Research data and metadata must be collected, stored, retained, used and disposed of in a way that protects the rights, safety, and wellbeing of the research participants and wider community. REDCap can help meet these data requirements.
REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. The system was developed by a multi-institutional consortium based at Vanderbilt University. It is hosted on the Eye and Ear Hospital’s servers.
While REDCap can be used to collect virtually any type of data, it is specifically geared to support online or offline data capture for research studies (including clinical trials) and operations. Data collection is customised for use (study or clinical operation) by the users.
The Eye and Ear encourages its staff to use REDCap for operational and research purposes as the data is held at the Eye and Ear and the system and security is managed in accordance with the organisation’s Business Intelligence Unit and Information Technology (IT) systems and protocols.
REDCap provides:
An intuitive interface for validated data entry
Audit trails for tracking data manipulation and export procedures
Automated export procedures for data downloads to common statistical packages
Procedures for importing data from external sources
Important notes:
Data collection, storage and use must remain compliant with Eye and Ear policies, guidelines and processes, regulations, guidelines, project approvals, agreement and any other applicable requirement, irrespective of the data formats and tools used to collect and manage the data. It is the user’s responsibility to be familiar and comply with these requirements.
Excel is a great tool for collecting data simply and quickly. Anyone can do it and that is one of its greatest strengths. Unfortunately, it is also its biggest weakness. Anyone can do anything they want in Excel with no consideration for security, privacy, data quality or audit trail. Using a tool such as REDCap can overcome these problems.
Access is via secure login to the database. This can be organised through the Research Office.
Eye and Ear staff can request a REDCap database login from the REDCap administrator. Please contact the Research Office.
While the software is designed to be intuitive, there are various avenues for training in the system:
REDCap provides ‘How to’ instructions and training videos on the platform
