Key Lessons for Building Scalable Healthcare Data Workflows with Power Query

A developer working with healthcare data has shared practical lessons learned while building scalable workflows using Microsoft Power Query. Key takeaways include treating data refresh as a deliberate design decision and keeping manual changes separate from automated transformation pipelines to avoid inconsistencies. The author also cautions against misusing Excel's 'From Table/Range' feature, which creates a new query rather than returning to an existing one. Filtering was highlighted as a powerful alternative to manual row deletion, allowing repeatable transformation rules — such as permanently excluding a specific provider ID from reports. The overarching lesson is that Power Query's real value lies in building reliable, repeatable processes rather than simply cleaning data one time.