who writes patient narratives clinical study report

by Lambert Luettgen 9 min read

PATIENT SAFETY NARRATIVES – Clinical Trials: Medical …

14 hours ago  · A narrative is a brief summary of specific events experienced by patients, during the course of a clinical trial. Narrative writing involves multiple activities such as generation of … >> Go To The Portal


What is a narrative in clinical research?

A narrative can be defined as a summary or synopsis of the event that has occurred to a subject participating in the clinical study.

What is the purpose of patient narratives?

It uses a patient story to explore the unintended consequences of communication between a nurse and a patient, as well as how the environment in which patients find themselves can relay important messages. Citation: Buckley A et al (2016) Patient narratives 1: using patient stories to reflect on care.

Who writes the patient safety narrative?

The medical writer writes the patient safety narrative providing a comprehensive and clinically relevant data describing the results of an event experienced during or following a clinical study in a chronological manner

How do I generate patient and event narratives for CSR?

Depending on your study, you may need to collaborate with either your teammates responsible for assessment of adverse events or the study database administrator to help generate patient and/or event narratives for the CSR.

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What is a medical writer?

The medical writer writes the patient safety narrative providing a comprehensive and clinically relevant data describing the results of an event experienced during or following a clinical study in a chronological manner

Why is it important to identify the approximate number of patient safety narratives to be prepared early in the planning process?

It is important to identify the approximate number of patient safety narratives to be prepared early in the planning process as this determines the narrative format and impacts the timing of production.

What is QC review?

Quality control (QC) review is based on final patient data. Due to the large number of narratives required for individual studies and small size of each document relative to the CSR, it is recommended that a single QC review be performed toward the end of the process, rather than QC review of the first draft and final deliverable.

Why is patient narrative important?

Patient narratives are an important source of context for the reader of the CSR. Depending on your study, you may need to collaborate with either your teammates responsible for assessment of adverse events or the study database administrator to help generate patient and/or event narratives for the CSR.

What is a CSR report?

The report is a comprehensive look at all the data produced in a clinical study, presented in text, tables, and figure formats. It will often include discussions and conclusions that provide context to the findings regarding the drug, device, biological product, surgical method, counseling practice, or any other type of therapeutic product or practice under study and where it may contribute to an improvement on the state of the art for treating or preventing a particular health condition.

What is the purpose of a CSR review?

The purpose of this review is to provide a framework for study team members, whether it’s for a large team that includes regulatory and administrative support or for smaller teams with only one or two members , for writing and organizing the CSR .

Why is cross functional review important?

The purpose of a cross functional review of a CSR is to confirm accurate key study messaging and data ; allow medical review of the patient narratives, outcomes, and conclusionary statements; review the logical flow of ideas; and ensure that the CSR language is consistent across any other study document (i.e., the protocol, statistical analysis plan, etc.).

How many headings are there in a CSR?

Typically, the flow of your CSR will progress under six primary headings or sections, not unlike those used in a research manuscript. On the front end, even before the background and introduction, the document will include a title page, synopsis, table of contents, list of abbreviations, ethics statements, and details on the study’s administrative structure. The primary sections to come after that are highlighted in Figure 2 and summarized in turn below.

Where is the executive summary placed?

Executive Summary. The executive summary, while placed at the front of the document prior to the introduction , is often easiest to construct last, as an overall summary of the entire document. The key elements of this summary should briefly recap the study design and objectives.

Who is Sheryl Stewart?

Sheryl Stewart, MCR, CCRP, ( ssstewart70@aol.com) is a Medical Writer working in the medical device industry in southern California.

Who describes his experience of listening to a patient narrative?

Steve Mee describes his experience of listening to a patient narrative.

Why are narratives important in healthcare?

Patients’ narratives can make a significant contribution to patient-centred care. Narratives invite an emotional response and offer a version of events that is different to those of professionals. Narratives should inform service improvement and development.

What is the first of the seven narratives in this series?

Reflective patient narrative. The first of the seven narratives in this series (Box 1) is based on the account of James Hyatt, who had been diagnosed with metastatic cervical lymph node enlargement four years before his admission to hospital.

Why is listening to patients' stories important?

Listening to patients’ stories is important, but the challenge for health professionals is to find ways of using these narratives to improve practice and the patient experience. Abstract. There is an increasing emphasis on, and commitment to, using patient narratives in nursing practice and nurse education.

Why do nurses need to listen to patient stories?

Nurses need to listen to, and value, the patient story if they are to refocus their priorities and truly position patients at the centre of care. This is not a new idea; indeed, Snowden (1999) suggested that the use of patient narratives can change listeners’ understanding of their experience, and offer incentives for practice development and change.

Why do patient stories fit with EBP?

