Trial overview

The Overview is the first page you see when you open a study. It is designed to answer two questions at a glance: what needs my attention today? and how is the study progressing overall?

What you see depends on your permissions. The progress figures described below are only shown to users with read access to the study.

What is on the page

The page has two columns: the study's figures on the left, and what is yours to act on in a narrower column on the right. On a phone, your column comes first.

Insights is a panel that appears at the top of the left column for studies where it has been enabled, summarising notable patterns in your data. Data types flagged as PII or restricted are never included in what the model sees. The text of messages participants have sent in the last 30 days is included, so the model can spot common themes, with participants identified by study ID only.

Trial at a glance follows: headline figures and charts, for users with read access to the study, or to the participants at one or more of its sites or groups. It is described in its own section below.

Participant journey, under the charts for users with read access to the study, is the progress panel covered in detail below.

For you, the right-hand column, holds:

  • A card for each of the study's sites you are a member of, which takes you straight to the site's page. Where you can read the site's message board, the card has a button for it beside View site, with the number of messages you haven't read. If you can't see the Sites page, a board you can read at a site you aren't a member of has a card too, with Open board; anyone who can see the Sites page finds every board there, with its unread count. Administrators who can see every site but aren't members of any find them under Sites instead.
  • Messages, when participants have sent messages nobody on the study team has read yet and you can send and receive support messages (trial.support): the number unread, linking to the Messages page filtered to the unread conversations.
  • Set up your trial, while a study is still being built: steps for adding study information, data types and forms, each disappearing once it is done.
  • To do: the tasks, queries and site monitoring issues assigned to you in this study, labelled by type and ordered by when they are due, with anything overdue marked. The first few are shown, with Show all for the rest. If you have nothing outstanding, it says so.

Trial at a glance

A row of headline figures and a set of charts showing how the study has moved over time. The buttons at the top right choose the period the charts cover: the last 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, or all time since the study was created. Over periods longer than about four months, bar charts show a bar per week rather than per day.

If your study has sites or groups, the dropdown beside them switches between All participants and any one site or group. Users who can't read the whole study, but can see the participants at one or more sites (through site.read or site.readParticipants, say) or in a group (group.read), see the same section for just those, headed with the site's or group's name when there is only one. Each site's page also has it, on its Dashboard tab (see Sites).

In a study that conceals its allocation, its study arms are left out of the dropdown for anyone whose role doesn't include trial.readAllocation, since an arm's figures would show who had been allocated to it. For the same reason they see the Participant flow without its split by arm, with a note saying why. All participants is otherwise unaffected.

Only what your study has something to show for appears, so a study run through staff data entry, or one that doesn't use eConsent, isn't shown empty charts.

Up to four tiles sit at the top, in this order of preference:

  • Recruitment or Recruited: where the study, site or group has a recruitment target, or the study has chosen what counts as recruited, how many have been recruited (see below). Takes the place of the Joined tile.
  • Joined: participants who have signed in to the app at least once and haven't since withdrawn. Underneath, how many joined this week compared with last week. In a study where nobody has signed in yet, such as one where your team enters all the data, this is Participants instead: the participant records in the study, less those withdrawn.
  • Consents: completed consent forms, with this week compared with last week, and the share of consent sessions that were completed. Shown once the study holds a consent.
  • Passed screening: screening forms marked successful, out of all those submitted, and how many are still awaiting a decision (see below). Until anything has been marked, this is Screened instead: the number of screening forms submitted.
  • Active this week: participants who have used the app in the last 7 days. Shown once anyone has joined.
  • Completed: the percentage of allocated participants who have finished everything expected of them.
  • Responses: every form submission in the study, with this week compared with last week.

