Visit reminders to the patient

A few days before the window of a visit, the patient gets an SMS or an e-mail with the dates only, through the channel already set up for ePRO.

A visit reminder helps the patient not to miss the window of a visit. A few days before the window of a planned visit opens, the portal sends the patient one message with the dates of the window. The patient calls the site and agrees on the day. The study manager switches the reminders on.

What the patient gets

Only the dates of the window, for example: “Reminder: your next visit to your doctor is due between 14.10.2026 and 18.10.2026. Please call your site to agree on the day.” The text has no name, no patient code, no study name, no disease, no site and no visit name. So the message gives away neither personal data nor taking part in a study, even if someone else sees the phone.

The message goes through the channel already set up for this patient’s ePRO:

• An SMS when the site recorded the patient’s consent to SMS (“Record the consent to SMS” on the patient’s page). The SMS goes through the portal’s SMS gateway.
• An e-mail when there is no SMS consent and the patient switched e-mail reminders on in the questionnaire page.
• When there is neither, no reminder is sent. This function uses no new provider and no messenger.

How to switch them on

The reminders sent, the setting and the text the patient gets.

Open the “Visit calendar” and press “Visit reminders”. The study manager ticks “Remind the patients of their visits”, gives how many days before the window opens (0 to 14, 2 by default) and presses “Save”. The rest of the team sees the setting but does not change it. Switching on, off and changing the days go to the audit trail.

When a reminder goes

• Only for planned visits (scheduled and recurring) the patient is expected to have, while the visit has no form saved and no date, and the window is still ahead or open.
• One reminder per visit: the portal never writes twice about the same visit. A patient gets at most one reminder a day.
• Only to active patients and only between 09:00 and 21:00 local time. Patients who withdrew their consent to take part get no reminders.
• In QA, training and demo studies an SMS goes in the provider’s test mode and no e-mail is sent.

Where you see that a reminder went

• On the “Visit reminders” page: the patient, the visit, the window, the channel with the masked number or address, and the time. Everyone sees the patients of their own sites only.
• In the visit calendar on the patient’s page: the visit carries the mark “Reminder sent”.
• In the patient’s audit trail: a “Visit reminder” record by “Visit reminders” with the masked number and the window.