Interactive programs for statistical computations and information display in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease research

Several small, independent FORTRAN programs, written for interactive use on a time-sharing PDP-10 computer, perform statistical calculations and display functions associated with the analysis of data obtained in clinical trials of the efficacy of experimental treatment regimens in chronic asthma. All programs have access to a common data file, which contains numerical parameters collected from each patient every two weeks. The nature and design of the programs and the structure of the data file is explained. Because of its modularity and simplicity the system can be modified for research into other chronic diseases that share with chronic asthma a course of exacerbations and remissions over long time sequences.