Simon Forsyth has joined RCC to leverage the Centre’s centralised position within the University of Queensland as he continues to manage UQ’s site license of REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), a secure, web-based platform designed for building and managing data collections.
Simon, RCC’s Principal REDCap Systems Administrator, was previously with UQ’s Faculty of Medicine in its Infrastructure and Research Operations division, and first joined UQ in 1988, initially as IT Manager in the Tropical Health Program.
With his move to RCC, Simon said he is looking forward to “incorporating the Centre’s interdisciplinary nature into the REDCap client base and utilising RCC’s renowned compliance and security knowledge, whilst reinforcing the ongoing expertise and support of the REDCap capability.”
RCC Director Jake Carroll said Simon was known as “Mr REDCap” at UQ. “He will bring a wealth of knowledge to RCC, strengthening and further aligning us to our colleagues in UQ’s centralised research platforms handling clinical trials, for example.
“Simon is a contributor on many publications of significance to clinical trials outcomes at UQ and beyond, spanning over 60 peer reviewed journal articles (that I know of) and multiple conference papers.”
UQ’s REDCap server hosts more than 400 active research projects including clinical trials, translational studies, behavioral research, and epidemiological projects.
Simon reviewed a variety of software options before signing UQ to the REDCap license in May 2012, as part of his Research Officer tasks at UQ’s Queensland Clinical Trials and Biostatistics Centre, School of Public Health, where he worked from 2004 to 2023.
After testing, the full REDCap server became available to UQ researchers in October 2013, one of the first in Australia. “Since then the REDCap software has been updated almost every week, with 45 updates installed at UQ during 2024 alone,” said Simon.
Simon manages UQ’s REDCap service, including server administration, project trouble shooting, training, workshops, advice and project consultancy as required.
During 2024, the UQ REDCap server averaged:
- 625 unique REDCap users accessing the server per month
- 427 active projects per month
- 9120 participant completed surveys per month
- 2.6 GBs per month of files uploaded or created
- 152 MBs of data per month.
REDCap was first developed by Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, to support data collection for research studies. REDCap is widely used by research institutions around the world due to its robust features, user-friendly interface, and very responsive development team.
Key features include functions to promote data quality, audit trails for accountability, fine grain permissions control, repeating measures, automated surveys, alerts and notifications, e-consent, randomisation, extensive online documentation and training, and highly useful export options to commonly used statistical packages (SAS, R, Stata, SPSS).
For more information about REDCap at UQ, please visit RCC’s REDCap webpage.
For any REDCap queries, please contact: redcap@uq.edu.au.
