Data acquisition and real-time control using spreadsheets: Interfacing Excel with external hardware

Aliane, Nourdine

doi:10.1016/j.isatra.2010.03.009

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Building on previous studies [ 24 , 25 ], our results indicate that VBA and Excel can be used to automate the bulk image download process when applied to a specific medical imaging platform. This method has the potential to greatly accelerate the collection of large-scale data for research purposes, particularly in situations in which other programing languages such as Python and R are either not available or not practical.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

An automated process for bulk downloading optical coherence tomography scans

Cnaany,

Lender,

Chowers

et al. 2024

Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol

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Objective To develop an automated method for efficiently downloading a large number of optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans obtained using the Heidelberg Spectralis (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) platform. Methods The electronic medical records and OCT scans were extracted for all patients with age-related macular degeneration treated at the Hadassah University Hospital Retina Clinic between 2010 and 2021. A macro was created using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Microsoft Excel to automate the export process and anonymize the OCT scans in accordance with hospital policy. OCT scans were extracted as proprietary Heidelberg E2E files. Results The VBA macro was used to export a total of 94,789 E2E files from 2807 patient records, with an average processing time of 4.32 min per volume scan (SD: 3.57 min). The entire export process took a total of approximately 202 h to complete over a period of 24 days. In a smaller sample, using the macro to download the scans was significantly faster than manually downloading the scans, averaging 3.88 vs. 11.08 min/file, respectively (t = 8.59, p < 0.001). Finally, we found that exporting the files during both off-clinic and working hours resulted in significantly faster processing times compared to exporting the files solely during working hours (t = 5.77, p < 0.001). Conclusions This study demonstrates the feasibility of using VBA and Excel to automate the process for bulk downloading data from a specific medical imaging platform. The specific steps and techniques will likely vary depending on the software used and hospital constraints and should be determined for each application.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

An automated process for bulk downloading optical coherence tomography scans

Cnaany,

Lender,

Chowers

et al. 2024

Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol

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“…Consequently, a substantial variety of new tools are available that facilitate geoscientific calculations (e.g. Aliane, 2010;Jones et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2013). In hydrogeology, many spreadsheets have been developed for the facilitation of calculations in the analysis and interpretation of pumping tests, hydrogeochemical data, and analytical and numerical solutions for groundwater flow and pollution problems, among others (e.g.…”

Section: Customization Extension and Reuse Of Outdated Hydrogeologicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Customization, extension and reuse of outdated hydrogeological software

Serrano-Juan

Criollo

Vàzquez-Suñé

et al. 2020

GeA

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Each scientist is specialized in his or her field of research and in the tools that he or she uses during the research in a specified site. Thus, he or she is the most suitable person for improving the tools by overcoming their limitations to realize faster and higher quality analysis. However, most scientists are not software developers. Hence, it is necessary to provide them with an easy approach that enables non-software developers to improve and customize their tools. This paper presents an approach for easily improving and customizing any hydrogeological software. It is the result of experiences with updating several interdisciplinary case studies. The main insights of this approach have been demonstrated using four examples: MIX (FORTRAN-based), BrineMIX (C++-based), EasyQuim and EasyBal (both spreadsheet-based). The improved software has been proven to be a better tool for enhanced analysis by substantially reducing the computation time and the tedious processing of the input and output data files.

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“…Macros, short for 'macroinstruction,' are customizable software applications that transform inputs based on a pre-specified procedure or algorithm. They are a versatile tool in research and administrative settings for handling repetitive, tedious tasks in spreadsheet management and statistical analysis [2][3][4][5]. We were unable to identify any publications that explore the utility of macros for sorting and formatting raw research data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using macros in microsoft excel to facilitate cleaning of research data

Bauzon

Murphy

Wahi‐Gururaj

2021

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

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Background:Retrospective chart review studies may be delayed by inability to export clean clinical data from an electronic medical record (EMR) or data repository. Macros are preprogrammed procedures that can be used in Microsoft Excel to help streamline the process of cleaning clinical datasets. Objectives: To demonstrate how macros may be useful for researchers at community hospitals and smaller academic health centers that lack informatics support. Methods: Using an intrinsic function of our institution's EMR, vital signs and lab results from 20 individual hospitalizations were exported to a spreadsheet. Two macros were developed to sort through these datasets and output them into a specified format. The speed of macroassisted data cleaning was compared to manual transcription. Results: Time spent on data cleaning was significantly reduced when using macro-assisted sorting compared to the manual approach for both vital signs (46.5 seconds versus 12.3 minutes per record, a 94% reduction; P < 0.001) and labs (13.7 seconds versus 2.6 minutes per record, a 91% reduction; P < 0.001). Conclusions:Macros offer a flexible and efficient tool for cleaning large sets of clinical data, particularly when an institution lacks informatics support or EMR functionality to export clinical data in an analysis-ready format.

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Data acquisition and real-time control using spreadsheets: Interfacing Excel with external hardware

Cited by 9 publications

References 11 publications

An automated process for bulk downloading optical coherence tomography scans

An automated process for bulk downloading optical coherence tomography scans

Customization, extension and reuse of outdated hydrogeological software

Using macros in microsoft excel to facilitate cleaning of research data

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