line analytical
processing and data mining (data analysis) technologies were used to show the evolution of the patients
health conditions.
Furthermore, Maria & Abdel-Badeeh (2010) stressed that Business intelligence is a new methodology to
maximize the benefits for healthcare organization. Business intelligence also provides an integrated view of
data that can be used to monitor, key performance indicators, identify hidden patterns in diagnosis and
identify variations in cost factors. Therefore, intelligent techniques provide an effective computational
methods and robust environment for business intelligence in the healthcare domain.
Christos et al. (2008) stressed that On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools use multidimensional views
to provide quick access to information. Therefore, these have become the existing standard in the business
world for analytical databases. In health care, care givers and managers could benefit from being able to
perform interactive data exploration, while ad-hoc analysis and possibly discover hidden trends and patterns
in health data.
Jim & Achim (2008) argued that paper still plays an important role in todays and future BI-lifecycle. This
makes the authors to hypothesis that working with a digital pen together with the specially designed
graphical elements and forms can enhance work in the healthcare domain, because of the digitalization of
the contents. The investigations were operated in the context of a Business Intelligence (BI) lifecycle, where
content is captured, analyzed, utilized, and re-annotated on paper printouts. The authors developed
architecture for acoustic digital pen integration into a healthcare environment and implemented a prototype
for evaluation reasons. Form elements were classified while current processing of digital pen forms was also
analyzed. The whole system was evaluated to gather first impressions from end users. The basic question
arises, how forms can be designed that the process of note taking is getting faster, lesser and well arranged
so that nurses and physicians have more time for the patients. In addition, the authors came out that when
designing forms for healthcare, three parties need to be involved; the nurses or whoever has to work with
the form to assure ergonomic and usability requirements, the management or whoever has knowledge about
data integration and process optimizing opportunities and the physician or whoever is responsible for quality
management and legal concerns. This will make the acoustic digital pens seem to provide a cost-effective
opportunity to bridge the gap between physical paper records and the digital representation of them.

Lihong, et al (2010) submitted that Extract-Transform-Loading (ETL) tools integrate data from source side
to target in building data warehouse. However data structure and semantic heterogeneity exits widely in the
enterprise information systems. On the purpose of eliminate data heterogeneity so as to construct data
warehouse, the authors introduced domain ontology into ETL process of finding the data sources, defining
the rules of data transformation, and eliminating the heterogeneity. They embedded domain ontology in the
metadata of the data warehouse which led to data record mapped from data bases to ontology classes of
Web Ontology Language (OWL). This resulted to access information resources more efficiently. The
authors tested the method in a hospital data warehouse project, and the result shows that ontology method
plays an important role in the process of data integration by providing common descriptions of the concepts
and relationships of data items, and medical domain ontology in the ETL process is of practical feasibility.
Xuezhong, et al (2008) suggested that the clinical data from the daily clinical process, which keeps to
traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theories and principles, is the core empirical knowledge source for
TCM researches. The authors introduced a data warehouse system, which is based on the structured
electronic medical record system and daily clinical data, for TCM clinical researches and medical
knowledge discovery. The system consists of several key components: clinical data schema, extractiontransformation-loading tool, online analytical analysis (OLAP) based on Business Objects (a commercial
business intelligence software), and integrated data mining functionalities. Their data warehouse is currently
contained 20,000 inpatient data of diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, and more than 20,000
outpatient data. Conclusively, their analysis applications showed that the developed clinical data warehouse
platform is promising to build the bridge for TCM clinical practice and theoretical research, which will
promote the related TCM researches.
13. METHODS
Therefore, paper uses the Business Intelligence Roadmap methods in designing the Healthcare BI for PKU
in UUM (Larissa & Shaku, 2003). The adopted method consists of six stages; Justification Stage, Planning
Stage, Business Analysis Stage, Design Stage, Construction Stage and Deployment Stage, shown in Figure
5.

