REDCap Reviews & Product Details

I have used REDCap for over 3 years and it is the strongest survey tool I have had the pleasure to work with. We have used it to create databases, registries, event feedback, and more. It is HIPPAA compliant which has allowed us to use it in healtcare surveys. It has an easy to use tracking system which has allowed us to use it for tracking required responses on a mid-point evaluation. It looks professional and yet is easy to use. There are tons of educational materials about it. And best of all, it is free.

The only option I wish REDCap would add is an easy "ranking" question where users can drag and drop choices in their preferred order

If your institution has access to REDCap then I would recommend this product over Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey. It is a stronger application and more secure than other software available.

We use REDCap to create patient databases, online registries, and to collect feedback on events.

RedCap is incredibly flexible and you can build so many types of data capturing systems from surveys to complex tracking databases.

RedCap is in no means a relationship database. It is difficult to link certain data points to others within RedCap.

Take a look at your colleagues RedCaps and have them walk you through their design process and how they use their instruments. Its always interesting to see how others build their products as you can have similar study designs but completely different data capturing systems.

RedCap lacks the programming to integrate certain research tools which are commonly used which makes it difficult to store non-compatible data. For example, timeline follow backs, common in substance abuse research is not a tool that can be smoothly inputted into RedCap.

I love that REDCap is user friendly and easy to navigate. It is easy to send out emails through the website and keep track of all the participants we have in our project. It is also easy to collaborate with other researchers on this website and add/restrict their permissions on there. It helps to be able to easily collaborate with others. In contrast to Qualtrics, I like that the surveys can be pulled into or out of production when making edits.

Sometimes REDCap can be overly complicated, I have a hard time finding certain functions on the website.

Utilize all the services provided!

I think REDCap helps us design surveys much better and consolidate all functions into one source.

I like that the REDCap user interface is highly customizable based on the page creators needs. The data management team also frequently updates the system which is nice.

My only usage of REDCap has been using pages created by other sites, such as a trial Data Coordinating Center. It may very well be the particular way that that site chose to create their page, but it feels very clunky and cumbersome to use.

Work with the system administrator to design an intuitive page for your needs.

Besides the clunkiness mentioned above, I have had no other problems with REDCap. The benefits we have realized include customizable Electronic Data Capture (EDC) and electronic regulatory binders for clinical

I like using REDCap to administer surveys and consent forms to research participants, and the ease with which we can track and utilize their responses. But most of all I love using REDCap for its Reports functions - at my fingertips are easy tools to help me collect, categorize, and analyze information for our research study in a variety of ways. The ability to easily use our data in preliminary analysis, without having to export it to outside programs or do lengthy calculations by hand, have been a life-saver.

I wish I could link some of the data between different Projects, or combine data from multiple projects into our master database Project for easy over-arching analysis.

Use the tutorials videos when you begin! They are a helpful starting-off resource.

REDCap has allowed us to go paper-less in our Research study, handling consent forms for participants, Research Assistant real-time data entry, and post study processing all in one database. This is critical for establishing a centralized database and ensuring study completion and integrity for our lab.

REDCap allows you to easily create and manage surveys for a task of any size! Even for an extremely large project, REDCap makes it easy to queue groups of surveys together and make links accessible at different time points (for longitudinal research studies, for example). Even among a huge dataset, survey mode and the survey queue creates a clean appearance for the outside user.

Exporting data is a great feature, but the output is not great. In the capacity that I use REDCap, there is no way to filter and choose which variables from a particular survey that you want to export. The result is a very large, confusing dataset.

REDCap has allowed us to combine all of our pre, during, and post study visit needs. We can store a subject's eligibility/screening information, study visit data collected, and post visit notes/evaluations in the same dashboard. With hundreds of subjects, this is incredibly helpful to have a centralized location for all of this information and has benefitted our organization immensely.

In my professional experience with the RedCap application, I can say that it is a tool that allows you to create and manage surveys and databases online or offline for studies or business research operations and project management.

It has a support network of collaborators that is composed of thousands of institutional partners active in more than one hundred countries, which jointly or indistinctly use this application.

The security provided by this application is another of its strengths, allowing you to share the input data with total confidence and rely on the web to create a survey or an online database from anywhere in the world through a web connection Secure with authentication and data logging.

