Cincinnati Children's Hosptial Medical Center (CCHMC), Information Service for Research (IS4R), and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST) are proud to offer comprehensive support for the CCHMC and UC REDCap Instance, ensuring our users can efficiently manage and optimize their research projects. Our current support framework primarily revolves around email and ticket-based assistance, live trainings, workshops, and ad hoc consultative meetings, aimed at resolving queries related to project creation, maintenance, and utilization of REDCap's diverse functionalities.

To further enhance user experience, we provide a series of Zoom training sessions alongside weekly workshops. These sessions are designed to address user questions in real time, fostering a deeper understanding of REDCap's capabilities. We offer each department up to 20 hours of support at no cost. Should your department's needs exceed this allocation, additional support can be estimated and charged at our Shared Facility rates. 

For tasks that fall outside of the CCTST's supported module, users are encouraged to either develop the skills needed to perform these tasks through available training resources or consider hiring a Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) for more extensive project assistance. This delineation ensures that the support team can efficiently allocate resources to help users maximize the benefits of REDCap for their research projects.

The support framework's design is to empower users with the knowledge and skills to use REDCap effectively for their research projects, rather than providing direct project management services. Although we would like to be hands-on with every project our instance of REDCap currently supports over 12,000 projects and we have only about 2 FTEs fully dedicated to CCHMC/UC REDCap Support.  


Examples of Subsidized / Free REDCap support:

  • Emailing help-redcap@cchmc.org with project or access questions.
  • Guidance on leveraging advanced features, such as external modules and project dashboards.
  • Advice on project builds via our help-redcap@cchmc.org email.
  • Project build consultations via email or meeting.
  • Attending a workshop with project questions (i.e. new project, send out surveys, branching logic, etc.)
  • Support during workshops for a range of queries, from new project initiation to survey distribution, and mastering branching logic.

For example, here are some questions and use cases that fall within our free support module: 

  1. Emailing for Project or Access Issues: "I can't seem to access my project dashboard. Can you help me troubleshoot this issue?"
  2. Advanced Feature Inquiries: "Could you guide me on how to integrate external modules like the calendar feature into my project?"
  3. Project Build Advice: "I'm planning a complex survey that involves branching logic. Could you review my setup and suggest improvements?"
  4. Workshop Participation: "In the upcoming workshop, can you demonstrate how to send out surveys to a specific subset of participants based on their previous responses?"
  5. Troubleshooting Specific Features: "I'm having trouble with my data import function. The file seems to be formatted correctly, but the import fails. What could be going wrong?"
  6. Editing Alerts or Automated Survey Invitations (ASIs): "I've set up an alert, but it's not triggering as expected. Can you fix this for me?"
  7. Simple External Module Help: "I'd like to turn on cross-project piping, can you enable that module for me" 
  8. Advice on utilizing a REDCap Tool: "Can you help me understand how to use MyCap"

Examples of REDCap support that is beyond our subsidized / free support: 

  • Continual Project Maintenance:
    • Building/updating reports
    • Editing alerts or ASIs
    • updating information within existing projects
    • Adding new users to the project/removing users from projects
  • Creating alerts or ASIs–without user best attempt first
  • Building Branching logic–without user best attempt first
  • Building new projects or building new instruments
  • Advanced external module configuration (shazam, auto-continue logic, etc.)
  • API coding
  • Randomization table building
  • Data import template building

For example, here are some questions and use cases that fall outside of our free support module: 

  1. Project Maintenance (Building/Updating Reports): "Can you create a monthly report template for me that automatically updates with new data?"

  2. Updating Information Within Existing Projects: "I need to bulk update participant contact information in my project. Can you do this for me?"

  3. Adding/Removing Users from Projects: "I have a list of new team members. Can you add them as project users and assign appropriate roles?"

  4. Advanced External Module Configuration: "I'm interested in using the Shazam module for dynamic data display. Can you configure it for my project?"

  5. API Coding for Data Exchange: "I need to set up an automated data exchange between REDCap and another system. Can you write the necessary API scripts?"

  6. Randomization Table Building: "For my study, I need a complex randomization table that includes stratification. Can you design and implement it?"

  7. Data Import Template Creation: "I have a unique data collection form from another software. Can you create a custom import template for this format?"

  8. Build My REDCap Project: "I have detailed my project requirements in a Word document, including the surveys, data collection instruments, and the logic needed for branching and calculations. Can you build the entire REDCap project for me based on this document?"
  9. Continual Project Maintenance: "Can you manage the ongoing updates and maintenance of my REDCap project? This includes regularly updating surveys, modifying data collection instruments, and ensuring data integrity over time."
  10. Resistance to Learning REDCap Project Management: "I find REDCap too complex and don't have the time to learn how to use it properly. Can you handle all aspects of my project for me, including setup, management, and analysis?"
  11. Reliance on Administrative Assistance Over CRC: "We do not have a Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) available for our study and would prefer to use our administrative assistant for project tasks. Can the REDCap staff directly assist our administrative assistant in performing detailed project tasks, such as building and updating surveys, managing data, and configuring advanced features?"

REDCap Enhanced Support

If you would like to engage with the REDCap team on a scheduled basis and hire us to be part of your research team, you can request an estimate for assistance by completing this Service Request form: https://redcap.link/REDCapIS4R.  After that form is completed a Project Manager will reach out to you to see if the cost and the scope of work fit the REDCap Team and your project needs.

If you need long-term project maintenance (i.e. branching logic, new project setup, report creation, etc.), please consider hiring a Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC). The REDCap team can not replace the role of a CRC in managing the daily tasks of a REDCap project. 

Resources for REDCap:

Other Adjacent Resources at CCHMC and UC:

Office of Clinical and Translation Research (OCTR): https://centerlink.cchmc.org/research/research---tabs/octr/home

Data Management and Analysis Collaborative (DMAC): https://centerlink.cchmc.org/research/research---tabs/dmac/meet-our-team

Center for Health Informatics at UC (CHI): https://med.uc.edu/institutes/chi/home

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