Participants and quality clinical trial data management solutions are the backbone of your clinical trial. Without them, you won’t be able to conduct the study! Following up with your participants can be quite stressful and time-consuming. However, it’s important to conduct such a practice to ensure the smooth running of your trial. Maintaining healthy contact with the participants will improve your communication lines and make them comfortable.
You need to implement robust practices to stay in touch with your clinical study participants. It helps improve your contact rate and reduces the time in getting in touch with participants. Let’s look at some of the best practices for following up with clinical study participants.
Always Call
It is always tempting to send out a pre-defined email to clinical trial participants as it saves a lot of time. However, personalization is key and impersonal and automated emails won’t get you the level of engagement required to conduct a successful trial. You should always call instead of emailing participants. People receive tons of emails daily, and there is a chance that your correspondence might end up in their junk folders.
Also, emails won’t be an efficient way of communicating if you require an immediate response from the participant. Phone calls create a positive atmosphere and provide credibility for your clinical trial.
Call Within 24 Hours
You shouldn’t wait for more than 24 hours to contact a potential participant. You can run the risk of them losing interest in your trial. Calling your participants promptly shows the seriousness of your trial and reminds the participants of their interest in helping you with your study. Reaching out to your participants within 24 hours will result in higher engagement and better results for your study.
Vary the Times You Call
You need to change up the times you call participants if they can’t pick up your call at specific times. You can try calling early morning, at lunchtime, later afternoons, and every early evening. This is particularly useful when your participant hasn’t provided a preferred time to call and won’t pick up when you call them at specific times.
Engage Multiple Times
Not everyone will be available to take your call when you try to contact them. Therefore, it is essential to engage multiple times to get your message through. Being persistent in calling will also show that you’re serious about the trial. However, try to vary your times. Don’t call them twice on the same day. They might get annoyed with your persistence.
Participants, undoubtedly, are one of the most critical stakeholders involved in a clinical trial. However, you need modern technology to ensure that their experience is seamless, and your study runs smoothly. If you’re looking for a state-of-the-art EDC system for patient studies, check out the products and services provided by ClinicalPURSUIT.
We have established ourselves as one of the best electronic data capture software providers for clinical trials. We always go above and beyond for our customers by providing personalized solutions that meet their unique needs and requirements. Our software makes data management and processing for clinical trials efficient, effective, and rapid. Reach out to us directly for more information on our EDC software for clinical trials!
