From spreadsheets to insights: how a clinician-built dashboard is helping maxillofacial teams plan care more effectively
3 August 2026
For many NHS teams, administrative data exists in abundance. The challenge is turning that information into meaningful insights that can improve patient care.
For one specialist service in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, that challenge led to the creation of a live dashboard, powered by data hosted on the National Data Resource (NDR) Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The dashboard is helping clinicians better understand patient pathways, plan care more effectively and make informed decisions about future demand.
The work was led by Mr. John Wells, Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, who recognised an opportunity to use existing data in a new way.
Understanding the problem
Like many specialist services across NHS Wales, the maxillofacial and orthognathic team had access to a wealth of information about appointments, waiting lists and patient activity.
What was missing was meaningful clinical information that could show where patients were in their treatment journey.
Patients requiring orthognathic treatment, for example, often follow a complex pathway that can span several years. Treatment may involve orthodontic work, regular appointments and surgery, with each patient progressing at a different pace.
The team needed a better way to understand not only who was waiting, but what type of patients they were caring for, where they were in their pathway and what future demand might look like.
Previously, much of this work relied on spreadsheets and manual processes.
"We already had lots of administrative data," explains John. "What we didn't have was a simple way to combine that with meaningful clinical information so we could understand our patients' pathways."
A different approach
Working with colleagues, John introduced a small number of clinically meaningful codes into the team’s existing workflow. By adding these codes when recording appointment outcomes, the team could identify different patient groups and stages within the treatment pathway.
Combining this clinical information with existing appointment and waiting list data opened up entirely new opportunities for analysis.
Initially, the data still had to be exported and processed manually in Excel. While this was an improvement, it remained time-consuming and relied on regular manual updates.
The real breakthrough came when the data was made available through the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), part of the NDR. Built on the NDR's secure Google Cloud Platform (GCP), NDAP enabled the team to automate the flow of data into a live Power BI dashboard.
With overnight data refreshes, clinicians always have access to up-to-date information without the need for manual spreadsheet updates. This provides a secure, scalable foundation for future analytical developments and allows the team to focus on using data to improve patient care rather than maintaining reports.
Turning data into insight
The dashboard provides a clear picture of patient flow through the service.
It shows how many patients are in different stages of treatment, how demand is distributed across patient groups and what future activity is likely to look like.
Perhaps most importantly, it has helped the team challenge assumptions and uncover insights that were previously hidden.
For example, the team had believed that orthognathic treatment pathways typically lasted around 18 months. The data showed that, on average, they were closer to 30 months.
The dashboard also revealed patterns in appointment frequency and waiting times that had not previously been visible, allowing the team to better understand capacity pressures and identify where improvements could have the greatest impact.
Because the dashboard is connected to regularly refreshed data, clinicians can access current information whenever they need it, supporting day-to-day decision-making and longer-term service planning.
Empowering people to solve problems
While the Power BI dashboard provides the front-end visualisation, the story is about much more than a reporting tool. It shows how the NDR's secure cloud data platform, combined with clinically meaningful data, can turn routine operational information into actionable insights for frontline teams.
It demonstrates what can happen when clinicians are given the opportunity to work with data safely and creatively.
Across NHS Wales, many staff have ideas about how data could help improve services. Often, they are closest to the challenges and understand where improvements could make the biggest difference.
By creating secure, governed ways for people to access and use data, organisations can support innovation while maintaining the highest standards of information governance and patient confidentiality.
This allows clinicians, analysts and operational teams to work together to solve real-world problems using evidence rather than assumption.
Looking ahead
The dashboard is now used regularly by the team and continues to support planning and decision-making.
Its success highlights the potential of enriching existing administrative data with meaningful clinical information and making that data available through NDAP, part of the NDR’s secure Google Cloud Platform. By combining technologies such as Google BigQuery with tools like Power BI, NHS Wales teams can move beyond static reporting to create live insights that support better operational and clinical decision-making.
Importantly, it also shows that innovation does not always require collecting new data. Sometimes, the greatest value comes from making better use of the information that already exists.
As the NDR continues to develop secure data capabilities across NHS Wales, stories like this demonstrate how cloud-based data platforms and modern analytics can transform existing information into practical tools that support better planning, more informed decisions and ultimately improved patient care.