For REDCap surveys

Cleaner data starts with a cleaner instrument.

SurveyDoctor’s job is to help your survey collect better data — by reviewing the metadata you already have, showing where the instrument could be stronger, and helping you make those improvements. Along the way it makes useful REDCap patterns visible so you can apply them consistently, instead of rediscovering them field by field.

It is a desktop app that sits next to REDCap, not a replacement for it. Open or connect to your current data dictionary and work through it alongside Online Designer. When you change something there, refresh the connection if you are using the API, or download the CSV again and reload it, and SurveyDoctor will show how those changes landed.

Ask about access There is no public download yet. If you have a dictionary you would like to run through it, email me and I will send the current installers.

Stays on your computer

The dictionary is opened locally. If you connect to REDCap, only metadata is requested — not records, not participants. The API token lives in memory for that session and is not saved to disk. Nothing is written back to the server.

SurveyDoctor showing a tutorial dictionary: metadata table in the center, issue minimap on the left, and field diagnostics on the right. — Selecting a field updates the table, the minimap, and the diagnostics together.

What it is for

Built for REDCap admins, data managers, and anyone who has inherited a complicated instrument. You load a data-dictionary CSV or connect to a project and pull the current metadata. SurveyDoctor reviews that dictionary — branching, embedded text, hidden fields, missing choices, and similar design problems — and shows each finding next to the field it belongs to, with a plain-language explanation of why it matters.

The point is not a red/green score. Some “issues” are intentional; you can accept those so they stop shouting. Others are real improvements: a branching expression that will hide a question you still need, piped text that never appears, a pattern used in one form and forgotten in the next. Optional Edit mode lets you make small local patches and export a CSV. You can just as well keep editing in Online Designer: make the change there, then refresh the API connection or reload a fresh CSV to see whether it actually landed the way you intended. Either way, you choose what goes back into REDCap.

Click a field and the table, the minimap, and the diagnostics stay together — a way to review the whole instrument, not one variable at a time.

What it is not

It does not open records or any participant data. It does not upload changes to REDCap for you. It is not a survey platform, and it is not open source — SurveyDoctor is a paid product, currently in pre-release.

Installers are unsigned for now. On Windows 11, SmartScreen will warn you; choose More info, then Run anyway. On a Mac, right-click the app and choose Open the first time. Apple Silicon only at the moment (Windows is x64). Hospital IT may block unsigned software; if that is a hard stop, say so in the email.

SurveyDoctor is independent software. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Vanderbilt or the REDCap Consortium.

Runs on	Windows 11 (x64) and macOS on Apple Silicon. An Intel Mac build is not available yet.
How you get it	Email hello@surveydoctorapp.com. I will send the current installers. There is no self-serve download on this page.
Price	It will be an annual subscription. Checkout is not open yet; if you want to use it, we can sort terms over email.