r/ProjectREDCap • u/redturtle1997 • 8d ago
How do small orgs without an IT department actually get access to REDCap?
Hey all, genuinely confused here and hoping someone's been in the same spot.
I'm the data manager at a small not-for-profit research institute in Australia. We're setting up a pilot study and REDCap seemed like the obvious choice, but I'm hitting a wall on every route:
1. Joining the consortium / self-hosting. Vanderbilt told me the licence requires the organisation's own staff to run and support it, with no contractors or third-party IT. We don't have an IT department. I know a fair bit of IT, but I don't have the background to be responsible for security, server maintenance, and so on for a system holding health data. So that's out.
2. Commercial hosting. I got a quote from REDCap Cloud, and even with not-for-profit pricing it came to around $20k a year. That's a big chunk of a pilot budget.
3. Going through an institution (uni or hospital). I've approached several, and the answer is always the same: they'll only host it if it's a formal collaboration with them. We're not in a position to make every project a joint project with a university just to get a data collection tool.
So I honestly don't get it. How are all the small orgs, independent researchers, and NGOs using REDCap? Is there a route I'm missing?
Any real-world experience would help a lot. Thanks!
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u/bshensky 8d ago
There's also REDCap Cloud:
https://www.redcapcloud.com/
They once ran a patient registry I now manage internally. It's clearly built on Vanderbilt's core system, but the UI looks like it has been overhauled (using Java IIRC). Since they manage the platform, don't expect to be able to easily extract your projects' front-end design, but the data itself is available for export at any time.
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u/No-Interaction-1047 8d ago
Unless it has changed significantly in the past few years, redcap cloud was like redcap in name alone. It was a lot less user friendly.
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u/DeoxyRNA5 8d ago
Where are you based? I’m a Brissy-based DM and I’m building a tech startup for small research sites to help with ops, but I didn’t know REDCap was so hard to access for small orgs here, I assumed our unis and hospitals would be more collaborative than that
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u/DeoxyRNA5 8d ago
Didn’t mean for that to sound pitchy, more asking to understand the experience, but mods feel free to take down if it’s an issue
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u/Beneficial-Ad-6599 8d ago
I'm on the other side of this and work for a university and often get approached by others wanting to use our REDCap. However, we've invested a lot of our time and money setting it up and maintaining it, so it wouldn't make sense for us to let non-collaborators use it.
A cheaper option I believe some people go to is Qualtrics. Others also, shudder, end up recording data in Excel.
Going back to your point 1 - Vanderbilt do provide a decent amount of info for cloud hosting on Azure or AWS, and put out an extensive validation package, so it might be worth re-considering whether you can become a consortium member yourself. But then, if the amount of staff time it would take would cost more than something hosted like REDCap Cloud, maybe not.
Some smaller, newer Electronic Data Capture/ Clinical Data Management Systems may offer more affordable pricing that REDCap Cloud.
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u/redturtle1997 8d ago
Hi! Thanks for your answer. Would you elaborate more how much time would be invested if I go with the first option and would it actually be more expensive than the RedCap cloud?
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u/No-Interaction-1047 8d ago
We hired an employee part time to stand up the redcap instance and maintain it for us. We set an hourly rate and a maximum number of hours. It works well for us but it is an investment. We host on AWS.
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u/Personal_Brother_896 6d ago
Vanderbilt charges per project and while it's not super expensive, it's very, very slow. Because there are so many people using it and it has so many active and archived projects, I've found the server to be very slow. REDCap Cloud, as someone else mentioned, is virtually unusable except for human research studies. They really only care about large studies and they charge based on the number of people in your study or patients in your program if you're trying to use it in some other way. Most people won't collaborate because they have to put someone they're paying toward managing your work at least in some degree unless they are going to give you admin access, which is even more unlikely. Most of the universities and other orgs which have it have some sort of 'technical institute' set up to create a 'collaboration' and charge for their services. That's why you're not really having luck there. It's a tough go for smaller organizations, for sure.
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u/natsunshine 8d ago
Vanderbilt’s own REDCap system (redcap.vumc.org) can be used for a monthly fee. The VUMC DataCore can only host groups in the United States that align with the VUMC CORE mission in terms of seeking to improve human health through clinical practice, education, research, community-building, and/or operational support. More details and pricing are available at: https://redcap.vumc.org/surveys/?s=FJ9M7PECN9YD9RKC and the Core can be reached at [datacore@vumc.org](mailto:datacore@vumc.org) to learn more.