News

ITS at REDCap Con 2024

Sep 26, 2024, 10:03 AM by Miranda Mokarzel

REDCap is a web application widely used by researchers to collect data from study participants. UTMB’s access to REDCap is provided by the Institute for Translational Sciences (ITS), which currently helps some 600 users to build and manage online surveys and databases that power a wide range of scientific and educational efforts.

Earlier this month,  ITS REDCap Administrators Jeffrey Beller and Miranda Mokarzel attended REDCapCon 2024 in St. Petersburg, Florida. With other ITS colleagues, Beller and Mokarzel ensure the successful implementation and utilization of this powerful research tool at UTMB. They are responsible for technical support, end-user training, account management, and promoting REDCap across UTMB research and education groups. Attending REDCapCon helps this important team to keep UTMB at the forefront of research data management.

The annual REDCap conference brings together administrators from around the world who together support over 3 million users at nearly 7,500 institutions across the world. The three and a half-day event provided an excellent opportunity for the UTMB administrators to enhance their knowledge, learn how to optimize the UTMB REDCap system, and network with professionals in the field. 

The conference offered a range of educational sessions, workshops, and presentations covering diverse topics related to REDCap. These included sessions on advanced data manipulation, security and compliance, project management, and customizing REDCap to meet specific needs. 

The conference also allowed our administrators to meet with the developers of REDCap and learn about the latest updates and plans for the platform. This direct interaction with the creators of REDCap provided insights into the roadmap of the software, ensuring that our administrators are well-informed about new features and improvements that can be implemented to optimize our REDCap system.

One of the main highlights of the conference was the opportunity for the UTMB ITS REDCap administrators to network with other REDCap professionals. They were able to exchange ideas, share experiences, and seek advice from peers facing similar challenges such as implementing eConsents within the application and gearing towards making our REDCap instance FDA 21CFR part 11 compliant. This networking aspect provided invaluable opportunities for collaboration and learning from the experiences of others, ultimately helping our administrators enhance their expertise and bring new ideas back to our institution. 

 The UTMB REDCap team also presented a poster showcasing their work in a poster on custom surveys to capture institutionally required information for creating a new REDCap project. A copy of the poster can be found on the ITS website. Stay tuned for new and innovated changes to our system.

This work was supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (UL1TR001439) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Read more ITS News here: https://www.utmb.edu/its/welcome/news