Clinical Data Management Systems (CDMS)

We work with the two Clinical Data Management Systems (CDMSs):

  • REDCap® (Research Electronic Data Capture)
  • secuTrial®

Your choice of the system used should depend on the complexity of the study design and your needs. We are happy to help you choosing the right system for your study.

Clinical Data Management Systems


Both our systems include the following features

GCP and HRA compliant

Web-based, you can access your study database from everywhere through a web-browser

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption

Servers are housed in dedicated server facilities at the University of Bern or at the Inselspital Bern

Secure and up-to-date IT infrastructure
Regular updates of CDMSs as well as all other software on the servers
Regular backups of study- and meta-data (internal backups several times per day, daily backups are stored on external disks)
Clinical Data Management Systems


Distinct features of our two database choices

REDCap® (Research Electronic Data Capture)

secuTrial®
  • developed since 2004 at Vanderbilt University (US), projectredcap.org
  • in use at CTU Bern since 2011
  • in use at most other Swiss CTUs and worldwide in 155 countries with about 3 million users
  • developed since 2000 by interActive Systems in Berlin (D), secutrial.com
  • in use at CTU Bern since 2014
  • in use at all other Swiss CTUs and mostly German speaking Europe with about 15’000 users
  • We set up your study database (Services)
  • You set up your own study database (Services)*

*only provided for members of Inselspital Bern or University of Bern
  • We set up your study database (Services)
  • System: simple and intuitive (from setup to export)
  • Visit plan: configurable
  • Patient-reported outcome (PRO): many possibilities (patient level or public surveys)
  • Notifications/alerts: possible (continuously developed further)
  • Randomization: possibility to upload lists
  • Rights & Roles: numerous possibilities
  • Multicenter: possible
  • Import: simple overview as well as possibility for API
  • Monitoring: possible
  • DB Setup: intuitive system and ability to upload data dictionary/codebook
  • System: complex (currently layout revision in progress)
  • Visit plan: highly configurable
  • Patient-reported outcome (PRO): CTU recommends to use REDCap®
  • Notifications/alerts: many possibilities
  • Randomization: integrated minimization (and other) as well as possibility to upload lists
  • Rights & Roles: complex possibilities
  • Multicenter: strong
  • Import: possible
  • Monitoring: refined functionalities, possibility to batch upload queries
  • DB Setup: complex module, lots of possibilities