Randomization challenge
The REDCap software includes a platform for randomization. This module allows researchers to perform simple or stratified randomization, and to randomize participants by site in multi-site studies. Once the randomization model is established, the software also provides allocation table templates as an example for researchers to create their own allocation tables. Following a project’s move to By consulting with REDCap administrators from other institutions on the REDCap Community Site – a message board where REDCap administrators from around the world can confer with one another to troubleshoot and develop innovative solutions – our research team identified one workaround to this limitation: namely, to create two separate REDCap projects, one for the first randomization and one for the second randomization. However, this model would require migrating data between projects, which increases the likelihood of accidental data loss or invalidation. The Illinois REDCap administrators provided two alternative suggestions. The first was to perform one randomization using the REDCap randomization module and the other randomization external to REDCap and manually enter the randomization result. The second solution was to write application programming interface (API) code for conducting one or both randomizations outside of REDCap. The research team decided to incorporate the REDCap API into the final suggestion, thus conducting both randomizations outside of REDCap and automating the entry of the randomization results generated outside of REDCap.