Implementation of a Prototype Teratology Data Management System Using SAS
Abstract
For my SIP, I did some computer work at The Upjohn Company's
(main facility in Kalamazoo, MI, USA) research subsidiary in Japan. I
wrote code to take experimental data and output simple statistics
into tables. The program I worked on was to be used as a prototype
for a software company called Xybion (based in New Jersey). Some
groups in Upjohn use a Xybion data management system, but Xybion
did not have a teratology module in their system, so I was to write a
sample teratology system to show to Xybion. Briefly, teratology is
the study of birth defects. A teratology study is generally the first
safety type study done with a new drug.
I wrote this teratology data management system not in
FORTRAN, or C, but using the Statistical Analysis System, or SAS. SAS
is a pseudo-programming language designed to do statistical analysis
on large data sets. SAS is primarily made up of numerous standard
procedures or "procs." Because it has so many predefined statistical
procedures, SAS users can plug their data sets in and have all of the
calculations come out the other end, without a lot of statistical
programming.
The system I worked on takes data generated in teratology
studies calculates some simple statistical values, such as the mean
and the standard deviation, and writes these values out to tables.
Separate tables or values were generated depending on sex and dose
group. Though it might be considered data analysis to some extent, I
did no analytic calculations while programming the system.