Fig. 5: Business Intelligence Roadmap (Sources: Larissa & Shaku, 2003)

The PKUBI system starts with investigation of the highlighted problem of making decision by the policy
makers (Chief Medical Officer, Doctors, matrons and medical laboratory officers) in UUM and business
opportunity that need BI solution which was discovered during the interview with the chief medical officer
of PKU, Dr. Sanuri. Each BI application should be cost-justified and should clearly define the benefits of
either solving a business problem or taking advantage of a business opportunity in PKU. This method
proceeds to the certification of infrastructure that PKU in UUM has on ground for the development of BI
and preparation of the needs for the application. The infrastructure may include hardware, software,
middleware, Meta data repository and network components. In addition, organizations of the staffs, budgets,
and technologies, business representatives of PKU in UUM which must be in detail are closely reported.
Furthermore, the business analysis stage for PKU in UUM has four phases, such as project requirement
definition, data analysis, and application prototyping and Meta data repository analysis. Moreover, the
design stage consists of database design, extract transform load (ETL) design and Meta data repository
design for the PKU BI system. The design has to meet the requirements of the logical Meta model and take
processes of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Analytical Services (SSAS) and SQL
Server Report Services (SSRS). The conclusion part has to do with the development of ETL, application,
data mining and the Meta data repository for the PKU BI application in UUM. Therefore, the BI system
then deploys for evaluation by the doctors, matrons and the laboratory technologists during the deployment
period.
14. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF PKUBI
This is the processes of analyzing and designing BI system for PKU in UUM. It displays stepwise
development of BI application and answers the measures from the fact table of the dimension tables.
Therefore, System analysis is the dissection of a system into its components for the purposes of studying
how those components interact and work.
14.1 Dimensional Model
IBM (2006) submitted that to overcome performance issues for large queries in the data warehouse, we use
dimensional models. The dimensional modeling approach provides a way to improve query performance for
summary reports without affecting data integrity. A dimensional model is also commonly called a star
schema. This type of model is very popular in data warehousing because it can provide much better query
performance, especially on very large queries, than an E/R model. However, it also has the major benefit of
being easier to understand. It consists, typically, of a large table of facts (known as a fact table), with a
number of other tables surrounding it that contain descriptive data, called dimensions. When it is drawn, it
resembles the shape of a star. The dimensional model consists of two types of tables having different
characteristics like Fact table and Dimension table.
14.2 Dimensional Tables and Models for PKUBI
Data warehouses are built using dimensional data models which consist of fact and dimension tables.
Dimension tables are used to describe dimensions; they contain dimension keys, values and attributes. For
example, the time dimension would contain every hour, day, week, month, quarter and year that has
occurred since the beginning of business operations. Product dimension could contain a name and
description of products you sell, their unit price, color, weight and other attributes as applicable.
Meanwhile, Dimension tables are typically small, ranging from a few to several thousand rows which can
grow fairly large (sqlserverpedia.com). Therefore, the dimensional tables for PKUBI in UUM are students

patient, staffs patient, familys patient, publics patient and diseases patient, time, doctor and laboratory
technologist.

Student Patient Dimensional Table

Table 1: Student Patient Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Student_patient_id

The unique identification for the students patient.

Student_patient_name

This is the name of students patient.

Student_patient_age

This is the age of students patient.

To generate the report of students patient based on age.
To give a correct treatment based on age.

Student_patient_gender

This is the gender of students patient.

To generate the report of students patient based on gender.
To give a correct treatment based on gender.

Student_patient_college

This is the college of study of students patient.

To ease the contact of students patient in terms of need.

Student_patient_natinality

This is the country o origin of studentpatient.

To know if the students patient ailment is peculiar to his or her country of origin.

Student_patient_contactnum

Contact number of students patient.

To contact students patient for further treatment through telephone.

Student_patient_treatment

To identify number of students patient with similar diseases and current syndrome.

Student_patient_appointment

To record any appointment.

To easily track the health history of students patient.

Student_patient_department

This department o the students patient.

