Preparing a Visit You Cannot Control

Part of Decentralized Trials (DCT) Training: Running a Remote Visit.

About 2 minutes. Free, in your language, no account needed.

Preparation replaces the room

At a site, the environment is set up for you. Remotely, the participant's environment is whatever it is, and you have one chance to shape it in advance.

Tell them what the visit needs

If the visit involves a blood pressure reading, they need the cuff and a chair with a back and a table. If it needs a weight, they need the scale. If they must take study medication during the call, it needs to be in the room.

Sending that list the day before removes most of the reasons visits fail.

Ask about privacy, not just connection

"Will you be somewhere you can speak freely?" is a clinical question, not a courtesy.

A participant answering symptom questions with family in the room may answer differently. That is not their fault and it is not something you can detect afterward.

Confirm what cannot be done remotely

Read the visit requirements before the call and know which assessments need a physical presence.

If three of the seven need a local provider, that is arranged before the visit, not discovered halfway through it.

Have the fallback ready

A phone number if video fails. A rule for what counts as completed. A slot to reschedule into if it cannot be salvaged.

Know the visit window

Remote visits slip more easily than site visits, because there is no appointment to travel to and rescheduling feels costless.

It is not costless. The window is a protocol requirement and a visit outside it is a deviation like any other.

Write the plan down

What you intended to assess, and by what method. When something cannot be done, the record then shows a plan that met the protocol and a specific thing that prevented it.

Without that, it reads as an incomplete visit with no explanation.