Despite its quite positive utilities, it has features that displease me, such as its interface, interface, the very low number of languages available to the user. The weight that the installation of this application represents for the team.

I recommend to organizations and users who read this post to acquire RedCap if your company needs an application that allows you to maintain its database in a shared way among its users, regardless of geographical location, as well as having the option to work without being online. and under all security parameters, is the application you need.

Through RedCap the organization maintains a database in a shared way among its users. It has some parameters and high security features, which allow to keep the systems and information of the organization protected. The option of working without an Internet connection is very useful.

This has reduced costs in communication management, as well as losses and cost in terms of security.

I have little time using Redcap but in this time I have realized that it is one of the few applications that by means of the surveys is in charge of protecting a large amount of electronic data that the user considers that they should remain protected, in addition to this their main function is to collect data for the information you need to perform. It also analyzes these data that have been extracted.

Redcap uses a software mostly designed for companies in charge of collecting information, so I would like a more domestic function to work at home from there. On the other hand I would like to have an instruction manual with more specifications since it is not easy to work, you need a lot of practice to be able to handle it with ease.In addition, it should have more languages ​​in use to make it more useful in other countries.

If your company has problems analyzing and collecting necessary information, use Redcap and use more efficiently various types of research surveys

With the red cap it does not matter in which area you are working if you need to collect the information of a survey you can do it in the middle of this software in a simple way, it is important in our company and you would save a lot of time manually writing the information and the analysis of the survey. It also provides the security and confidence your users need.

Redcap is an application that aims to compile a series of data and group them systematically to solve problems in the work methodology, especially in what you need for an investigation. Commonly this website was developed for the use mainly of scientists and medical researchers however it is possible as in my case to approach it to the area of ​​journalist communication of investigation. is a software that adapts to the needs of users who are beginning in this branch of research and do not have a large number of budgets to carry out an investigation.

Redcap not being an application based for all types of professionals but is aimed at a more specific sector of users such as scientists, doctors, researchers, among others. A good way to grow this software is to venture into other modalities to make it more attractive to the general public that can use it as a fundamental tool. On the other hand, although it is not extremely expensive compared to other collection and database design systems, it should be a little more economical for the user.

For researchers it is a very useful tool that will facilitate the work and shorten the working time with its use. E modern software and you can identify with it for its ease of use

With REDcap, the company where I am working can have a reliable and secure database that provides the researcher with the right tools for the functionality of the research project. is an application that can be easily installed in any operating system that allows through the interface of the company to enter without any type of problem. shortens the processes of time and money when starting to use this application.

It is an application whose main means is to be able to take charge of the reconpilation of any type of data frequently used by people as an example (excel PDF), these data are electronic. also has a working methodology for research so it is used conmunmente by academics and scientists.

On the other hand, it functions as a great international network in which countless countries are incorporated in which they use and download this software that is useful for large research projects.

There are not many things that dissolve me about this application as it serves as a help method to collect information for an investigative project. However, I would like it to be downloaded to mobile devices without so much weight in megabytes and be able to use them in a cellular way. simpler effective. Even though your license is easily downloaded it is not free and your payment is a bit expensive so I would like it to be a free software license.

In addition to being the application a bit restricted to the scope of many because there are only few companies that distribute it

If you need software that compiles all types of electronic data, keep in your database a secure information of some kind of projects or if you are a doctor and use it in patients it would be very helpful.

It's easy to use.

You can use it anywhere without internet connection

100% recommended and reliable.

Encourage and function as a tool for the use of institutional researchers.

By means of REDcap, the company has managed to maintain its database in a way with great quality standards, in addition to not importing where you are, you can use it. The option of using it without an Internet connection facilitates the work due to the problems of connection that exist in some parts of the country where I am. Also, be effective as tools to protect the information you use to store it in this application.

It is an application that aims to create and manage surveys and databases online or offline for research studies or operations

It has a wide support network of collaborators that is composed of thousands of institutional partners active in more than one hundred countries that use this application.

The input data is secure and web-based to create a survey or online database from anywhere in the world through a secure web connection with authentication and data logging.

