On October 22, the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) celebrated five years of Illinois Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) and more than 900 users at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. REDCap Day 2024 attracted 75 faculty, staff, and students from more than 40 units and 10 colleges and schools across the Illinois campus.
REDCap is a browser-based tool for building and managing online surveys and databases to collect and secure both high risk and non-high risk data. Designed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2004 with a focus on Protected Health Information (PHI) and HIPAA compliance, REDCap is currently used world-wide at more than 7,000 non-profit institutions such as universities, hospitals, public health departments, and research institutes in 159 countries.
IHSI REDCap Application Manager Michelle Lore and IHSI Assistant Research Biostatistician Fatima Ahmed announce superlative REDCap users
“We are here to celebrate the fifth anniversary of REDCap at Illinois. Coinciding with this milestone, IHSI, the home institute of Illinois REDCap, is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and REDCap is celebrating its twentieth anniversary,” Lore announced as the event began. “Throughout the morning, you will hear from researchers across campus who have used REDCap for both research and administrative data collection needs as well as from our keynote speaker about the growth of REDCap over the years.”
The vision to bring REDCap to Illinois evolved after a former IHSI staff member attended a REDCap conference in September 2015. As the gold standard data collection tool among researchers around the world, the IHSI team recognized the value of such a resource at Illinois. Conversations with potential partners across campus began in Spring 2016. As part of the Illinois REDCap team, IHSI Senior Director for Research & Core Development Gill Snyder remembers it well.
“The journey was filled with challenges, but thankfully, we had incredible partners who shared our passion for supporting research at Illinois; and after three years of preparation and collaboration, Illinois REDCap was launched campuswide in May 2019,” Snyder said. “We have made incredible progress, and I am thrilled to come together and celebrate the amazing work that has been done by both former and current REDCap team members.”
REDCap was created to provide free, easy-to-use tools to help Vanderbilt researchers abide by HIPAA regulations and avoid costly fines. Before REDCap, most clinical researchers at Vanderbilt used Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Access databases to create data collection systems for individual research projects, placing additional burdens on research teams. While presenting a poster on REDCap at a research conference in 2006, REDCap developer Dr. Paul Harris was approached by a researcher from the University of Puerto Rico who requested a copy of the software, becoming the first REDCap partner. As other universities began to recognize the impact of REDCap, the REDCap Consortium was formed in 2008. Over the past twenty years, the interface has evolved, introducing many new features and becoming what REDCap is today.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Stephany Duda gives a keynote during REDCap Day
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Stephany Duda, one of the first REDCap users (#59) who routinely uses REDCap in her work focused on clinical research and global health informatics, gave a keynote on working with REDCap as well as the software’s origin story, growth over time, and global impact. Duda shared that the REDCap team at Vanderbilt is always open to feedback from REDCap users and working together as a community.
“We’re not just building a piece of software in a vacuum; we’re trying to build tools that make a difference to the research that we are all engaged in every day, and that doesn’t just mean studies,” Duda said. “It means research that happens with managing academic centers – all operational and quality improvement uses that you can put REDCap to as well. In turn, we hope that this software empowers you to do the work that you want to do and accomplish the science that you envision.”
During the event, attendees met other REDCap users, learning more about how Illinois REDCap is being used to meet a variety of data collection needs across campus. In addition to research, REDCap is a useful tool for administrative purposes, such as nomination forms, event registration forms, grant tracking, reporting billable hours, and feedback surveys.
Administrative Projects Presenters
Flora Mendoza, Assistant Director Dietician, University Housing Dining Services,
Maggie Berg, Senior Research Development Manager, IHSI
Tzu An Hu, Associate Director of Training, Student Affairs, Counseling Center
Research Projects Presenters
Rebecca Hinze-Pifer, Assistant Professor, College of Education
Minakshi (Mina) Raj, Assistant Professor, College of AHS
Sharon Donovan, Professor and Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair in Nutrition and Health; Director of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative
Dr. Wendy Bartlo is the Associate Director of Research Services, Relations, and Strategic Initiatives for the Center on Health, Aging, and Disability in the College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois. Bartlo’s team uses Illinois REDCap to track grant submissions and funding.
“Transitioning 13 years of administrative data from Excel to REDCap has been transformative,” Bartlo said. “The move has streamlined our processes, enhanced data security, and saved countless hours for our team—empowering us to focus on supporting the Illinois research enterprise.”
Because research can often be a serious and stress-inducing endeavor, the REDCap team wanted to add a touch of entertainment to the event, hosting a networking Bingo game with attendees using REDCap and celebrating exceptional Illinois REDCap users across campus.
Trickiest REDCap Question Liliane Windsor, Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Research, SSW
Largest REDCap ProjectAttendees network while playing Bingo in REDCap during the event
Kate Clancy, Professor, Anthropology
Largest REDCap Team Dominika Pindus, Assistant Professor, Health & Kinesiology
Most REDCap Projects | Faculty Wendy Rogers, Professor, Health & Kinesiology
Most REDCap Projects | Student Aggie Rieger, PhD Candidate, Psychology
Most REDCap Projects | Staff Cassie Reeser, Associate Director of Special Events, Gies College of Business
REDCap's streamlined process for rapidly creating and designing projects offers a vast array of tools that can be tailored to virtually any data collection strategy. The software provides automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to Excel and common statistical packages (SPSS, SAS, Stata, R), as well as a built-in project calendar, scheduling module, ad hoc reporting tools, and advanced features such as branching logic, file uploading, and calculated fields. Other exciting REDCap features include advanced instrument design, electronic informed consent, survey distribution options, longitudinal data collection, the MyCap mobile app, multi-language management, custom reports, and more. Learn more about REDCap by watching a brief summary video.