Healthcare

A teaching hospital approached RCOR with the goal of improving their ability to analyze the results of a clinical research study into treatments and health outcomes for diabetes patients. Researchers were entering the results of patient observations so they could be compared to previous examinations, but they wanted a more efficient method for pulling the results from completed forms into a single Excel database. When RCOR talked to the client, it was clear that the research was already partially complete, so any solution for aggregating study results would need to work with the existing design. RCOR decided to work entirely within the current design and added dropdown lists to allow users to input data faster, as well as macros to enable users to instantly move historic data for returning patients. Once RCOR was confident that users would be able to effectively enter data into the fixed form design, they created an aggregating file. When a user clicks a button, it opens all patient information files contained in a folder and extracts the 150 data points for each of them. Researchers can then use Excel's suite of analysis tools to look for patterns and trends in the database. Overall, the solution developed by RCOR has helped the teaching hospital improve their ability to analyze the results of their clinical research study, enabling them to more effectively compare treatments and health outcomes for diabetes patients.