Recruitment: what happened to patients in the trial?

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  •  What does it mean?
Once patients enter a trial, they start a journey. After being randomised to receive a treatment, they will be followed up. This may involve answering questionnaires or attending clinical visits with their doctors. As the trial journey evolves, some participants may leave the trial actively (for example, they no longer wish to participate) or passively (they stop answering questionnaires or attending clinical visits). A participant's flow diagram aims to summarise this information so it is easier to understand the overall patient's journey in the trial in each treatment.  
  • An example


  • How can patients get involved?
Trial participant's flow diagrams are usually prepared based on something called CONSORT. This is a set of recommendations to improve reporting of trials in academic publications. It is considered good practice to use these recommendations and they are often mandatory. However, there is room for discussion on what to report in the flow diagram, and there is also different ways to report the CONSORT when discussing participant's journeys with the trial team. Patients could be involved in these discussions, helping decide key aspects that should be reported, or how they are presented.

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