The unfriendly interface for the user. The very low number of languages ​​that the application has. The weight that the installation of this application represents for the team.

If your company or organization needs an application that allows you to maintain your database in a shared way among its users, regardless of geographic location, in addition to having the option of working without being online, and under all security parameters, it is is the application you need.

Besides that this application will help you to decrease your costs in database and security of this information.

Through this application the company has managed to maintain its database in a shared way among its users, regardless of the geographical location. The option of working without an internet connection is very helpful due to the connection problems that the organization has due to its geographical position. In addition, the high security parameters have shielded the information of the organization.

This has reduced costs in database and security protocols.

RedCap is one of the few open source survey tools available today that protects sensitive and private data. Both you the user/administrator and people completing the survey are assured your work is protected online.

Also, I like RedCap because it suits me in my research work as it is specifically designed for research data. It is also browser based thus you can complete it without the need of looking for another software.

RedCap is specifically designed for institutions thus it might be a little troublesome setting it up on an individual capacity. Installation of RedCap requires a bit of technological know how making it difficult for people without much of this knowledge getting stuck on installation.

A little bit of technical know how is needed for dealing with the installation and implementation of RedCap. Also, keep in mind that it works perfectly for research purposes and might not be the best for other types of surveys e.g. commercial.

I write medical articles and on some occasions I have to conduct surveys asking how certain medication is being received by patients. I use RedCap for my surveys and due to its intuitiveness, I am able to come up with right responses which help me in writing flowing, informative and educative articles.

The best part of REDCap is that it's HIPPA compliant, which is very important to my lab that does a lot of clinical research studies. It's easy to pull and analyze data from REDCap since there's API support in R and Python. The survey design tools are pretty comprehensive, and when we needed to contact support they have been pretty responsive.

It's hard to make changes to your survey design after your project goes live. The built-in tools for descriptive statistics are helpful but can be pretty basic.

Be careful when designing your surveys as making changes later can be difficult

Building and managing research surveys and data for clinical research studies.

REDCap provides all the features necessary for research purposes. I can generate a report of all the fields I want and it would be updated in real time. REDCap also provides a mobile application for conducting surveys, which can store offline data on the local device as sand it to the master database as well. This is really helpful for data collection as people may not always have a stable internet connection when taking the survey.

REDCap, being open source, does not have amazing customer support. Also, the surveys cannot be entirely customized according to needs. You cannot implement CSS for aesthetic improvement. Also, the types of fields available are not always sufficient.You cannot insert custom validation for any fields, and the default validation options provided for text fields isn't widely used.

You should definitely use REDCap if you need real time reports with customized fields. This is very helpful for vast projects. If you want spectacular aesthetics, you should avoid REDCap as the default UI isn't really appealing and you cannot append CSS or Javascript codes to make changes to it. REDCap mobile application is very beneficial for offline as well as online data collection.

REDCap is used for collecting survey data from customers. Complex branching logic can be implemented very easily with the drag and drop feature. REDCap Mobile application is widely used for data collection on an offline as well as online basis.

I like redcap well enough. It has a nice look to it, an ease of use for our participants and does a great job handling our data and storing it for us. we work in reasearch and input A LOT of information on a daily basis. Redcap helps make this process super simple.

When it comes to creating a project, redcap is very hard to deal with. Coming into this project as someone who had never used redcap, I had to take several classes (i.e. pay for classes) in order to learn how to use every tool that is at our disposal. Also, sometimes redcap is not the best with make a project easy to create. There is a lot of time you need to spend navigating the program before going forward and creating your own project.

I recommend you should take some classes to get to know this program before going live with it.

REDCap not only stores our data, but it helps us organize it too. It is a great program once you get to know it

There many options with this type of survey tool and with different clients requiring different options, it is helpful to have choices.

I like that Red Cap is one of the few open source tools that cares about data - specifically sensitivity and tries to protect your data. It's also free for not for profit groups, whcih we are so that is valuable. It allows us to customize the questions and thus, the answers we receive.

Setting up the tool may necessitate a call to IT or to someone who uses it often. It did take some time to get situated. It is fairly easy to use once you have it figured out. And you have to have a basic understanding of the types of questions and what types of answers you want - in order to effectively select the type of questions you want. If you aren't familiar with the types of questions, it can get difficult.

