Brim for REDCap Users: Smarter Research, Less Manual Work

REDCap is an online data management platform used by over 3 million users to manage academic medical research, clinical trials, public health studies, and more. Find out why Brim Analytics has invested in a full end-to-end integration with REDCap, how it works, and how it's already contributing to more efficient and effective research.

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Key Takeaways

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• Built for Researchers: Brim was designed by researchers, for researchers, SOC 2 Type II certified, fully HIPAA-compliant and optimized for IRB-ready workflows.
• Faster, Smarter Retrospective Studies: Researchers using Brim reduce manual chart review time by up to 90%, enabling more efficient and scalable research.
• Seamless REDCap Integration: Brim lets researchers import REDCap data dictionaries, run AI-guided chart abstraction, and export structured results end to end, in minutes.‍
• Real-World Impact: Sites contributing to the AACR Project GENIE are already using Brim to accelerate clinical data abstraction while maintaining local flexibility.
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Brim Analytics is Passionate About Medical Research

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Brim was built for researchers, by researchers. In fact, you could say we’re the Brim of the cap: our name is a quiet nod to REDCap, the secure, flexible, and widely-used software platform powering research at nearly 8,000 institutions across 163 countries.

REDCap provides a foundation for building and managing online databases and surveys, especially in regulated research environments like clinical trials, public health studies, and academic research. At Brim, we see part of our work as a natural extension of the REDCap ecosystem: accelerating chart abstraction to supercharge REDCap-based workflows.

We are proud members of the research community:

• Brim is funded by ARPA-H under the DAGCAP project, aimed at transforming healthcare data infrastructure.
• Our founder, Dr. Daniel Fabbri, is a faculty member at Vanderbilt University and an active researcher in medical informatics.

We know research workflows because we live them, and we’re building Brim to make them faster, easier, and more scalable.

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Project Import from REDCap Lets You Try AI-Guided Chart Abstraction in Minutes

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If you’re already using REDCap, Brim makes it incredibly simple to try AI-guided chart abstraction, without needing to redefine your study or start from scratch.

With just a few clicks, you can import your REDCap data dictionary directly into Brim. Import your REDCap data dictionary CSV, or connect directly with an API URL and token. Brim automatically generates draft instructions for each field, complete with semantic details to guide AI abstraction. You can tweak these instructions to your liking or use them as-is for a fast start. We even include a detailed guide on how to import.

This means that any existing research project can adopt AI abstraction with minimal setup, giving you a quick, concrete way to pilot Brim in your workflow.

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Export Data to REDCap for Further Analysis

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Once your notes are abstracted, your data can flow right back into REDCap. Brim’s export functionality lets you populate your REDCap project with structured data extracted from unstructured medical records.

We support:

• Repeating fields
• Automatic generation of additional fields as needed
• Seamless mapping back to your REDCap project structure

Whether you’re running a retrospective study, building a prospective cohort, or just modernizing your data collection, Brim streamlines the most time-consuming parts of chart review, then delivers the results back to you in a format you can immediately analyze. REDCap API is only one of the methods Brim provides for exporting your data, from easy-to-analyze CSVs to a full RESTful API.

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Working with the AACR GENIE Project

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One of the most exciting applications of Brim is within the AACR Project GENIE, a global data-sharing consortium focused on powering precision oncology. GENIE (Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange) is an international cancer registry built by and for the cancer research community. It aggregates real-world, clinical-grade genomic data from nearly two dozen leading cancer centers, linking that data to clinical outcomes. With over 229,000 sequenced samples from more than 196,000 patients, GENIE is a cornerstone resource for understanding how genomic variants influence treatment and outcomes in real-world settings. The project fuels research, regulatory science, and clinical trial design, and is open-access for the entire oncology community.

Many of the participating GENIE sites are now piloting Brim to accelerate and streamline the process of clinical data abstraction. Each institution contributing to GENIE follows a core protocol, but often adapts it locally based on institutional data structures, workflows, or research goals. This is where Brim shines. Brim allows each site to import its local REDCap data dictionary, whether fully aligned with GENIE or tailored for internal use, and immediately begin AI-guided abstraction of relevant data fields. Our system supports complex, customized instructions for each variable, ensuring accuracy even when protocols diverge.

Once abstraction is complete, Brim enables seamless export of the structured data back into REDCap. This simplifies preparing the data for submission to the GENIE consortium by utilizing the systems that are already in place. By bridging the gap between unstructured chart data and standardized research datasets, Brim helps GENIE sites reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and deliver data faster, advancing the goals of precision oncology at scale.

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A Game Changer for Research Efficiency

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Brim helps you get to high-quality, structured data faster, so you can spend less time manually reviewing notes and more time doing research.

Here’s what Brim offers to medical researchers:

• Speed: Abstract data 90% faster than manual chart review.
• Accuracy: Tailored instructions and human-in-the-loop review ensure data quality.
• Flexibility: Use your own REDCap projects as the foundation. No need to rework what’s already working.
• Trust: Built by researchers, for researchers. Brim is SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant and designed for IRB-ready workflows.

We believe this kind of automation is the future of medical research, and we’re thrilled to help power it. Want to learn more? Book a demo today.

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