Commercial software is often costly and can limit adaptability and growth.

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) wanted to transition from SAS to the open-source software R. This shift offers many advantages, such as cost savings, customization and flexibility, increased transparency, and robust community support. To ensure a successful transition, PHAB needed comprehensive support and guidance in R programming and version control to enhance and effectively manage their code, ensuring reproducibility.

NORC provided comprehensive support for migrating PHAB’s codebase to R and implementing Git version control.

NORC assisted PHAB in their migration from a SAS to R codebase by offering a range of support services tailored to PHAB’s needs. This included training on the major differences between SAS and R, comprehensive guidance on R programming, and detailed instructions on R functionality, modularization, and data wrangling techniques. NORC also assisted with the setup of code version control and provided training on Git to help PHAB improve version tracking, reproducibility, and code collaboration. On-call assistance for R and Git-related questions was also provided. Additionally, NORC translated some data preprocessing scripts from SAS to R and carried out a comprehensive review of PHAB’s R code, offering recommendations to improve robustness, efficiency, and readability. NORC’s deep expertise in both SAS and R was instrumental in providing customized support and ensuring a smooth transition to the new software.