Take time to think about the questions you are asking so you know what tools to use. Talk to people who have used it to get a sense for what you might need to put thought into.

We have a lot of groups who all want information and data in a different format. This allowed us to have them ask questions and glean what they needed without interfering with some of the more strategic business needs the larger organization required.

I love how REDCap lets you build a database that is HIPAA compliant. For the research projects that I complete, once the database is built, any student can easily navigate the system to add data from patients or surveys.

REDCap can be complex to use and there is not a lot of user-guides or manuals out there for designing and creating a survey or database.

REDCap is a great tool to use, it will just take time to become familiar with the software and how to best utilize it for your research needs / focus.

REDCap centralizes all of your data and information so it eliminates the need for having multiple files with patient information on it.

I like that this is a relatively simple, fully customizable database software that allows freedom to conform to the ways in which I conduct research.

Seeing how this is in development, there is room for improvement. With that being said, it is great for what it is at the time. I think that this software could be improved by a more logical layout and diction for the buttons that are used in creating different sections of a project.

I would definitely recommend this because it saves a lot of time in data analysis because it is able to automatically create data reports that give great starting points for complex data analysis.

We are solving databasing complications by diverting it all into one place and allowing for auto-population using surveys that are allowed to be sent out to participants of the study.

I loved that REDCap gave me the ability to see all other appointments that my participants had completed. I was in charge of Fitness Consults and it was very helpful to see if they had completed a health screening or a nutrition consult, prior to coming to see me. It allowed me as a provider to better serve them and use previous experience to create a more personalized environment and really engage with each person directly. It made participants feel as though I did my research on them.

The main thing that I disliked about REDCap was when you were searching for a specific person. If you were searching using first name, last name, date, etc. it would populate lots of different results. There was no additional ways to filter through this information except to choose each one individually and hope that you were correct. I thought this process could have been smoother. I also thought that the excel reports that you can export could use a bit of cleanup. Many reports were very confusing to understand the data at hand.

One of the main business problem that using REDCap solved was the ability for all members of our organizational team to view history and data on active and/or past participants. It allowed us to create a more personalized and professional environment where we were aware of all appointments that they completed to better serve them as providers.

Easy to use. Having had no experience in data collection and analysis, I found it a very beneficial and effective tool. Further, it was beneficial to have all research data stored in one database and easily to retrieve.

Occasionally, I found it slow and software may lag. I also had difficulty accessing support when I was trying to analyze my data in a different way than the software was allowing me.

The ability to store data in one database that is easy to retrieve, analyze, and showcase in a manner that makes sense to the end user. In research, it can be difficult to keep track of multiple endpoints. This tool simplifies this and can analyze data quickly (faster than having to enter data into an Excel worksheet, then work-out the statistical analysis).

REDCap was pre-approved by our institutional review board, which made it the easiest option for us to use for survey research. It has data protections, user permissions, and data validation capabilities that make it ideal for large scale academic research. It also allowed exports of several commonly used file types for different statistical packages. We had a REDCap expert on campus who made administration and survey initiation easy.

As someone who used REDCap primarily for its double entry capabilities, I was frustrated that the survey owner or reviewer could not do data entry. We had planned to have two researchers enter the data, then confer to discuss any areas there they disagreed - so we didn't need a third neutral 'reviewer.' I solved this problem by switching my role back and forth between entry and reviewer, but this was a hassle and seemed unnecessary.

This is a great tool for academic research.

I have used REDCap exclusively for IRB-approved human subjects research.

Usability, ability to have external sites enter information directly into the system so we can access it, ability to put restrictions on fields so they are entered correctly.

Can be hard to set up some of the more sophisticated checks and cleaning features, and does not create paper forms from the database that are compact and easily usable- often have to re-create our own.

Absolutely worth learning/ has lots of capabilities!

We use REDCap for research databases, surveys and eConsents. It is quick, easy, secure and offers the ability to run checks and queries for values that are not as you would expect them to be to ensure accurate data is input to the system.

I always have to update project designs, add or edit instruments, and designate new instruments for events. RedCap makes all of these things quick and easy. I was also able to learn these processes in no time!

