An introduction to health and care data tools

taster sessions
pre-beginner
Published

June 16, 2026

Introduction

This session is a quickfire, non-technical introduction to the main tools used to manage, analyse, and visualise data in current use in health and social care. Over the session, we’ll introduce and demonstrate tools including Excel, Power BI, R, SQL, Tableau, and a selection of M365/Power Platform tools.

ImportantA word of warning

This is a very quick run-through of these tools. It’s not intended to give you detailed instructions about how to use any individual tool. It also comes with a proviso about governance. Many of the tools demonstrated here will need proper governance, and most organisations will have restrictions on which tools are used, and for what. Don’t take any of this demonstration as an endorsement that a tool is suitable for use in your organisation.

Microsoft Forms

What A tool for collecting data
Strengths Easy to use, does basic analysis with no extra work, plays nicely with Excel and friends
Weaknesses Complicated governance, probably not right for sensitive data, limitations on design
Availability/cost Free and available for most M365 users - check https://forms.office.com/
Example uses Simple surveys, feedback, building a request process
Demo We’ll add some questions to the sample form at https://forms.office.com/e/qDU9ee7pSS, and collect some data for later parts of this session

Power Automate

What A tool for process automation
Strengths Very flexible and powerful
Weaknesses Lots of governance issues! ☠️ automation is risky! ☠️ M365-centric, complicated free vs paid decisions
Availability/cost Available to most M365 users - check https://make.powerautomate.com/
Example uses Email/Teams message when a form is completed, approvals, mailing lists, daily data collection
Demo Post messages into this meeting chat when a Form is completed

Excel

What The standard entry-level data storage and analysis tool
Strengths Available everywhere, massive user base, easy to use and share
Weaknesses Projects become messy and complicated. Very few guardrails, and tends to require lots of manual management of data
Availability/cost Available to most M365 users, and many different versions
Example uses Almost anything you can think of, but best with simple and short data with few users
Demo Summarising data from the form

PowerQuery

What A specialist data-wrangling tool bundled with some versions of Excel and Power BI
Strengths Reproducibility! Helps lessen the amount of manual work required in Excel. Great for bring data together from lots of sources, and plenty of advanced analytics on offer
Weaknesses More complicated than Excel, and harder to learn. Unfamiliar to many, meaning careful explanation/engagement needed.
Availability/cost Built-in to newer versions of Excel (and Power BI)
Example uses Linking datasets, doing monthly returns, producing statistical reports
Demo Summarise the forms data, and then refresh it

Power BI

What A tool for building and publishing interactive dashboards
Strengths Easiest dashboard tool, comes with Power Query so brilliant for pulling data together and serving it to users, looks nice too
Weaknesses ☠️ Publishing and governance is really complicated and potentially expensive, especially if you want to share with users outwith your organisation ☠️. Hard to do “proper” stats, and lots of limitations about types of graphs available.
Availability/cost M365 E5 licence required
Example uses Data hub, KPI dashboard
Demo Visualise and publish the Forms data

Tableau

What Like Power BI, a tool for building dashboards
Strengths Publishing is easier, and visuals have more flexibility than Power BI
Weaknesses Less capable data wrangling than Power BI, almost certainly will require paid-for licences
Availability/cost Likely to need IG and procurement: not cheap
Example uses As Power BI
Demo Replicating Power BI demo using https://public.tableau.com/app/discover

R

What Open-source and code-based tool for statistical work
Strengths Powerful, fast, and flexible
Weaknesses Code-based, much harder to get started compared to Excel/Power BI etc
Availability/cost Free, open-source, with commercial options for the fancy stuff. Likely to need governance advice for most orgs
Example uses Proper statistical work, big data, reproducible analytics. Can also be used in Power BI/Power Query
Demo

Python

What General-purpose programming language
Strengths Massive user-base, faster than R with better options for niche work
Weaknesses Like R, hard to learn. Less support/infrastructure on the NHSS side than R
Availability/cost Free and open-source
Example uses As R, but note also available in Excel
Demo Mini-demo in Excel

SQL

What Specialist tool for managing complex databases
Strengths Great for building reproducible ways of querying data
Weaknesses Code-based, lots of different dialects
Availability/cost Various free and paid options. Also underpins many clinical/specialist systems
Example uses Standard tool for managing large datasets
Demo Mini-demo based on the Forms dataset