3 MDM Pitfalls Life Sciences Can’t Ignore

Master Data Management (MDM) is the heartbeat of life sciences—powering everything from compliance to analytics. But even with tools like Reltio, data hiccups can derail your efforts. Drawing from a leading pharma company’s journey, here are three pitfalls we see MDM teams stumble into—and how to sidestep them.

Pitfall 1: Loading Bad Data into MDM

Picture this: your source data—sales figures, physician records, compliance logs—comes in waves, some real-time, some batched. By the time it lands in Reltio, records are missing or mismatched, and you’re stuck cleaning up downstream. A pharma team we worked with faced this daily, watching errors pile up in their analytics dashboards.

The Fix: Get ahead of it. Comprehensive observability can flag issues—like dropped files or odd merges—before they hit your MDM. Think of it as a quality gate for your pipelines.

Pitfall 2: Blind Spots in Data Lineage

Merges happen fast in data prep, but if you can’t trace what changed (or why) before it’s in Reltio, you’re flying blind. That pharma company? They struggled to validate if their contract data matched the source after on-the-fly transformations. For life sciences, where audits loom large, that’s a risk you can’t take.

The Fix: Track lineage end-to-end. Tools that map your data’s journey let you audit every step, ensuring what’s in Reltio is what you intended—compliance-ready and analytics-approved.

Pitfall 3: No Visibility Inside Reltio

Once data’s in Reltio, spotting quality issues is tough without pulling everything out—a slow, disruptive mess. The pharma team told us backing out bad data was their biggest headache; they needed a way to peek inside without breaking their workflow.

The Fix: Boost visibility with smart observability. Imagine AI-driven checks that analyze merges or flag anomalies right in your MDM—no extraction needed. It’s proactive, not reactive.

From Chaos to Confidence

That pharma company turned these pitfalls into wins with a simple shift: enterprise-grade observability. They cut errors by catching them early, gained trust in their lineage, and freed their team from constant firefighting. The lesson? MDM isn’t just about managing data—it’s about trusting it.

Want more? Grab our Data Quality Tips for Reltio Users guide for actionable steps.

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