Volume 7, Issue 6, June – 2022 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Interactive Visualization to understand COVID

Risk Score at a Particular Location using Tableau
Suresh Martha
Associate Director BI Reporting & Analytics,
Department of Business Excellence at EMD Serono MA, USA,
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications
National Institute of Science and Technology, BPUT Odisha, India

Abstract:- A lot has happened in the last few years since as the COVID infection rate is going down and businesses are
the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a opening, it is important for the healthcare industry to
global pandemic. Forcing every business to change the way understand the risk score due to COVID before engaging with
they work to survive in this changing world. However, HCPs in a live setting and for doing peer to peer programs.
even though the lockdown slowed everything, still a huge This paper uses publicly available COVID infection data and
amount of data continued to climb with speed and big data census bureau population data [6,7]together to present a model
grew and become even bigger. As the world was changing to calculate whether a particular location in the US is safe or
and businesses were struggling to find new innovative unsafe to have a face-to-face meeting. This is an interactive
ways and methods to continue doing business, data, and visualization created using Tableau as a business intelligence
data analytics have provided a path of light. In this paper, tool.
an overview has been provided about Tableau a data
analytics and visualization tool, which can crunch massive II. INTERACTIVE DATA VISUALIZATION
amounts of data and can provide hidden insights and
trends through visual solutions that can be used by Data visualization is the presentation of data or
information in a visual format such as a graph, chart, diagram,
organizations to make quick business decisions. I have
used Tableauto generate interactive visualizations to etc. Today ever-increasing data volumes are making already
provide a solution for the Biotech/ pharma/ healthcare multifaceted big data even bigger and more complex. As a
industries about an improved method of doing peer-to- result, sorting, cleaning, comprehending, and explaining a
peer engagements. As the Covid infection rate is going huge amount of data is becoming more and more slow and
down and businesses are opening, it is important for the difficult. This is where, to make data-driven decisions quickly
healthcare industry to understand the risk due to COVID and confidently and in real-time, data visualization has come
before engaging with HCPs (health care professionals) in a into play. It provides the fastest and most effective way to
live setting and doing peer two peer programs. COVID-19 interpret large batches of data and communicate pertinent
open-source data has been utilized to provide the real-time details and insights by creating compelling, informative,
COVID impact in a geographical location with accuracy, beautiful, and eye-catching dashboards. The visualization uses
which could be monitored by companies to prepare for human’s natural skills to perceive and process visual
possible face-to-face engagements and find quick and information with higher efficiency compared to tabular data
innovative solutions to continue to make effective format [8]. It helps to monitor and deal with complex
healthcare decisions. information at a glance and enhances memory [8],
significantly helping to communicate messages more
Keywords:- Data, Visualization, Interactive Visualization, effectively. However, visualizations are static by nature and
COVID-19, Tableau, Tableau Geocoding. are used to publish materials such aspublishing in print or
online or for presentation purposes rather than exploration.
I. INTRODUCTION Thus, it makes a difference when viz are created using
interactive dashboards. Interactive data visualization being a
As a very needed integral process for the Pharmaceutical/ powerful tool in the current age reaches beyond the limits of
Biotech industry, companies run a lot of HCP-related peer-to- static dashboards. It converts static presentations into
peer programs, which are face-to-face meetings, conventions, interactive sessions and makes the dashboards dynamic and
and conferences to educate the HCPs (Health Care empowers the users to interact with the data and discover
professionals) about the company's drug and different patterns and trends by filtering the data on-demand or by
scientifically proven and approved treatment options [1]. simply clicking to drill down into the underlying data to gain
During COVID all the interactions and companywide quality insights in real-time.
conferences went virtual, even one-to-one field sales reps/
KOL (Key Opinion Leader)/ MSL (Medical Science
Liaison)& HCP meetings became virtual, which impacted the
business. Today when life is slowly going back to normal, and