You can not designate an instrument for only one research subject. Also, reports can be very useful but making them is not very straightforward. They often yield excel spreadsheets that are oddly layed out and hard to follow.

RedCap allows my research lab to keep track of study participant data in a reliable and straightforward way. We have data for every participant well-organized in one place that the whole lab has access to and can easily use. I love the survey feature, which allows me to administer questionnaires and surveys to my participants without my involvement, that are automatically saved to the project redcap. It has also been extremely useful to be able to send out surveys to participants and prospective participants who have not yet been seen by me in person.

I've been using RedCap for a number of years, first in about 2013 for survey building at a prior company, and am currently using it for program management. I find REDCap easy enough to navigate after you figure out where in the many links, is the task you're attempting to accomplish,

The one thing that peeves me is reviewing the tool, as your making it, specifically when I'm checking on branching logic. To me, that should be more easily accessible from the page where you build the tool, and not through the "manage instrument" section

REDCap makes it easy for me to build the tools, I need, and is generally easy to follow by staff members who I need to collect information from after it's built.

Redcap is extremely user friendly. I have no coding experience whatsoever, and yet Redcap makes it possible for me to design surveys and interfaces for data management.

There is an extent to what you can do on Redcap, so extremely complex surveys may not be possible to create.

Research all of the "tricks" to using Redcap. For example, there's piping, in which you can take an answer that a participant selected from a previous question and insert it into part of another question. You can also use html in Redcap to do things like indent, italicize, bold, underline, and change font size.

Redcap is our main source of data collection, data storage, and data organization and management. We use it not only for participants to fill out surveys, but for us to keep track of our own day to day research management tasks. This helps us to stay organized.

I really liked that there basic tutorials to teach you how to set up a database, based on what sort of information you wanted to capture. For example I administered cognitive assessments and I needed to capture scores of the various questionnaires I gave. It was very useful!

There wasn't a lot to dislike, but sometimes its hard to get multiple levels of data capture on one survey or questionnaire.

Definitely use the tutorials as it will be much easier than trying to figure it out right away on your own.

We solved problems around whether or not the scores of a various neuro cognitive assessment were validated. You could list the data as "yellow" which meant it still had to be verified, and had to be changed to green. Very useful for more accurate clinical trials research.

I like Redcap's reporting capabilities and its record status dashboard, both of which provide a way to quickly review data based on a particular need as well as a means to easily identify potential documentation errors.

I don't like that you can't tab through Likert-scale items that are made through bubbles to select like you can when you type in numbers and any other blanks (takes longer to enter the data and makes a big difference when you are entering a lot of data at one time). I also don't like that it is only online and subject to internet issues that make it go down sometimes rather than having a cloud based option where you could work offline then re-upload the newest forms when back online or something of that sort.

Redcap is very good for managing our very large dataset and going through to find the subset of data or even just one piece of data through its various search options and reports.

I like that it is 1. browser-based, 2.designed specifically for medical research data, 3. open-source (which makes it free). One of the most important features, however, is that it is secure and can be used to store sensitive and private data.

For an institution to install it, it takes a while to contact the developers and install it. Also, it requires the installation on the institutional server, which can be a hassle. Additionally, it doesn't support some of the languages fully.

It is important to assess the company's needs. REDCap is perfect for academic and research institutions, however, it may not be ideal for commercial projects. Also, it is important to have an IT team who would be able to deal with a technical side of product implementation

Once it was installed, we were able to quickly teach our staff and students to use it (short learning curve) and start conducting research studies using REDCap. It's very intuitive, so they were able to create databases and surveys quickly. Also, we don't have to worry about additional precautions to secure our data. Overall, it improved our data flow and quality.

The HIPAA secure interface that can be accessed online from any site is extremely convenient. Forms are relatively easy to build (although not quite as user friendly as something like Qualtrics or Survey Monkey). Overall, it works well for database management especially across sites.

The interface is clunky compared to other survey softwares. For sending out surveys to participants, Qualtrics and Survey Monkey are much more user friendly and have a more appealing graphic interface.

Ideal for cross site database management, less user friendly for survey distribution.

Use this software to manage a research database.

