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Macro for the Compilation of Report Backs (MCR)

An open-source, generalizable tool designed to provide researchers in health studies with a flexible and scalable method for compiling individual reports.

Corresponding author: Dr. Chad Milando (cmilando@bu.edu)

Citation: Polka E, Childs E, Friedman A, Tomsho KS, Claus Henn B, Scammell MK, Milando CW. MCR: Open-Source Software to Automate Compilation of Health Study Report-Back. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(11):6104. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116104

Introduction

Macro for the Compilation of Report-backs (MCR) is a macro-enabled Microsoft Excel workbook written in Visual Basic Applications (VBA) script. The purpose of MCR is to provide a means to effortlessly compile individualized report-backs for study participants, thereby reducing the time it takes to compile individual reports by-hand. This compilation process is accomplished by extracting participant numeric, text, and graphic data from a single master file and populating it into a report-back template file to generate individualized reports for each participant. MCR is designed as an open-source, generalizable tool that can be used and modified by others to accomplish their data report-back needs. Steps to utilized MCR are outlined in the “How-to use MCR” section of this handbook.

Disclaimer

This program was produced by Dr. Chad Milando, Research Associate at Boston University’s School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health. MCR is continuing to undergo updates and improvements to further improve user engagement. Persons are welcome to use and the tool so long as proper attribution is given to original authors credit and the program is not used for commercial purposes. Credit can be attributed via the citation above. MCR is protected under a Software Evaluation Licensing Agreement.

How to run MCR:

See Setup to get started, or jump to a different page in the sidebar on the right.