>>From 1987 until this year we used a simple IBM data base program
>called Filing Assistant and a companions program called Reporting
>Assistant.  Everyone in the office was a newcomer to computers then,
>; even so, we could master both programs in an afternoon.  We designed
>the form for tracking projects ourselves; Reporting Assistant was
>powerful enough to generate most of the reports we needed, and if
>we needed more power (to sort on more than just the first two columnus
>of a report, for example) we could retrieve a Reporting Assistant File
>into Lotus, parse it, and manipulate it there.
>
>This year we changed to Windows and after checking various data base
>programs we settled on Approach, a data base program that comes as
>part of the Lotus suite.  We kept the same form for IRB records that
>we used in Filing Assistant and "migrated" the Filing Assistant to
>data base to Approach ourselves.  We picked Approach because it seemed
>simpler than Paradox, dBase, and other programs that apparently require
>programming, but was powerful enough to generate the reports and
>analyses we need.
>
>I haven't found Approach to be "intuitive"; I tried to learn it using
>just the on-screen help function, and found many of the help screens
>useless; felt I was struggling with a being with different thought
>patterns than mine.  But after learning the "old" way, by reading just
>the first chapter in the print manual, things began to fall into place
>very quickly.
>
>In sum, the record keeping required by IRBs can be set up by ordinary
>people using generic data base programs; and even a very simple data
>base programs, so far as I can see, can fill all the needsof an IRB.
>We could still function perfectly with Filing Assistant.
>
>Peter J. Dolce
>Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
>Meharry Medical  College
>Nashville, TN  37208
>P 615 327 6703
>F 615 372 6738
>xxxxxx@ccvax.mmc.edu

Dear Peter,
Thank you for your input.  Our office is Mac based which limits the choices
that we have.  None of us are what your would call "computer literate" in
that we cannot think in the way that programmers do.  However, we have
learned to use many applications to facilitate our work.  One of the main
obstacles that we face is that the rest of the institution is IBM or dos
based and all support functions are for that alone.  Our computer people do
not want to deal with Macs.

I appreciate your comments and will see how we can apply your experience.

Mary Catherine Spijkerman

Mary Spijkerman
Director of Sponsored Programs
Baylor Research Institute
3812 Elm Street
Dallas, Texas  75226
(214)  820-2687
Fax:  (214) 820-4952
xxxxxx@onramp.net