It's super easy to make surveys and to keep track of HIPPA protected information with Redcap. I definitely recommend it for non-profits that have to protect sensitive information.

When you have a lot of projects going on, it can be pretty confusing to manage everything - it's not super user friendly. You really need to get used to finding out where to find the info you want.

Redcap is great because we can go paperless - we just got Android tablets with the Redcap app that auto-fills into the forms online. It's more protected and organized than paper surveys.

It's great for research: making surveys, making screeners, running a live study.

REDcap is extremely difficult to use. Once your study is up and running, it functions well, but you have to tell REDCap exactly what you want or it won't work the way you want. RedCap has a TON of features. I've used REDCap for over 2 years and there are still plenty of things I do not know how to do.

Watch the tutorials, attend trainings, and google questions!

My team is conduction reach in tobacco regulatory science.

The program is easy to learn. I had to teach myself project management, data management, and surveying at my last job using RedCap. I found the training videos to be a great support as I worked through the different activities. Now I am able to bring my skills to my current job, where we used RedCap to create an intake form and we use it to document department staff training.

Features are not universal; it depends on what your employee pays and supports.

When doing surveys, cannot add multiple, un-linked surveys to a single project.

Connect with local support team for assistance. Use the online tools and videos for training opportunities.

Intake survey we use to gather information about researchers at our hospitals.

We use REDCap to store patient data and it is very useful in terms of building reports and exporting data. I have been using it for about 3 years now and I am constantly learning more things about it that I did not know. I like that people can have different security settings so that you can restrict who can access which data and if it is deidentified or not.

I dislike some of the administrative controls - for example, that we cannot create projects without administrative approval. However, I understand that it is useful to keep track of which projects are going on and by whom.

None.

We use it as a database to store our patient information and our clinical study information.

REDCap provides a complete study-management suite, including archival of forms, tracking follow-up visits, sending emails, entering data, etc. It really is a one-stop-shop.

It is honestly difficult to learn and challenging to adapt to research studies that are NOT clinical trials. It would be great if there could be a behavioral study module where the clinical trial items are not even requested/set up, or if you could choose which items you'd like included. This may very well be possible, but I couldn't figure it out and although I still have access to the software, we have been using other shared-file means to keep track of research subjects/communications.

Find someone in your workplace who uses this for research study tracking purposes, and get a study shell from them to adapt. Get some tips and tricks that may help you start your trial more quickly. Be sure to think about your trial design and lay it out before you start implementing the project in REDCap.

Tracking clinical trials. Those who know how to use it extensively appear to really benefit from all of the tracking, communication, and data entry features. If we conduct a clinical trial instead of just interviews/surveys/behavioral studies, I will try it again. I think using it would produce a huge time savings.

Redcap allows me to share data in a deidentified way. It communicates easily with excel and other platforms, and allows me to customize my use.

Not as intuitive as it could be - I wish I could use it without doing so much research.

We use it to send data to other hospitals as well as to import data sets and make them easier to analyze. I love that it has a library other users can access so you can share your work and build off of others work.

I like that it is easy to learn and use. It is easy to both create and use forms for data entry Redcap also has excellent features that help with organizing longitudinal studies that can help you keep track of data collected for many different research participants over many weeks.

Sometimes it can be annoying to edit forms if a study is active. It can slow things down because everything has to then be approved by an administrator before changes can be made

Redcap makes data collection easier and quicker which improves efficiency and saves money.

I like that for clinical research RedCap is a known secure online platform. The IRB, who reviews research studies, are aware of it and do not make you jump through as many hoops if you are using RedCap

I dislike the lack of customization beyond font size and colors for the actual survey interface that respondents see

An excellent choice if you want meticulous records of what was changed about the survey interface by co-collaborators. Although the survey interface has limited design function, the number of pre-existing answer templates and ease of adding logic to the survey make it worth it.

Secure way to collect data from study participants.

I like that REDCap is used at my higher-ed institution and checks off all the institutional requirements. I like the ability to assign differen user roles and privileges as well.

My biggest con with using REDCap is that the interface isn't incredibly user-friendly.Sometimes it takes some trial and error to complete what youn set out to do.

Make sure to explore the interface as well as you can.

