Inertial Cost and Productivity Analysis for Implementing a Semiautomated Lateral Skull Base Research Platform

Objective: Research in the domain of lateral skull base surgery and acoustic neuroma management is evolving. The complexity and nature of investigations now necessitate more advanced data collection and an ability to rapidly access data for advanced statistical analysis. Given recent changes in physician duty-hour restrictions and the availability of research oriented students, trainees, fellows, and faculty, this has created considerable hurdles to producing relevant skull base research. Due to this, some institutions are exploring the use of semiautomated electronic data collection platforms. In this investigation, we sought to describe the opportunity cost experienced by our institution when creating such an apparatus, objective measures of its productivity over time, and its limitations.