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
III. METHODS connect to complex databases and data warehouses
such as AWS [3] as well as web analytics services like
A. Installing Tableau Desktop for the Viz Creation: Google Analytics. This paper has used AWS Redshift
a) Quick Introduction to Tableau: as one of the data sources connected to Tableau, to
Tableau is a user-friendly reporting/ analytics platform, fetch data.
which is used to develop dynamic reporting and
analytics solutions for business users through high- b) Installing Tableau Desktop:
quality visualizations. It is a cutting-edge visualization Tableau Desktop: This is the design tool, generally
tool that empowers people and users to analyze and installed in the local system to create dashboards and
understand their data, and to quickly find insights and visual analytics. It’s a licensed software. Tableau
key trends to improve the overall decision-making provides 2 weeks of trial and then the license needs to
process. be purchased after the trial completion [4]. It includes:
 Personal Edition
This is a unique software that cleans and blends  Professional Edition
data and presents the data in a meaningful visual format
with worksheets, dashboards, and stories. It’s a tool The professional edition is an enterprise edition that has
known for its many features such as simplicity, that is a the functionality to connect to a much broader variety of data
non-technical user can easily master it as well as any sources as compared to the personal edition [2]. The personal
technical user be it a beginner, intermediate, or an edition was designed with less functionality and can connect
expert can learn and createvisual analytics of different to only flat files and the generated report could only be saved
capacities, complexity, and depth. Along with this, it is to the local system or to Tableau Public. Unlike the
known for its scale,that is, it can handle huge data sets professional edition, the reports/ dashboards created in the
and can connect to various data sources [2]. This personal edition cannot be published to Tableau Online or to
functionality to pulldata from multiple data sources the Tableau server [2].
provides it a significant advantage over other similar
tools in the market. Starting from simple excel it can

Fig. 1: Tableau Desktop – Data Pane

Installing the Tableau desktop is a simple and quick Once the download is complete, depending on the browser the
process. It could be installed in both Windows and MACs downloaded file could be located.
systems. In either of the systems at least 1.5 GB of free hard
disk space would be needed [5] to install the tableau On a windows system, the downloaded EXE fileis
software.The given link could be used to download the latest clicked and opened and after accepting the necessary prompts
trial version[10]: https://www.tableau.com/products/desktop. the installation would begin.And on a MAC system, the DMJ
file would be opened and the PKG installation package would
be double-clicked to start the installation. After the installation

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
is complete, Tableau must be opened, and the user needs to IV. DATA PREPARATION
complete the registration form to activate the Tableau Desktop
installation. Users can get a 14-days free trial [10]. Tableau The data for this paper is collected from the public
also provides a 1-year free product key for students and domain. Two separate datasets have been used, first is the
instructors. Below links could be used to provide necessary publicly available COVID infection data. The data is released
academic enrollment proof and after verification, a 1-year and updated in real-time by the New York times and provided
product key could be obtained, which could be used for a full in 3 separate CSVfiles for 3 geographical areas: US, States,
year to access all the features of the software. and Counties [6]. The counties file is the most detailed file
including the state and country columns as well. Unlike the
For Students [11]: other 2 files, which are aggregated data sets. Second is the US
https://www.tableau.com/academic/students census bureau population data from the U.S. Census Bureau
website [7].
For Instructors [12]:
https://www.tableau.com/academic/teaching Only the COVID infection counties file is downloaded
from the website (in CSV format). A table is created in AWS
For this analysis, the Tableau Desktop (64 Bit) software Redshift and the file is uploaded to the table in this data
is installed in the windows system. warehouse. A script is created to load this data daily into the
Redshift table, which is then automatically refreshed in the
Tableau Dashboard. Figure2 shows the table in Redshift with
the COVID data uploaded from the Web.

Fig. 2: COVID Infection Data in a long table format in Redshift.

The COVID table in Redshift is connected to Tableau through the Tableau server connector. Figure 3 shows the Tableau
connector page, with a list of a variety of common files and server types from which Tableau could be connected to pull data.

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ISSN No:-2456-2165

Fig. 3: Tableau Desktop Connector page showing a variety of basic file and server types

For this data set, “Amazon Redshift” under ‘’To a login details. And all the schemas and tables in the data
Server” is selected and clicked. This opens a window shown in warehouse could be seen in the data source pane in Tableau
figure 4 to input credentials and other details about the server. Desktop. From where the COVID table is dragged and
A live connection is established after entering the server and dropped into the data connection section.

Fig. 4: Window Box to enter Connection details to connect to the AWS Redshift Dataware house

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
The population data is also downloaded as a CVS file A. Tableau Data Join
from the US Census Bureau website. The demographic data is Tableau now is connected to 2 different data sets from two
updated weekly on this government website. This excel file is different data sources, it offers the option to combine/ join
connected to Tableau directly.The above Figure 3 shows the both the data sets using the common field present in both. As
list. In this case “Microsoft Excel” under “To a File” is figure 6shows, both the tables are joined using inner join using
selected, which opens a dialog box that shows the excel the ‘COUNTY’ column which is the county id present in both
supported files in the local system. The dialog box helps to the datasets. Join being a robust function, once created, it will
navigate to the excel file and after the selection, Tableau exist in the entire workbook and any number of worksheets or
establishes a live connection with the file. dashboards could be created using the combined data set.

