Visualize Live FHIR Data in Power BI (via CData Connect Cloud)

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get access to FHIR data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to FHIR, connect to FHIR data from Power BI and then create reports on FHIR data in Power BI.

Configure FHIR Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to FHIR from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with FHIR data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a FHIR connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "FHIR" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to FHIR.

   Set URL to the Service Base URL of the FHIR server. This is the address where the resources are defined in the FHIR server you would like to connect to. Set ConnectionType to a supported connection type. Set ContentType to the format of your documents. Set AuthScheme based on the authentication requirements for your FHIR server.

   Generic, Azure-based, AWS-based, and Google-based FHIR server implementations are supported.

   Sample Service Base URLs

   • Generic: http://my_fhir_server/r4b/
   • Azure: https://MY_AZURE_FHIR.azurehealthcareapis.com/
   • AWS: https://healthlake.REGION.amazonaws.com/datastore/DATASTORE_ID/r4/
   • Google: https://healthcare.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/datasets/DATASET_ID/fhirStores/FHIR_STORE_ID/fhir/

   Generic FHIR Instances

   The product supports connections to custom instances of FHIR. Authentication to custom FHIR servers is handled via OAuth (read more about OAuth in the Help documentation. Before you can connect to custom FHIR instances, you must set ConnectionType to Generic.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add FHIR Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to FHIR data from Power BI.

Query FHIR Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull FHIR data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect Cloud and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud account
3. After signing in, click "Connect"
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your FHIR data from Power BI

Create FHIR Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Live Access to FHIR Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect Cloud you have a direct connection to FHIR data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating FHIR data.

To get SQL data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including FHIR) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect page and start a free trial.