Hello
You might want to try the literature on survival time analyses.
There is an amazing resource by Pr. Singer on questions more or les related to the type of issue you raised. the URL for a webpage is
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~faculty/singer/
Happy reading.
Hind Sbihi
-----Original Message-----
> Date: Thu Nov 15 21:01:21 PST 2007
> From: "Kieran McCaul" <[email protected]>
> Subject: st: What is this problem called?
> To: [email protected]
>
> Gidday,
>
> A colleague has asked me the following question:
>
> Suppose a surgeon performs a number of surgical procedures using a new
> technique. He/she records the operating time for each operation. How
> would the data be analysed so as to determine the number of procedures
> performed before the operating time stabilises?
>
> I haven't come across a problem quite like this before, but it seems to
> me that it's a question that might arise, for example, when evaluating
> the implementation of new industrial or manufacturing processes.
>
> I have an idea about how I would approach this analysis, but first I'd
> like to have a look at what others may have done.
>
> Searching the literature is difficult though if you don't know what the
> problem is called.
>
> Does anyone recognise this problem or something analogous to it and can
> you give me a name I can search on or point me to a few relevant papers.
> I can back-track though the literature from there.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Kieran
>
> ______________________________________________
> Kieran McCaul MPH PhD
> WA Centre for Health & Ageing (M573)
> University of Western Australia
> Level 6, Ainslie House
> 48 Murray St
> Perth 6000
> email: [email protected]
> http://myprofile.cos.com/mccaul
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
>
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
