How Can You Efficiently Manage Patient Questionnaires in a Real-World Sleep Study?

The realities of the field quickly caught up with the team. Already busy with on-call shifts and consultations, the clinicians also had to design the study, send out and track hundreds of questionnaires, and ensure that each response was properly handled. Any delay or missed response could jeopardize the quality of the data and the study’s reliability.

Beyond time constraints, the team faced several key challenges. They needed to instantly identify which patients had completed their forms, avoid unnecessary follow-ups, and ensure no one was left behind. Data confidentiality, legal compliance, and adherence to GCP were also non-negotiable. Moreover, the study needed to run smoothly even with staff changes, and accommodate a wide range of patient profiles—some comfortable with digital tools, others not—to guarantee high-quality data ready for analysis.

Managing such a complex process risked draining valuable time on administrative tasks rather than focusing on clinical follow-up. Without the right solution, the study would have struggled to meet its goals.

To overcome these challenges, the team at CHU Strasbourg turned to Datacapt to structure and automate questionnaire management. Thanks to its intuitive, no-code platform, the entire process was digitalized in just a few weeks—without disrupting the team’s daily operations.

Adoption was fast. After just 1 to 2 hours of training, users were fully autonomous, and the study kicked off immediately with a streamlined, efficient process. Within days, all questionnaires, automations, and workflows were configured and tested by the team.

The team particularly appreciated several key features:
1 – A hybrid digital tool
Patients could fill out their questionnaires directly on their phones, tablets, or computers, eliminating the burden of paper. For those who still needed a physical format, a hybrid system was implemented to unify all responses within a secure environment.

2 – Hassle-free logistics

The 24 questionnaires were automatically sent by the platform at the appropriate time points in the study, each timed according to the patient’s initial inclusion date. In addition to sending the forms, automated reminders ensured an exceptionally high completion and compliance rate.
This workflow was set up directly by the team using the no-code interface.

3 – Real-time monitoring

The clinical team could instantly see each patient’s progress and, when needed, trigger targeted reminders or flag patient issues for follow-up.

With Datacapt, questionnaire tracking was no longer a source of stress for the team. Within the first few weeks, the platform delivered significant time savings: tasks that once took days to manage manually were reduced to just one hour.

The impact was immediate: 85% of questionnaires were completed directly by patients on the platform, greatly enhancing data quality and minimizing the need for manual corrections.

What’s more, automated reminders and built-in tracking helped the study stay on course—even during busy periods. Even when the project lead was away for several months to focus on her thesis, the study progressed smoothly for already enrolled participants, ensuring consistent and reliable management.