Modernizing healthcare analytics: How EXL and Databricks delivered a scalable, multi-tenant platform
Executive summary
A leading client in the healthcare solutions space required a significant overhaul of its data analytics infrastructure to support its extensive operations. Their existing SQL server-based data warehouse could not scale to meet demand, lacked robust data governance, and offered no support for modern AI and machine learning initiatives.
Through a strategic partnership, EXL and Databricks designed and implemented a cutting-edge, multi-tenant platform on Microsoft Azure. This solution leveraged the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to resolve performance bottlenecks and enhance security, ultimately reducing onboarding time and unlocking new operational efficiencies.
Challenge: Overcoming an outdated data architecture
The client, a worldwide leader in health solutions and care delivery, relies on secure, compliant, and efficient data analytics for critical decision-making and regulatory reporting. Their legacy data warehouse struggled to keep pace with the increasing volume of data, especially during peak usage.
This created several significant business challenges:
- Scalability limitations: The system struggled to handle growing data loads, impacting performance and delaying insights.
- Data governance constraints: The existing framework lacked the capabilities to ensure proper oversight for highly regulated data like protected health information (PHI).
- Lack of advanced analytics support: There was minimal ability to integrate machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI), limiting the potential for predictive insights.
These issues resulted in slow performance, potential compliance vulnerabilities, and a restricted capacity for onboarding new ambulatory or hospital systems, directly affecting business agility and customer satisfaction.
Solution: A unified platform powered by EXL and Databricks
To address these challenges, EXL leveraged its deep industry expertise in data-driven solutions and strong partnership with Databricks. We implemented a modern, multi-tenant platform on Azure, engineered to deliver a robust provider analytics suite. The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform was central to this transformation, providing the processing power and unified architecture needed to build a truly scalable solution.
Key elements of the solution included:
- Databricks-powered processing: Databricks helped build highly efficient data pipelines (leveraging Microsoft Azure) capable of processing massive datasets with speed and reliability. This replaced the slow and cumbersome processes of the old SQL warehouse.
- Unified governance with Unity Catalog: Unity Catalog on Databricks was implemented to address compliance and security concerns. This provided a centralized, secure governance model for all data and AI assets.
- Scalable multi-tenant architecture: Built on Azure Data Factory, Blob Storage, and Databricks, the new platform was designed to onboard new ambulatory and hospital systems at an accelerated pace, with the flexibility to create rapid customizations.
- Global delivery model: EXL designed a global model to support the secure management of sensitive data, ensuring compliance with international healthcare data regulations.
This strategic combination of EXL’s industry knowledge and Databricks’ powerful technology created a unified architecture capable of delivering reliable, advanced analytics with enhanced data security.
Results: Driving efficiency, compliance, and innovation
The implementation of the Databricks-powered multi-tenant platform delivered measurable improvements in performance, compliance, and operational efficiency, including:
- Faster onboarding turnaround: The streamlined architecture significantly reduced the time required to onboard new ambulatory care and hospital systems, allowing the client to expand its services more efficiently.
- Enhanced security and compliance: With Unity Catalog, the platform provides a robust security framework that aligns with global data regulations, ensuring sensitive PII/PHI is protected throughout the data lifecycle.
- Foundation for advanced analytics: The solution establishes a powerful foundation for leveraging ML and AI. Teams are now empowered to extract predictive and actionable insights, with improved support for deep provider analytics and Power BI reporting.
- Improved scalability and performance: The platform seamlessly scales to handle business growth while maintaining consistent performance. The superior processing power of Databricks has eliminated operational delays and improved load balancing during peak times.
Conclusion: Future-proofing healthcare analytics
This transformation was more than a technical upgrade; it was a strategic move to future-proof the client's operations. By partnering with EXL and leveraging the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, the client now operates with greater agility, stronger compliance adherence, and the tools needed to unlock the full potential of their data.
This success story highlights the critical importance of investing in scalable, secure, and intelligent data solutions to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving healthcare industry.