VARTAB — A System to create VARiable TABulations without any Knowledge in Programming
Renata Viana de Barros Thomé, Curt Kohler, G. Wagner · Methods of Information in Medicine · 1970
Also in the field of medicine the computer is used increasingly for statistical evaluation of data. Unfortunately, the physician ▪— unlike the natural scientist — is, as a rule, not yet able to write himself the programs for the processing of his own data. This situation, on the one hand, frustrates the medical scientist, and, on the other hand, burdens the official programmers, who are expected to help the doctor. The steadily growing number of requests for programming support led us to develop a variable tabulation program (VARTAB) the rules of which are so simple that they can be learned in very short time also by physicians who have no programming knowledge at all. The VARTAB system consists of two parts: 1. a data-standardizing conversion program STAND and 2. the tabulation outprint program TABOUT. The concepts of both programs, the work to be done by the user and the potential and the restrictions of the system are discussed in detail.