My organization conducts research in various arenas as well as through several projects. We are able to conduct research in a timely and satisfactory manner using REDCap. We can also have several users log into the same project without the necessity of sharing a username/password.

This web-based research tool is HIPAA-compliant and secure, which assures protection from ethical violations when collecting research data. REDCap also offers a number of question types (such as direct data entry, multiple choice options, formula calculations, visual analog sliding scale) that make the resource suitable for many types of research projects.

Designing a research collection survey can be quite time-consuming until you understand ways to navigate the online system (i.e., REDCap could be more user-friendly to allow individuals to find necessary information more quickly and easily). REDCap also does not automatically save the data you input, so if you are idle for too long a period of time, REDCap logs you off but does not save your information. This feature is even more frustrating if you are collecting data from a research participant and the server/internet crashes, causing loss of all data on that page.

Though I have not attended one myself, REDCap tutorials are intermittently available at institutions that have purchased REDCap, which would likely help someone completely new to the system in becoming more efficient.

Because REDCap is HIPAA-compliant, we have been able to feel more secure in our data collection for research studies and primarily use this database for research data collection. As the data can be exported to Excel after collection, the tool provides additional flexibility for data analysis.

REDCap is simple, intuitive, and easy to use, with a small learning curve that allows even new users to understand report and project building within hours.

At times the interface can leave a little to be desired and the ability to make more cosmetic changes via HTML/etc. would be useful, along with more easily-accessible information on how to utilize import and exporting functions.

I use REDCap for data-entry purposes at a small scale addiction research facility. REDCap is used to organize, code, and consolidate large amounts of qualitative data.

I like RedCap because its very user friendly. I find that the program is very straight-forward and information for the project you are working on is easy to find. No more clicking a gazillion different things just to access your study. RedCap also has a section of help topics/videos that make it easy to learn anything you want about RedCap. Any projects or studies you design, can be easily implemented. You can also import/export data directly into any project in minutes. For me, managing the contact list of survey participants was right there. I didn't have to sift thru endless information to find what I was looking for. You don't have to worry about data loss and security as everything is autosaved and secured. When inputting data, at least for the project I was working on, alot of it was just checking boxes, or drop down menus or writing a short paragraph on each survey participant. Anything that required dates and times, there was always a pop up calendar and automatic slider set in military time or you could manually enter the information as well. When signing into RedCap, you are automatically taken to the project you are working on. There are tabs at the top that are organized into each section. Home, My Projects, Create New Project, Training Resources, Help & Faq and Send It. Using RedCap also helps lower costs of using a paper trail because mostly everything can be done online safely and securely. Overall, I really like RedCap and for the future studies I will be doing, RedCap will be incorporated as a tried and true great little software program.

Some of the niches of this program would have to be getting a user name and password. I'm sure it is different for everyone and the deciding factor is the company you work for. On my end, it took well over 3 weeks before I was given access. Which meant extra paperwork to keep every survey participant updated.

Sometimes, RedCap would lag a bit and maybe a few fine tuning and updates would fix the problem. On occasion, the program would just black out and shut down. In which I would just reload and sign in again and whatever happened would be fine again.

Overall, this software does have a few glitches and I did get frustrated when my data would have to be entered in again. But it was rare.

Consider everything you are doing for your project and weigh out the pros and cons. Do a trial run. Read and watch all the tutorials which are a big help. And ask, ask, ask questions if you have any. Don't sit in the dark.

We have incorporated RedCap for a fish consumption study called The Wisconsin Angler study. We use it to record data and stats on the survey participants. The benefits of this type of software make for a more user friendly experience and it also helps lessen the amount of paper that is used when doing a study. It was half and half for us. Survey participants still received and filled out the necessary paperwork, I collected the biological samples and then inputted my findings into RedCap.Its very beneficial when you have all your findings and information right there in front of you versus having to open several programs,sift thru paper folders,etc. To which another study I am doing requires 4 programs and lots of paperwork.

Easy to use. Contains several editing options for any and all types of data. The branching mechanism is really easy to set up, and there are explanations for those who are less tech-savvy. Hardly ever crashes.

I can’t really think of much. When I want to add a new field, it may take a long time to set up the different branching mechanisms that need to be associated with it, but that’s understandable.

Data collection for research