Staffs Patient Dimensional Table

Table 2: Staffs Patient Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Staff_patient_id

The unique identification for the staffs patient.

Staff_patient_name

This is the name of Staffs patient.

Staff_patient_address

This is the address of staffs patient in order to follow-up through hard copy.

Staff_patient_age

This is the age of staffs patient.

To generate the report of staffs patient based on age.

To give a correct treatment based on age.

Staff_patient_gender

This is the gender of staffs patient.

To generate the report of staffs patient based on gender.
To give a correct treatment based on gender.

Staff_patient_contactnum

Contact number of staffs patient.

To contact staffs patient for further treatment through telephone.

Staff_patient_treatment

To identify number of patient with similar diseases and current syndrome.

Staff_patient_appointment

To record any appointment.

To easily track the health history of staffs patient.

Familys Patient Dimensional Table

Table 3: Familys Patient Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

family_patient_id

The unique identification for the familys patient.

family_patient_name

This is the name of familys patient.

family_patient_address

This is the address of familys patient in order to follow-up through hard copy.

family_patient_age

This is the age of familys patient.

To generate the report of familys patient based on age.
To give a correct treatment based on age.

family_patient_gender

This is the gender of familys patient.

To generate the report of familys patient based on gender.
To give a correct treatment based on gender.

family_patient_contactnum

Contact number of familys patient.

To contact familys patient for further treatment through telephone.

family_patient_treatment

To identify number of patient with similar diseases and current syndrome.

family_patient_appointment

To record any appointment.

To easily track the health history of familys patient.

Publics Patient Dimensional Table

Table 4: Publics Patient Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

public_patient_id

The unique identification for the publics patient.

public_patient_name

This is the name of publics patient.

public_patient_address

This is the address of publics patient in order to follow-up through hard copy.

public_patient_age

This is the age of publics patient.

To generate the report of publics patient based on age.
To give a correct treatment based on age.

public_patient_gender

This is the gender of publics patient.

To generate the report of publics patient based on gender.
To give a correct treatment based on gender.

public_patient_contactnum

Contact number of publics patient.

To contact publics patient for further treatment through telephone.

public_patient_treatment

To identify number of patient with similar diseases and current syndrome.

public_patient_appointment

To record any appointment.

To easily track the health history of publics patient.

Disease Dimensional Table

Table 5: Disease Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Disease_id

The unique identification for the diseases.

Disease_name

The name of the diseases for proper identification.

Disease_type

To know the group the diseases belong to.

Disease_class

To know the class that diseases belong to.

To know either the disease is major or minor.

Disease_control

To know the specific drug for controlling the diseases.

Time Dimensional Table

Table 6: Time Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Time _id

The unique identification for each patient that receives treatment.

Year

The year that the patient receives treatment.

To generate report based on year.

Month

The month that the patient receives treatment.

To generate report based on month.

Day

The day that the patient receives treatment.

To generate report based on day.

Doctor Dimensional Table

Table 7: Doctor Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Doctor_id

Unique identification for each doctor.

Doctor_name

Name of doctor.

Doctor_gender

To assign doctor for each patients treatment. (a special case which is requested by
patient)

Doctor_department

To know the department of each doctor.

Doctor_specialisation

To know the specialization of each doctor.

To assign a correct doctor to a correct patient.

Laboratory Technologist Dimensional Table

Table 8: Laboratory Technologist Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

technologist_id

Unique identification for each technologist.

technologist_name

Name of the technologist that attend to patient.

technologist_gender

To assign technologist for each patients diagnosis.

technologist_specialisation

To know the specialization of each technologist.

To assign the right technologist to the right patient.

