Farewell to “Mr REDCap” – Simon Forsyth retires after four decades at UQ
After almost 40 years of shaping the way research data is captured, safeguarded and translated, Simon Forsyth is set to retire.
As UQ’s Principal REDCap Systems Administrator, Simon managed the University’s site licence for the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), the secure, web-based data collection platform that became essential to countless research projects, including CCRG’s COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium (COVID Critical).
Facing challenges in identifying the optimal method for international data collection during the pandemic, A/Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi had a serendipitous opportunity to meet Simon in January 2020 at the REDCap headquarters in St Lucia, Brisbane. This pivotal moment laid the foundations for early data collection strategies, ultimately leading to the establishment of COVID Critical, the world's largest database of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
CCRG Director, Professor John Fraser AO, who co-founded COVID Critical with A/Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi and A/Prof Jacky Suen, said Simon was instrumental to the success of the international study.
“Without data, all we have are opinions. And without Simon, COVID Critical was just a fantastic idea and a global need.
“In those dark times of uncertainty, we went back and forth with Simon a million times with ideas, some really good and some awful. He never complained. He was the quiet, steady hand behind us - coordinating us, guiding us, leading us, and creating a way for the global medical community to come up with answers.
“Hard to believe that was five years ago, but without Simon, almost none of the 40-plus manuscripts written from the COVID Critical database would have been created, and patients would surely have died,” explains John.
COVID Critical grew to become one of the world’s most significant sources of real-time clinical information on COVID-19, culminating in the launch of the COVID Critical dashboard in February 2025.
CCRG Manager, Hannah Marrinan, who also managed the COVID Critical study, said Simon’s mastery of REDCap made it all possible.
“His REDCap expertise and invaluable experience with big data ensured not only compliance but agility in managing study data and querying the dataset to produce meaningful analyses.”
Simon, from all at CCRG – enjoy your retirement. We were incredibly lucky to work with you and, on behalf of all the thousands and thousands of patients you have probably helped – Thank you and rest easy!
About the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a paucity of data that could be used to guide the management of critically ill patients with COVID-19.
In response, CCRG established the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium, an international research and data-sharing collaborative, to harness the cumulative experience of intensive care units worldwide.
The Consortium went on to collect over 55 million data points from 27,000 patients across 64 countries and more than 400 hospitals and research facilities.
COVID Critical’s world-first database helped build an intensive care profile for a disease that was completely unknown before December 2019. The data was used to power a world-first dashboard, which launched in 2025 before being archived for future health emergencies, and publish more than 40 papers.
Read COVID Critical publications here.
