Automation - An Idea

One idea that I have considered over the last few months is the possibility of automating some of the aspects of our database. All of our data is handled in Excel spreadsheets. Since we handle a huge amount of data that contains demographic information, medical records, test results, waivers, and more, the lab's two computers contain a large body of files and folders that hold all of the data that pertain to the experiment. As you can probably assume, maneuvering through all of these spreadsheets can get very confusing. There are many cases in which one spreadsheet utilizes information collected from another spreadsheet (for example, to complete our "Participant Master" spreadsheet, we need to collect information from spreadsheets about the background of the participant, the medical history of the participant, our past interactions with the participant, etc). Thus, the many spreadsheets are not only confusing, but become very time consuming as they demand that the data be entered multiple times into several spreadsheets.

My idea involves streamlining this process by having some sort of computer program that links the relevant spreadsheets, so that the data from the original spreadsheets be automatically entered into other spreadsheets that require that information. For example, the "Participant Master" spreadsheet would be linked to all of the other spreadsheets that contain the necessary information to complete that spreadsheet. Once we fill in all of the information for those sheets, it would automatically be linked and entered into the "Participant Master" spreadsheet.

This seems like a simple enough idea, and I have brought it up to some of my coworkers before. They aren't sure why the primary researchers don't pursue this idea - it may be because nobody has the necessary skills to do it (including myself!), and that it would not be worth the cost or effort to find someone who has the skills to do it. Additionally, the more technology we use, and the more complicated our programs become, the more likely we will have some sort technological failure.