Nationality Dimensional Table

Table 9: Nationality Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Nationality_id

Unique identification for each nationality

Nationality_name

Name of country of origin of the patient

College Dimensional Table

Table 10: College Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

College_id

Unique identification for each college

College_name

Name of college of the patient

Drug Dimensional Table

Table 11: Drug Dimensional Model Definition
Attribute

Description

Drug_id

Unique identification for drug given to the patient

Drug_name

Name of the recommended drug

Drug_expiringdate

The period the drug will be expired

14.3 Requirements for PKUBI

An interview was granted the chief medical officer, Dr. Sanuri and Madam Ashia of PKU University Utara
Malaysia about their expectation on the requirements of the PKUBI. These requirements are the measures of
the PKUBI for making a managerial decision on the important records in the data warehouse repository of
PKU. The following are the requirements gathered from the management of the PKU:

Table 12: Requirements Detail for PKUBI

No

Analysis

Pass

Fail

Which of the drug consume most by the patient?

Which of the drug is expiring in the next three months?

Which set of patients patronize PKU most?

What is the department of the most patronized patient in PKU?

What is the nationality of the most patronized patient in PKU?

What is the college of the most patronized patient in PKU?

How many patients have skin disease in a period of time?

Which of the diseases is most common among the patients in PKU?

14.4 PKUBI Star Schema

A Star schema has one fact table and several dimension tables based on the PKUBI
requirements.

Fig. 6: A PKU Star Schema

15. RESULTS

Fig. 7: Distribution of Patients According To the Nationality

The Figure 7 above shows the distribution of patients that have visited the PKU according to their
nationality from 2006 to 2010. It shows that Nigerians visited the PKU 32, 20, 24, 43 and 60 times from the
year 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010 respectively, while Malaysian visited PKU in 68, 46, 56, 65, and 80 times
from 2006 to 2010. Also, Thai students visited PKU for treatment in 56, 23, 56, 76 and 87 times in the year
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Fig. 8: The Cube for the Patients According To the Nationality in PKU
The Figure 8 shows how the important data like patients and nationality distribution are filled in the cube.
This is generated from the reporting tool of the SQL server 2008 used for this research.

Drug According to the Nationality

Fig. 9: Distribution of Use of Drug According To the Nationality

Fig. 10: The Cube for the Use of Drug According To the Nationality in PKU

communicable disease
Non communicable disease

Fig. 11: Distribution of College According To the Diseases

Fig. 12: the Cube for the college according To the Diseases in PKU
16. THE PKUBI DEPLOYMENT
The PKUBI System has been successfully implemented. All the functional requirements described before
have been fully achieved. The prototype initially developed for testing has been fully converted to a
working system. Front Page 2003 is used as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and the back
end database was developed using Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The Figures 13-17 (screenshots) show a
sample of user interface.

Fig. 13: Login page of PKUBI

Fig. 14: Login page of PKUBI

The Figures 13 and 14 display the login page of the PKUBI. This page allows the officer and the
administrator in PKU to access some functions of the PKUBI. Once the login button has been clicked, the
user will move to the home page of the system.

Fig. 15: Home page of the PKUBI

The home page of the PKUBI contains the pages that the users can have access to; view page, report page
and update page.

Fig. 16: Viewing page of the PKUBI

This page allows the administrator and the officer (authorized) to view the record or profile of the patients
through the PKUBI system.

Fig. 17: Update page of the PKUBI

Figure 17 shows the update page which allows the user (database officer) in PKU to update records of the
patients in order for the system to be effective.

17. RECOMMENDATION
The importance of the PKUBI in decision making cannot be overemphasized in achieving effective
healthcare set-up. Therefore, this calls for immediate recommendation of this research in PKU. This
research has helped in the style of service delivery to the patients in PKU and helps in forecasting and
drilling of the drugs that need to be ordered for in large quantity for pharmacy department at PKU.

18. CONCLUSION
The design of BI system for PKU in UUM helps the management by simplifying the technique needed for
managerial decision making and forecasting future activities that would help the PKU. The PKUBI will also
be useful to know the medical statistics of the patients in UUM and the drugs that need to be frequently
ordered for. Moreover, this research has helped to determine the diseases that require a crucial attention
among the patients at PKU in UUM.

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