This summer, Tobias Nunn joined Ethical Healthcare as an intern with a brief to enhance our business intelligence.  

His work improved our internal processes and gave us a new perspective on data analysis.  

*** 

At Ethical Healthcare, our mission is to help our clients ensure they can deliver the best possible digital health and care. We believe that diverse perspectives and ethical practices are crucial in achieving our goals.  

As our CEO, Thomas Webb, so wisely reminds us: “Operating a business without good data is like flying an aeroplane whilst wearing a blindfold.” So, with our existing management information (MI) reporting ready for a revamp, it was high time to look inwards to align with our growth trajectory. 

We decided to enlist the help of an intern to do this – and were thrilled with the results. 

 

Introducing Tobias 

We welcomed Tobias Nunn, a first-year zoology student from the University of Bangor, for a 12-week internship over the summer of 2024. Tobias’ academic background in zoology brought a fresh and totally unique perspective to our business intelligence projects – and his enthusiasm and innovative ideas were invaluable in enhancing our data and reporting mechanisms. 

Tobias worked closely with our top experts, including: 

  • Senior Data Architect, Nancy Pickering: Nancy guided Tobias through the technical intricacies of data architecture in business intelligence, providing mentorship and support throughout. 
  • Technical Operations Manager, Shaun Holywell: Shaun mentored Tobias on the operational and business aspects of the project, ensuring that the revamped dashboards met our high standards for functionality and user experience. 
  • EHC Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors: Our Directors and Executive Leadership Team provided their strategic vision to ascertain which information would most help them to gain valuable insights and steer the business in the right direction. 
  • EHC department leads: Tobias worked alongside our business development, delivery and operations teams to gather their user requirements and help them to weave their story through the reporting channels of our business. 

 

Tobias’ brief 

Tobias’ brief was to support the overhaul of our business intelligence and reporting dashboards. The main goals were to:  

  • Improve data pipeline and ingestion 

Tobias worked alongside Nancy and Shaun to streamline our data sources across various business systems into a semi-automated data pipeline. By leveraging Microsoft Power Query, they united, ingested, cleaned and aggregated data from SharePoint, our enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software, accounting software and Google Analytics, among others. This robust foundation enabled the effective use of MS Power BI and DAX to transform raw numbers into actionable insights. 

  • Improve data accuracy and usability 

Tobias ensured our data is reliable and easy to interpret, significantly enhancing our systems’ accuracy. Implementing the 3:30:300 methodology, he provided end users with a 3 second snapshot of the headlines, followed by 30 and 300 second levels of data. This approach allows for quick insights at a glance, whilst also offering deeper trend analysis and comprehensive details. Understanding the “what” but also the “why”. 

  • Integrating new features and functionalities 

Tobias introduced tools and features that provide greater insights and efficiencies for our Executive Leadership Team. By adopting an ‘app’-like interface, end users can now easily navigate through bookmarks, subscribe to updates of specific visualisations, drill through to more detailed reports, and access ‘fly-out’ information panels. These enhancements help users fully understand the data they are viewing, making informed decisions more accessible. 

Tobias’ contributions have been instrumental in advancing our business intelligence capabilities, ensuring we continue to provide high-quality, data-driven insights to our business. 

 

Why Tobias chose an internship with Ethical Healthcare 

We benefited greatly from having Tobias on our team – but we wanted to ensure that his internship enhanced his long-term career goals, too.  

Tobias shares with us what he got from the internship and how he’ll use the skills he developed with Ethical Healthcare in future.  

  •  What motivated you to apply for an internship at Ethical Healthcare? 

I felt experience with programs like Power BI and Power Query would complement my scientific outlook on data visualisation. Understanding how businesses work would help my broader professional skillset beyond my scientific background. Working within a business would allow me to gain real-world stakeholder engagement experience, too. 

  •  How do you think your background in Zoology contributed to the project? 

I’ve used statistical modelling and programming languages in Power Query, Excel and R before, which gave me a good foundational knowledge base to take on the challenge of the DAX programming language. Zoology is a diverse and complex field of study, so I felt well equipped to combine theoretical knowledge with practical experience to deliver the goals of the project. 

  • Can you share a challenge you faced during the project and how you approached solving it? 

The DAX language is very complex; there were times where my knowledge and research could only take me so far. Knowing that I could draw on the expertise of Ethical’s diverse team to collaborate on and top up my DAX knowledge was a useful resource to draw upon. This meant that I could implement my new-found knowledge of DAX in other parts of the project. 

  • What was the most rewarding part of your internship and how do you think it will impact your future studies and career?

Getting to work with a wide range of individuals and teams within the organisation was fun. In any future research or work that I do, teamwork is going to be a very important attribute to have to ensure successful outcomes. Working alongside others throughout this internship has reinforced my understanding of the importance of collaboration and teamwork. 

  • What are your career aspirations and how does this internship align with your goals? 

A lot of researchers are looking for broader experience beyond the field of zoology, so the opportunity to demonstrate that wider understanding of business was a great opportunity for me. I feel that working within a corporate environment will help me to bring a more rounded approach to my scientific career goals. 

 

Next steps 

We’re incredibly proud of Tobias’ contributions during his internship and look forward to seeing his academic and professional career flourish in the years to come. Tobias goes on to an environmental science research internship before resuming his studies in late September, for which we wish him every success. 

We encourage other students from diverse fields to consider internships in healthcare consulting, as the intersection of different disciplines can drive significant advancements in our industry. 

Tobias’s fresh approach has given us improved internal business intelligence and reporting capabilities – and we’re excited to apply this new approach to providing data analysis and visualisation to our clients.