ShinyHealthTools was built on a single conviction: that advanced statistical analysis should never be locked behind commercial software or require programming expertise. The name reflects its origins, as many of the tools were initially developed as Shiny applications to make complex analyses interactive, intuitive, and user friendly.
As the platform has evolved, practical limitations have driven a transition toward more scalable solutions. The Shiny-based tools are hosted on shinyapps.io under a free plan, which means they may occasionally be slow to load, go to sleep after a period of inactivity, or become temporarily unavailable when monthly usage hours are exhausted. To address these constraints, many tools have been re-engineered into lightweight, browser-based HTML applications that run entirely on your device with no server dependency. Alternatively, users can download the source code of any Shiny tool from GitHub and run it locally in RStudio or VS Code with R ensuring timeless, offline access independent of any hosting limitations. Continuous efforts are underway to migrate the remaining apps into this format, ensuring improved performance, broader accessibility, and long-term sustainability. The name ShinyHealthTools is retained to represent not only its origins, but also its ongoing commitment to clarity, interactivity, and simplicity in data analysis.
These tools are offered freely to academics, clinicians, government researchers, and students worldwide, with no fees, no subscriptions, and no installation required. All applications run directly in any modern web browser. Source code is openly available on GitHub under the MIT License, supporting transparency, collaboration, and reproducibility.
This site is designed to remain a stable and valuable resource for health researchers globally, continuously evolving to meet the needs of a growing research community.
"Data analysis should be simple and accessible to all." — Mudasir Mohammed Ibrahim (Founder)
"My experience using CalcuStats has been really good. The app is easy to use and very straightforward, even if you're not strong in statistics. It quickly gives accurate results once you enter your values. It has saved me a lot of time. One more special feature I am very passionate about is the non-response rate. A helpful and reliable tool for sample size calculation." — Health Researcher, Ghana
"This app (CalcuStats) made the work very simple for me. It even helped me generate a flowchart with just a click." — Health Researcher, Ghana
"Data2SPSS saves my time each week. Seamless conversion with no errors." — Data Analyst, Ghana
"It is very easy to use, fast and efficient. No need wasting time again to calculate sample size. I recommend to all." — Clinical Researcher, Ghana
If ShinyHealthTools or any of its applications have been useful in your research, please cite as:
Ibrahim, M. M. (2026). ShinyHealthTools – Your Free Resource Hub for Statistical Applications. Retrieved from https://shinyhealthtools.github.io/apps/
For individual application citations, include the application name. For example:
Ibrahim, M. M. (2026). MedModr: Mediation and Moderation analysis tool [Web application]. ShinyHealthTools. Retrieved from https://shinyhealthtools.github.io/medmodr/
Source code may be cited as:
Ibrahim, M. M. (2026). MedModr: Mediation and Moderation analysis tool [Source code]. GitHub. https://github.com/shinyhealthtools/medmodr
ShinyHealthTools was created and is maintained by Mudasir Mohammed Ibrahim, a Ghanaian nurse researcher, data analyst, and open-source software advocate with a focus on public health research tools.
The project is particularly oriented toward health research settings in sub-Saharan Africa and other low- and middle-income contexts, where commercial software licensing costs can be prohibitive.
Mudasir maintains a portfolio of applications covering the full research workflow — from study design and sampling (e.g., CalcuStats, SysSampler) through data preparation (CleanMyData, DataTransformR, Data2SPSS), analysis (e.g., CATrend Analyzer, MedModr, KMPlot Genie, FAnalyzr, EpiDem Suite), and dissemination (e.g., ggPubPlot, APA Table Generator).
See also: Full documentation site
Not in the traditional sense. Mudasir is first and foremost a passionate nurse and researcher. He does have a working knowledge of coding in R for statistical analysis, which formed the early foundation of these tools. However, the applications themselves with their interfaces, added functions, and complex logic are built with the support of AI coding tools that assist in writing code, implementing new features, and debugging. This process is far from instant: a single app can take weeks or even months to move from idea to a working, reliable tool. The creation of each application represents a sustained, iterative effort rather than a quick technical exercise.
From the very beginning, Mudasir had a strong affinity for numbers. As a student, he studied business and cost accounting at high school level, which gave him an early appreciation for quantitative reasoning over purely qualitative thinking. When he entered nursing and research, that same orientation drew him naturally toward data and figures. He taught himself descriptive and inferential statistics, eventually progressing to advanced methods including structural equation modelling (SEM), all through self-directed learning. As he puts it: "You are never satisfied with what you know." That restless curiosity has driven him to keep going deeper, and the tools on this platform are a direct product of that ongoing journey.
The platform was born out of a deeply personal frustration. While conducting research and statistical analyses, Mudasir found himself repeatedly unable to access certain tests and methods because they required expensive commercial software; software that was simply out of reach without institutional funding or licensing support. At that point, cracked or pirated software was often the only practical option available. That experience was both humbling and motivating.
Being from Africa, where early-career researchers, graduates, and students frequently face these same barriers, Mudasir felt a responsibility to do something about it. He wanted to be translational, to bridge the gap between sophisticated statistical methods and the people who need them most but can least afford the gatekeepers. ShinyHealthTools is his answer to that problem: a growing collection of free, validated, browser-based tools that remove cost and complexity as barriers to rigorous research.
Yes. All ShinyHealthTools applications are validated against established reference software including SAS JMP, SPSS, and R, and outputs are benchmarked to ensure consistency and accuracy. For example, MedModr has been independently confirmed to produce results identical to those of the widely used PROCESS macro. The tools are considered reliable for use in peer-reviewed research, grant applications, and clinical analyses.
That said, no software is perfect, and issues can arise. Bugs are fixed on an ongoing basis as they are identified, and the source code for every tool is openly available on GitHub for scrutiny by the research community. Transparency is a core commitment of this project, and users are encouraged to report any anomalies they encounter.
Mudasir's professional aspirations extend well beyond software development. He hopes to build a career as an epidemiologist, where he can contribute to population health research at a deeper level and bring the same rigour and accessibility he has championed through ShinyHealthTools to real-world public health challenges.
Beyond that, he carries a larger ambition: to be recognised among the nurses who have made a meaningful contribution to biostatistics and advanced analytical methods, not just locally, but globally. He wants to demonstrate that a nurse from Africa can be a serious, respected voice in the world of health data science. The joy he gets from building tools that ease the burden of analysis for other researchers particularly those in resource-limited settings is what sustains that ambition. As he puts it, creating something that gives others a genuine advantage in their work is its own reward.