What ePRO device offers the most value to clinical study teams?

It is often confusing and challenging for study teams to determine which device is best for their study. To help with this challenge, the table below shows features that most study teams want or need in their ePRO device, and then shows which devices offer those features.

Desired ePRO Feature

PDA Palm

Smart phone

Netbook

Large font and large screens enable high degree of readability and usability by the patient

Large screens provide plenty of screen real estate for

* Questionnaires with long question and response text
* Text-intensive languages (e.g. German, Finnish)
* True 10cm VAS

Low burden on the patient by showing multiple questions on a single screen; this approach often reduces individual patient burden in a study by hundreds or thousands of screens

Summary screens showing all the patient’s input for an discreet time period (e.g. 24 hr view) making it possible for the patient to QC own input

No need for patient to assemble wires, splitters and cradles OR connect to landline for data transmission

Data transmission automatic; no need for patient to do anything (like remember to put device in a cradle at night)

Accurate and complete data throughtout the trial enables real study management in addition to real compliance monitoring and safety

The electronic version is very similar to paper in look and feel. Minimum effort and expense necessary to provide a validated electronic version

Summary From this comparison, it is easy to see that smart phones and netbooks offer study teams many more important ePRO features than PDAs. Also, it’s clear that netbooks offer the most complete set of ePRO features for a clinical study. assisTek currently is the only vendor with proven experience successfully delivering ePRO systems on both smart phones and netbooks.