Site Inventory and Assigning to Study Subjects
This article explains how site users can manage local inventory of products and make them available for assigning to subjects in the study.
Managing Site Inventory
Users at study sites are able to access local inventory items for the purpose of accepting items, rejecting items, and assigning items to subjects. Access to Inventory Management and functions within are permissions that must be granted by the study designer.
Access can be verified by opening the following page located under the 'Subject' menu.
The TrialKit mobile app on iOS and Android can be used as well to accomplish the same functions outlined in this article, with the added benefit of scanning capabilities explained later in this article.
See the detailed descriptions below the image for accepting or rejecting items from inventory:
Select the inventory you wish to view. Most studies will only contain one.
The workflow level will be automatically selected for any user who has a defined role in inventory management.
The table lists all products which have been allocated to the site (see site filter on the right side). This is based on the sites you are a member of.
Select the action you wish to take: Accept, release, reject. These are described more below.
Based on the action previously selected, checkboxes will appear next to the items upon which that action can be taken upon.
Perform the action on the selected items
Site filter based on the sites that a user is a member of.
Larger barcode display, accessible by clicking the barcode in the inventory list above. This is helpful when utilizing scanning functionality.
Accept, release, or reject items
Items can only be accepted when they are still awaiting acceptance. This is the common disposition of an item that may still be in shipping status.
Items can only be released after they have been accepted, but not yet assigned to a subject. Releasing is a manual method for pushing something out of local inventory without triggering an automatic re-order (if applicable to the study).
Items can be rejected only prior to being accepted, such as when an item is received in shipping but is found to be damaged or the wrong item. If auto-re-order is being used in a study, rejecting an item will force the system to check site quantities.
How Items Are Assigned to Study Subjects
If products are automatically being assigned to patients via randomization, then no further steps are needed. Simply saving the trigger form where the items are assigned will accomplish what’s needed. This varies based on how the study is designed and which users have visibility of the form/field where item assignment is displayed.
If products must be manually assigned to a patient, this is done by the following methods:
Manual Inventory Assignment - Dropdown or Multi-Select
Choice field selection within a CRF - The study designer will have a dropdown choice field somewhere throughout the study where a single product from inventory is assigned to a patient.
Tapping the dialog icon next to the field will open a reference popup window with the items' details
This is similar on the mobile app:
Manual Inventory Assignment - Barcode scanning via the mobile app:
Select a patient to scan items to. If the item is in local inventory, the product and item will display below the barcode image immediately upon scanning. This makes for very rapid assignments.
In the example below, the barcode that was scanned is not in local inventory, so there is no assignment being made to the subject currently selected.
The inventory manager also produces its own barcode for each item in inventory. This is helpful if the item is missing a barcode to scan. These can also be printed off as labels if desired.