On May 15, 2024, the Illinois Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) team celebrates Illinois REDCap’s fifth birthday!
In Spring 2019, the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), in partnership with Research IT and the University Library, made REDCap available to University of Illinois faculty, staff, and students at no cost. Created at Vanderbilt University in 2004, REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and project databases. The IHSI team, including REDCap Application Manager Michelle Lore, led the effort to bring REDCap to Illinois researchers.
“It’s such a versatile tool, and we’ve seen researchers use it in so many interesting ways. I feel like I’m learning from users, and being challenged by their questions, almost every week,” says Lore.
The Illinois campus has responded enthusiastically. Over the last five years, REDCap has grown to 971 active users from 86 departments and units across campus. In addition to being used for research purposes, a number of units have started to use Illinois REDCap to carry out some of the university’s administrative functions as well.
Part of Illinois REDCap’s growing popularity lies in the application’s versatility and functionality. With a user-friendly interface and options to enter data in a variety of ways in multiple languages, REDCap can be used for a diverse range of data management needs. REDCap’s security measures make it an ideal system for collecting Protected Health Information (PHI) and other high risk or sensitive data, as well as non-high risk data.
Empowering users
What really powers Illinois REDCap is the incredible administrative team that supports it. Michelle Lore and Fatima Ahmed bring complementary research expertise to their work with Illinois REDCap. In addition to her five years of experience leading Illinois REDCap, Lore has experience working as a human subjects research coordinator in the Office for Protection of Research Subjects. Ahmed brings six years of experience as part of the Illinois Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Core.
The team is always seeking ways to make Illinois REDCap more accessible and able to meet the needs of Illinois faculty, staff and students. All users receive a monthly newsletter with workshop dates, office hours, software updates, and useful REDCap tools and functions. In partnership with the University Library, the team offers free workshops to help new users understand how to use Illinois REDCap. The workshops provide an overview of REDCap and some basics needed to start a project. In 2023, the team also started teaching advanced, special topics workshops. So far, these have included workshops on calculations, smart variables, and longitudinal studies.
Strengthening Illinois’ impact on health
The Illinois REDCap Team also offers project build services for a fee to those with complex and/or large-scale projects.
In fact, the Illinois REDCap team’s project design capabilities became an essential component of the campus SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell program. A 2021 story by Research IT details the REDCap team’s involvement in the SHIELD program, recalling how the REDCap team worked closely with researchers as they were developing the saliva test and the team’s role in SHIELD’s successful application for FDA Emergency Use Authorization.
“Our involvement in the COVID-19 response has pivoted our roles in some ways. Instead of telling us how they want their research done, they come to us with what they want to accomplish and ask us to develop the research design and data flow,” said Lore. “People only see a fraction of what [REDCap] can do.”
Now, the team works with Illinois faculty and staff to develop a variety of complex data collection projects. The team does not just build the project. They provide testing, formatting, project documentation and instructions, and even training to the teams who will be using the projects. In fact, Illinois REDCap’s project build services are in such high demand, the team’s workload has doubled in the past year.
Looking ahead
As the team looks ahead, they remain focused on continuing to provide high-quality support services that enrich the university’s research ecosystem and meet some of its business and administrative needs. The Illinois REDCap team is currently hiring a Visiting REDCap Application Specialist, and they are excited to welcome another member to their team.
They are also eager to highlight REDCap's remarkable capabilities at Illinois’ first REDCap Day on October 22, 2024. Lore and Ahmed are looking forward to showcasing the variety of ways that Illinois faculty, staff, and students are using Illinois REDCap. The event will include a keynote, a networking session, and opportunities to learn more about REDCap projects.
Ahmed anticipates an event that should attract faculty, staff, and students from across campus with a variety of experience levels with REDCap.
“We’re really excited to host the first ever Illinois REDCap Day – we've had REDCap on campus for five years now, and now we have the team, the userbase, and the know-how to make it happen! Everyone is welcome to attend REDCap Day – from experts to those who are just curious to learn more about REDCap. We hope it’ll be a memorable event celebrating REDCap on the Illinois campus.”