The charts are:

  • Participants joined: a running total of participants who have signed in. As with the Joined tile, a participant counts from their first sign-in, not from when their record was created, so participants set up ahead of recruitment don't show as joined until they log in. Hover over a point to see how many joined that day. Studies where nobody has signed in see Participants added instead, a running total of participant records.
  • Consents given: a running total of completed consent forms. Shown once the study holds a consent.
  • Screening: a chart for each screening questionnaire, titled with the stage's name. A questionnaire-mode stage counts as screening when This questionnaire screens people for the study is ticked on its Questionnaire tab; until anyone ticks or unticks it, it is ticked for a questionnaire with "screen" in its name, such as "Screening" or "Pre-screener". Each chart shows a running total of forms submitted, and of those marked successful, whether by the questionnaire's rules or by someone reviewing it. A form counts as passed on the day it was marked. Above the chart, how many passed out of all those submitted, and how many are still awaiting a decision. Questionnaire-mode stages that aren't screening, such as a poll or feedback survey (untick the box for one whose name says "screen", like "Screen time survey"), and staff-completed screening visits that aren't questionnaires, aren't charted here. Responses from archived participants aren't counted. If your study doesn't mark screening forms, the chart shows only those submitted. Shown once someone has screened, for up to three stages, the busiest first.
  • Consents by form: how many completed consents each consent form has collected, for studies with more than one form. A consent given on a form that has since been deleted is shown against Deleted form.
  • Participant progress: allocated participants who have not started, are part-way through, or have completed, from the Participant journey panel below.
  • Responses submitted: form submissions per day or per week.
  • Progress over time: how many participants were completed, in progress and behind schedule on each day. These figures are recorded once a day from October 2026 onwards, so the chart appears once two days have been recorded and fills in from then; it can't show the time before that.
  • Participant flow: the study's figures in order, as boxes joined by arrows, in the style of a CONSORT flow diagram: Consented (consents given), Passed screening out of those screened (one box for each screening questionnaire, up to three), Recruited (counted as the study counts recruitment, see below), with Withdrawn beside it (participants still withdrawn), then Completed out of those allocated. In a study with study arms, the diagram splits after Recruited into a column for each arm, with that arm's recruited, withdrawn and completed figures. Each box is a total of its own, not a share of the box above: consents and screening include people who never became participants, and someone who screens twice is counted twice, so a box can hold more than the one before it. Download saves the diagram as an SVG or PNG image, or its figures as a CSV file. Shown for All participants only, once at least two of its steps have anyone in them.

Archived participants are left out of every figure, as are unallocated participant records, the pool a screening questionnaire allocates from, since they are placeholders rather than people. Withdrawn participants still count towards the running total of who joined, since they did join, but not towards the Joined tile.

A site's or group's figures cover its participants. Consents and screening forms usually come before someone becomes a participant, so for a site or group they count only those given by people who went on to become one of its participants; All participants counts every one.

The figures are recounted with the Participant journey panel, several times a day, rather than as you open the page, so they can be some hours behind the participants table: Last updated under the heading says how long ago they were counted, and hovering over it gives the exact time. A study, site or group being looked at for the very first time shows Preparing these figures for a moment while they are counted. Days are counted in UTC, which is UK time in winter and an hour behind it in summer.

Recruitment targets

Set how many participants you aim to recruit under Settings > Participation > Recruitment targets: one for the study as a whole and, optionally, one for each site and each group, all on the same card. Leave a target blank to have none. Anyone who can open the study's settings can see the targets; changing them needs permission to edit the trial (trial.write, or administrator), and each change is recorded in the study's Logs (updateRecruitmentTargets). Targets can't be changed while the trial is locked.

On the same card, What counts as recruited decides who counts, and from when:

  • Automatic (the default): joined the app, from their first sign-in, in a study where anyone has; otherwise added as a participant.
  • Added as a participant: from when they were added. A participant allocated from the unallocated pool counts from when they were allocated, not when the pool was created.
  • Joined the app: from their first sign-in.
  • Gave consent through eConsent: from when the consent they gave was completed. Only consents linked to a participant count.
  • Marked as recruited only: only participants someone has marked by hand.

Whatever you choose, a participant marked as recruited counts from the date marked (see Marking participants as recruited). Participants who have since withdrawn still count, since they were recruited; archived and unallocated participants never do. The participants table's Recruited filter shows exactly who is being counted.

Where the study, or the site or group you have chosen, has a target, or you have chosen what counts as recruited:

  • The first tile is Recruitment, how many have been recruited out of the target with a bar showing how far along that is, or, without a target, Recruited, with this week compared with last.
  • A recruitment chart, titled for what counts ("Participants consented", say, or "Participants recruited" once anyone has been marked by hand), shows the running total, with the target as a dashed line. Where it would draw the same line as the Participants joined or Participants added chart, it takes that chart's place.
  • With a target, both give an estimate of when it will be reached, assuming recruitment carries on at the pace of the last four weeks: "70 to go · at 13.5 a week, expected by 8 Jan 2027". If nobody was recruited in the last four weeks there is no estimate. Once the target is reached, they say on which day.