Fig. 6: Tableau Data Source pane where both the data sets were joined using the unique column.

Once the combined data set is ready, a worksheet is users to validate the data types already selected by Tableau for
opened which is the development area in tableau to create each column. Users can change the field data types as well as
visualizations. In the worksheet we can see, Tableau has move the columns from Dimension to Measure pane or vice
automatically differentiated the columns as dimensions and versa depending on the need.
measures shown in Figure 7. It also gives the option to the

Fig. 7: Tableau Development worksheet area, where columns from the data sets are automatically
added into the dimensions and measures pane

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
B. Tableau Geocoding per 100K population.The 3 categories are used to create
Tableau geocoding is another excellent feature provided by another calculated column to divide thecategories into 3 color
Tableau. Tableau can geocode from 8 different types of segmentsbased on the below definitions andthe field is named
geographic information such as fields like country, state, ‘Risk Category’.
province, city, postal codes, etc. plus Latitude & Longitude
coordinates. The geographic field is denoted by a small globe A. COVID Risk Score Definitions for colored risk categories:
icon. Tableau automatically generates the longitude and  High Risk  Red ColorCOVID Risk Score >100
latitude values for the center points of each geographic entity COVID Cases in the last 7 days Per 100K Population
displayed in the visualization [2,4]. Along with it, users can  Medium Risk  Yellow Color COVID Risk Score
also customize geocodesby assigning latitude and longitude between 40 and 100 COVID Cases in the last 7 days Per
coordinates to their locations so Tableau can plot them 100K Population
accurately on a map. In this paper, a filled map is used to  Low Risk  Green Color COVID Risk Score <40
create the visual dashboard. COVID Cases in the last 7 days Per 100K Population.

V. RISK SCORE MODELLING

The first data set used is the open-source COVID

infection data, the last 7 days’ worth of data has been
uploaded into the Redshift table and connected to Tableau
through the AWS Tableau connector. The 2nd data set is the
US census bureau data for population details, which is
connected to Tableau through the excel file. Both the data sets
are joined using the unique county column present in both the
data sets. Finally, a calculated column named ‘COVID risk
score’ is created by calculating the last 7 days of new COVID
cases per 100K population in a county (Figure 8). The risk
scores are divided into 3 categories- high, medium, and low
risk based on the number of COVID cases in the last 7 days

Fig. 8: COVID Risk Score logic.

VI. RESULTS

A. Basic View under the ‘Measures’ pane is dragged and dropped into the
A horizontal bar chart is created to show the risk score for 'Columns' shelf. This field is displayed in green, and tableau
each state by county. First, the fields ‘State’ and ‘County’ in automatically denotes it with the default aggregate function
the ‘Dimensions’ pane are dragged and dropped into the 'sum' as it is a numeric field, which can be changed based on
‘Rows’ shelf. As these are the dimension fields, they are the users’ needs such as max, min, etc. This shows the risk
displayed in blue color. Then the 'COVID Risk Score' field score for each of the counties in a bar graph (Figure 9).

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Fig. 9: Table au desktop worksheet showing the horizontal Bar chart for the selected fields.

B. Filtering the view & understanding the highest risk score and dropped from the Dimensions pane into the ‘Label’ of the
Figure 9 is showing all the data for all the fields that have mark cards as highlighted below in Figure 10. This
been dragged and dropped into the view. Now, the view could development area worksheet could now be moved into a
be enhanced with interactive features by using filters and mark formal dashboard section. Figure 11 is an example of the
cards. For the filters, ‘State’, ‘County’, and ‘Risk Category’ visual dashboard where some filters have been applied. The
fields from the Dimensions pane are dragged and dropped into fields on the ‘Label’ would help to create the hover
the ‘Filters’ shelf. Next, the ‘Risk Category’ is dropped into information, that is when the mouse hovers over a bar, it
the ‘Color’ of the mark cards, followed by ‘COVID Risk shows additional information in a pop-up box about the
Score’, ‘COVID Cases’, and ‘Total Population’ fields dragged selected bar as shown in Figure 11.