We believe that, in addressing these crucial issues, patient stories do fit with the principles of EBP, as they offer the potential for reflectivity and reflexivity in action at a deep and nuanced level. Stories invite an emotional response and offer a narrative that is likely to differ from the narrative with which health professionals are engaged.

What is the key to working with narrative?

We believe that the key to working with narrative is to be mindful of one’s immediate response. Certain elements will strike us in the same way that a critical incident in practice might. Below are examples of our own reflections on narratives from our patients.

What is patient narrative?

Patient narratives describe death, other serious adverse events, and certain other significant adverse events judged to be of special interest collected for a subject over the course of a clinical trial. The SAS programmer is expected to provide key data information to the medical writer. The Medical writer will review patient profiles to coincide with an event of interest and address the safety concerns of interest at the patient level. This paper will provide helpful insight on the traditional process of narrative generation; identify the requirements and gather information to program narratives.

Why are patient narratives important?

Patient narratives form an important part of clinical study reporting. It provides chronological account of all the events encountered by a subject during or immediately following a clinical trial. The regulatory submissions would require narratives not only for serious adverse events (SAEs), but also for events causing death or study discontinuation. Patient narratives are a part of safety data submitted to the regularity authorities for all phases of clinical trials. It involves review of patient profiles, data listings, and other information followed by manual writing of narratives as plain text.

What is SAS in medical writing?

The SAS programmer plays a significant role in the creation of patient narratives. Medical writer requests a programmer to provide key information of all the significant events of a clinical trial, which can be in the form of listings or datasets based on their requirements. Narratives can be written for both unlocked and locked clinical database. Production of patient narratives as per reviewers’ requirements can be quite challenging, considering variety of data that needs to be gathered from various datasets and shifting demands of the reviewer.

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Background

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First, is important to understand the definition, requirements, and potential uses of a CSR. The report is a comprehensive look at all the data produced in a clinical study, presented in text, tables, and figure formats. It will often include discussions and conclusions that provide context to the findings regarding the drug, device, bi…
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Templates

  • ICH E3 offers a CSR template to guide you in terms of providing the proper data and content in a specified order and format. This guideline can be found either on the ICH website or the FDA website.{2,5} It is important to note that there are no requirements to follow the template precisely. Not every section is appropriate for every study, and because the overarching purpos…
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Determining Stakeholders

  • Once you’ve reviewed the template and created a draft outline of the project, determine the key stakeholders with whom you’ll need to partner to complete this project. Likely you will need input from your clinical study management team, teammates responsible for data entering and cleaning, a biostatistician, any teammate or organization member able to perform literature revie…
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Determining timelines

  • Once you have determined your key stakeholders, you will want to determine timelines to ensure steady progress continues to be made on the document. If you’ve chosen to utilize a scope document, you’ll want to include these timelines in it, so the entire team is aware of the project process, the timing requirements, and each gating item (key gating items are summarized in Fig…
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at Last…The Writing!

  • Typically, the flow of your CSR will progress under six primary headings or sections, not unlike those used in a research manuscript. On the front end, even before the background and introduction, the document will include a title page, synopsis, table of contents, list of abbreviations, ethics statements, and details on the study’s administrative structure. The primar…
See more on acrpnet.org

Review Process

  • The review process can either facilitate a better document or it can slow down the entire process. The purpose of a cross functional review of a CSR is to confirm accurate key study messaging and data; allow medical review of the patient narratives, outcomes, and conclusionary statements; review the logical flow of ideas; and ensure that the CSR language is consistent across any othe…
See more on acrpnet.org

Conclusion

  • CSRs are required by regulatory authorities to report and summarize the outcomes of a clinical study. Pre-project stakeholder determination and timeline planning can help with project management. Templates contained with the ICH E3 guideline can help organize the project as well as help create and finalize a document that is fit for purpose and meets the content expecta…
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References

  1. ICH Working Group. 2016. ICH HARMONISED GUIDELINE INTEGRATED ADDENDUM TO ICH E6(R1): GUIDELINE FOR GOOD CLINICAL PRACTICE E6(R2).
  2. ICH Working Group. 1995. ICH HARMONISED TRIPARTITE GUIDELINE: Structure and Content of Clinical Study Reports E3.
  3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2016. Clinical Trials Registration and Result…
  1. ICH Working Group. 2016. ICH HARMONISED GUIDELINE INTEGRATED ADDENDUM TO ICH E6(R1): GUIDELINE FOR GOOD CLINICAL PRACTICE E6(R2).
  2. ICH Working Group. 1995. ICH HARMONISED TRIPARTITE GUIDELINE: Structure and Content of Clinical Study Reports E3.
  3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2016. Clinical Trials Registration and Results Information Submission, 42 CFR Part 11. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/09/21/2016-22129/...
  4. European Commission. 2001. Letter to Stakeholders Regarding the Requirements to provide results for Authortied clinical trials in EUDRACT. In: Article 57(2) Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 and Article...