Behavioral data management using Visual Basics for Applications to automate data capture and analysis.
Many researchers are familiar with the spreadsheet capabilities of Microsoft Excel, but have never explored using customized VISUAL BASIC FOR APPLICATIONS (VBA) macros embedded in the program. At the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD), the implementation of VBA program code to carry out repetitive operations has resulted in a tremendous savings in both the time and manpower required to reliably capture, analyze, and plot data from research protocols. A set of "template" workbooks was developed and is used to organize data from different types of studies. At the heart of the concept is a "setup information" worksheet onto which the user enters information about the study (i.e. the number of subjects, groups, graphs). Clicking a control button on this worksheet launches the VBA code that creates worksheets for each subject, group and chart specified. A "pairmatch" function allows the user to create groups either randomly or by pair matching based on user-specified variables. Controls are provided that run VBA program code to parse subject data files into the proper worksheets and perform group averages. Charts are updated automatically whenever group averages change so that the researcher always has an up-to-date plot available. The ability to reformat the captured data onto a "statistical output" worksheet allows data to be imported easily to statistical software packages. The concept is being used for several different types of studies at USAMRICD and has significantly reduced not only amount of time spent on data management, but also the number of data entry errors. Readers interested in acquiring an electronic copy of the startle workbook example, which contains the complete VBA code, should send the request to the authors at reseco@erols.com or maurice.sipos@us.army.mil.