Fig. 10: Highlights the Filter and Mark card shelves used to enhance the visualization.

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Fig. 11: Example of filtering and showing the features of Mark Card in a dashboard.

C. Building a map view ‘COVID Risk Score’ and ‘COVID Cases’. This parameter is
The view is created using the tableau generated latitude used to create a calculated column ‘Metric’ (Figure 12), which
and longitude coordinates along with the state column from is draggedand dropped onto the ‘color’ of the mark cards.Then
the data set. In the tableau development area, a new worksheet the color in the mark card is selected and from the color list
is selected and the field ‘State’ from the Dimensions pane is ‘Red-Blue’ diverging is selected, and ‘Reversed’ is checked.
dragged and dropped into the ‘Detail’ of the mark cards. So, that high score or high cases would show in redcolor and
Tableau automatically drags and drops Longitude and Latitude the reverse would show in blue color. Figure 13 is showing the
fields from the ‘Measures’ pane on the ‘Columns’ and ‘Rows’ visualization with the parameter filter ‘COVID Metric’ where
shelves respectively and creates a map. ‘Show me’ shows 2 the current default selection is ‘COVID Risk Score’(i.e., New
options for map view filled or symbol. In this case, the Filled COVID infection cases in the last 7 days per 100K population
map is selected for the visualization. ‘State’ is added to the in the state) and the map is shaded with the risk score numbers
filter shelf like in the previous view. For the quantitative for each state. The color shading for the states in the map is
measure, both the ‘COVID Risk Score’ and total ‘COVID changed when the parameter filter is changed to the ‘COVID
Cases’areto be shown on the map by State. So, a parameter Cases’ to show the total COVID cases in the last 7 days by
‘COVID Metric’ is createdto toggle between 2 measures State.

Fig. 12: Steps for creating the Map view.

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Fig. 13: Filled Map with US states shaded according to the sum of either COVID Cases or COVID Risk score based on the metric
selected in the ‘COVID Metric’ filter.

VII. DISCUSSION AND FUTURE WORK during report and dashboard creation, which would
automatically recognize the device user is using and changes
By following some of the steps and processes in Tableau, the size of the report by making proper adjustments to ensure
described in the paper, it would be possible to create simple that the report is shared on the device screen appropriately.
views by using small and medium-sized sample data sets for Additionally, Tableau also provides opportunities to discover
beginners. However, experts in the tool can use Tableau to its data patterns and can be used for advanced analytics through
full potential and can create various visualizations such as machine learning algorithms.Intermediate and advanced level
graphs, pie charts, bubble charts, highlight tables, heat maps, visualization details would be covered in a future paper.
symbols maps, filled maps, tree maps, and many more. As
well as can use trend and reference lines for complex VIII. CONCLUSION
analytical dashboarding. Along with it, visualizations could be
customized based on business users’ needs and requirements. Users’ ability to perceive data is enhanced significantly
Every visualization could be optimized by incorporating when data or information is presented in a visual format. It
interactive features into it such as using multiple filters at a becomes difficult to miss out on important insights. Visual
time to drill down through the data, adding dashboard actions display of data always would have a significant advantage
to create relationships between worksheets ina dashboard, over regular tabular format data. And in today’s post COVID
creating calculated customized columns, and so on. Tableau world, industries are showing a great interest in data analytics
also provides a great layout feature that allows the creation of through visualizations. Tableau being a powerful visual
visualizations and dashboards for other electronic media such analytics tool, could be used to create impactful visualizations
as mobile phones and tablets [15]. Giving the advantage to by harnessing a massive amount of data through various data
field users in different industries who generally spend most of sources, which could help users to see, understand as well as
their time outside office premises at client or customer explore the data. It is loaded with user-friendly and state-of-
locations or users working in a fast pace working environment the-art features and world-class functionalities which could
away from a normal office set up, to access real-time data help to extract valuable insights, which could be analyzed
through viz and dashboards on phones and tablets with ease through interactive visualizations. In this paper, I used data
and flexibility[15]. The right device preview could be selected from 2 different data sources and merged them together in the

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Tableau layer to perform the data analysis and create [15.] David McNaughton & Janice Light (2013). “The iPad
interactive visual dashboards. and Mobile Technology Revolution: Benefits and
Challenges for Individuals who require Augmentative
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