How do health researchers benefit from web-based survey systems?

This paper discusses the needs of researchers working in areas of medical research in which the collection and analysis of people's opinions is central to the research activity. Until quite recently, collection of survey data has been either paper-based or achieved using computer software that largely duplicates paper-based processes with limited additional fuctionality. The authors, who have developed and used many Web-based surveys in their health-related research, discuss the needs of health researchers who use surveys and similar tools to collect research data, and propose a set of functionalities that efficiently satisfies those needs. A Web-based software architecture that delivers on researchers' identified needs is presented and an example implementation that has demonstrated its capabilities in recent research projects is introduced.