Interview with Studylog User Raul Ayala

15 Jan Interview with Studylog User Raul Ayala

 Raul, a Researcher at UCLA, has been a loyal Studylog user for over 5 years.

How long have you been in the science industry?

Over 20 years

What are your biggest strengths for your job?

Data Collection Accuracy and Efficiency

What is your favorite Studylog feature?

How easy randomization can be done with SL

What do you think the least used Studylog function is?

In our case it is probably the schedule list

What was the most significant challenge that you faced before that Studylog was able to solve?

The most significant challenges we faced before were: randomization and data collection. Here is how
we do these two tasks before using SL.
We needed two people for data collection – one measured and the other one wrote down the data on
the notebook. And then the data had to be entered manually into computer. And tumor volumes were
calculated manually.

We needed to make a list of the data of all the tumor volume and then manually selected mice into
different treatment groups for randomization.

When we had a study of 10 arms (10 mice per arm) it took a whole day and 3 people to do the
measurement and randomization. Now with Studylog, for the same amount of work, only need 1 person
to finish data collection and randomize within 3 hours. For your references, about 30% of our studies
started with 120 or more mice randomization, about 50% are 60-100 mice randomization. We (2 people)
are doing about 4-8 new studies per month now. If with the old way, it’s not possible to have this
amount of work done.

You resisted using Studylog at first. Can you tell us why and then what changed your mind?

After using the program and going through the system, it was day and night the amount of time saved
designing a study. Human error was a worry before and I was afraid that it would cause more errors
than ever before. Now, I have no worries about that.

What are 3 things that are always in your fridge?

Beer, beer, beer 🙂