A changed target shows on the overview straight away. A change to what counts, or a participant marked or unmarked, starts a recount straight away, which takes a moment: open the overview again shortly afterwards and Last updated will say "just now".

The Participant journey panel

This panel gives you a regularly refreshed summary of how your participants are progressing through their stages, and how much contact they are having with your study team.

It is calculated three times a day rather than at the moment you load the page, so the Updated timestamp in the corner tells you exactly how current the figures are. If you have just made a change — allocated a group of participants, or enabled a new stage — expect it to be reflected at the next refresh rather than immediately.

Who is included

The figures cover the participants who are still active in the study: allocated, not archived, and not withdrawn. That is the same group the participants table shows you by default, so a count here always has rows behind it — the behind-schedule figure in particular can be opened as a list of people you can chase.

Participants you have archived or withdrawn drop out of every figure in the panel from the next refresh onwards, so completion percentages describe the people still taking part rather than everyone ever enrolled. If you need the wider picture, the participants table, with archived participants shown, lists every record in the study.

The three views

The same set of measures is available trial-wide, broken down by participant group, or broken down by site.

Groups and sites only appear in the dropdowns once at least one participant is assigned to them. A participant who belongs to more than one group is counted in each of them.

Progress

Completed, Started and ≥25 / 50 / 75% show how far through their stages participants have got. "Started" means the participant has submitted at least one stage; "Completed" means they have submitted everything currently expected of them.

Behind schedule

The number of participants who have at least one stage past its due point.

This counts participants, not stages — someone who is late on three stages is counted once. See How "behind schedule" is decided below for exactly when a stage starts counting.

To hear about it as it happens, tick Email me when a participant falls behind schedule under Settings > Participation > Email updates (you need to be able to manage the trial). You get one email when a participant falls behind, naming the stages they are overdue on and saying how many participants in the trial are behind schedule in total. You are not emailed again while they stay behind, only if they catch up and later fall behind once more. Participants who fall behind at the same time are listed in a single email. The email ends with a link that opens the participants table showing everyone who is behind schedule, as does the behind-schedule count under Needs attention on your home page. That home page count is worked out as you load the page rather than coming from this panel's snapshot, so it always matches the number of participants the table then shows you.

Site staff, or anyone who only wants to hear about particular sites, can get the same alert per site instead. Open the site from Sites and tick A participant at this site falls behind schedule on its Notifications tab. Each email lists only the newly-behind participants at the sites you subscribe to. It's open to anyone who can see that site's participants, not only trial managers. If you also have the trial-wide alert, you won't be emailed twice.

Stalled

Participants who have started but not finished, and whose most recent submission was more than 14 days ago. This threshold is fixed at 14 days.

Stalled doesn't take the schedule into account. A participant waiting for their next form to open counts as stalled once 14 days have passed, even though nothing is due from them. In a study with a month or more between forms, most active participants can be stalled for long stretches. To find who actually owes you something, use Behind schedule. Stalled isn't shown under Needs attention on your home page for this reason.

Participants who have never submitted anything are not counted as stalled. They appear in the "not started" figure instead.

Durations

Two views of elapsed time, shown as a median with the range and the number of participants the figure is based on.

First → latest response measures the span between a participant's first and most recent submission. It only includes participants with at least two submissions, which is why the number of participants behind it is often lower than your total.

Enrollment → latest response measures from the point the participant record was created. Note that this may be earlier than when the participant first logged in, so on studies with a long gap between creating participants and onboarding them, this figure includes that waiting time.

Fully completed participants

The same two duration measures, restricted to participants who have finished everything. This is usually the most useful picture of what a complete journey actually looks like in practice, rather than an average across people who are still mid-study.

Predicted end if cohort enrolled today

Takes how long your completers actually took from enrollment to their final submission, and projects that forward from today.

It is based purely on participants who have already finished. Early in a study, when only your fastest participants have completed, it will tend to be optimistic. It becomes more reliable as a broader mix of participants finish.

Messages

Message volume between participants and the study team over the last day, week and month, scoped to whichever view you are looking at.

These are running windows rather than separate buckets, so the 7-day figure includes the last day, and the 30-day figure includes both.

Anything sent from the study team's side counts as outbound, including bulk sends and scheduled automatic messages. That side of the count can therefore look much higher than the volume of individual conversations your team is actually having.

Which stages count towards progress

Progress is measured against what the participant can actually see and act on, not against every stage configured in the study. Specifically:

  • Stages that are switched off, and are not set to unlock after another stage or an anchor date, are not counted at all.
  • Stages scoped to particular sites or groups only count for participants at those sites or in those groups.
  • Repeating stages and anchored stages count as one item per occurrence, not one item per stage.
  • Ad-hoc stages are excluded entirely, since they are available on demand rather than scheduled.
  • Stages that have passed their availability window are removed from the calculation, as the participant can no longer complete them.

The last point has a consequence worth being aware of: when an availability window lapses, the stage stops counting against the participant, so the completion percentage goes slightly up rather than down.

Counting forms staff complete

If your team fills in some or all of the forms, as in an eCRF or a registry, the default leaves those stages out. A study run entirely through coordinator entry would show every participant at 0%. Under Settings > Participation > Staff-completed stages, tick Also include staff-only stages when measuring participant progress to include stages set to Not available to participants. The other rules above still apply. With it ticked:

  • The daily and weekly trial update emails report progress across every participant who isn't withdrawn or archived, not only those who have logged in to the app, since in a staff-run study many never will.
  • Each participant's Timeline tab lists the staff-only stages too, with their due dates.

Due soon

Alongside behind schedule, each participant has a list of what is due soon: stages that will fall behind within the next 7 days but haven't yet. It follows exactly the same rules as behind schedule (below): the same stages count, with the same exemptions, and only for participants who can be flagged at all. So "due soon" always means "about to be behind". A stage that hasn't opened yet counts too, such as a follow-up opening next week.

It shows in three places:

  • Home page: a count under Needs attention, linking to the participants table filtered to Due soon.
  • Participants table: the Due soon schedule filter, and a blue Due soon badge on each participant.
  • Site page: each site's Follow-ups tab lists its overdue and due-soon participants together, as a work list.

The list is recalculated whenever a participant's data changes and in the hourly behind-schedule check.

To have it emailed, ask for a follow-up list: every morning, or every Monday morning, at 7am UK time. It lists who is behind schedule or due soon, what for and by when, and isn't sent when there is nothing to follow up. Trial managers can get it for the whole trial under Settings > Participation > Email updates; anyone who can see a site's participants can get it for that site from the site's Notifications tab.

How "behind schedule" is decided

A stage counts as behind once its due point has passed — either the specific cutoff time configured for that stage, or midnight at the end of the day it was due if no cutoff time is set.

Never counted as behind:

  • Stages you have marked as exempt from behind-schedule status.
  • Ad-hoc stages.
  • Stages past their availability window, which the participant can no longer complete.

There is also one condition that applies to the participant rather than the stage: a participant is only ever flagged as behind schedule if they have submitted something themselves at some point. Data entered on a participant's behalf by a member of the study team does not count for this purpose.

This is deliberate: it avoids chasing participants for data that is already being collected another way. By default it also means a study run entirely through coordinator entry shows nobody as behind schedule.

For a study like that, tick Also include overdue staff-only stages in "behind schedule" checks under Settings > Participation > Staff-completed stages. With it ticked:

  • Stages that are not available to participants can fall behind too, such as an anchor-scheduled 6-month follow-up form.
  • The "submitted something themselves" condition is replaced by any data at all having been entered for the participant, by anyone. This applies to every stage, not only staff-only ones. In a study with both kinds, a participant whose only data so far was entered by staff can be flagged on an overdue app stage too: once there is data, they are on the study. A participant registered ahead of their first visit, with nothing recorded yet, is never flagged.
  • Exemptions, cutoff times and availability windows work as above. A staff-only stage with no schedule (no anchor and no Make available after…) has no due date, so it never falls behind.

In short

The panel shows a snapshot, refreshed three times a day, of progress against the scheduled stages your participants can currently see (or, with staff-completed forms counted, the stages your team completes too), across allocated participants who have not withdrawn or been archived. The Updated timestamp says how current it is: overnight, the gap between refreshes is longer than during the day.