1.1 What CRCs Actually Do: A Day in the Life

A realistic hour-by-hour look at coordinator work across different study types and settings, moving beyond job descriptions to daily reality.

1.2 Research Settings and Study Types: Where CRCs Work

Academic medical centers, community hospitals, dedicated research sites, and private practices each demand different skills and offer different experiences.

1.3 The Skills That Matter: What Separates Good from Great

Technical competence is table stakes. The coordinators who thrive have mastered organization, communication, judgment, and the ability to say no when necessary.

1.4 Career Trajectory: From Entry-Level to Leadership

The CRC role is rarely a terminal position. Understanding where the path leads—CRA, manager, regulatory, quality—helps you make decisions today that serve you in five years.

2.1 Protocol Receipt and Feasibility Assessment

That protocol on your desk represents months of sponsor work. Your job is to determine whether your site can actually execute it—and to be honest when the answer is no.

2.2 Budget and Contract Navigation: What CRCs Need to Know

You will not negotiate the contract yourself, but you must understand what it contains and identify when procedures are not covered before they become uncompensated work.

2.3 Regulatory Submissions: IRB, Sponsor, and Institution

The regulatory packet that takes two weeks when done right takes two months when done wrong. Learn to assemble complete submissions that do not bounce back.

2.4 Site Initiation and Activation: Crossing the Finish Line

The SIV is not a celebration—it is a working session. Learn to prepare effectively, engage meaningfully, and ensure you are truly ready when the sponsor says go.

3.1 Essential Documents Explained: What and Why

ICH E6(R3) lists the essential documents. This lesson explains what each document actually is, why it matters, and what happens when it is missing.

3.2 Building the Binder: Organization and Structure

Tabs, sections, indices, and filing systems that make documents findable under pressure. Because the monitor will ask for something, and you will have ninety seconds to produce it.

3.3 Ongoing Maintenance: Keeping Current Throughout the Study

A binder built at start-up and never touched again is a binder that will fail audit. Learn the habits that keep documentation current without consuming your life.

3.4 Common Deficiencies: What Monitors and Inspectors Find

The same problems appear in FDA warning letters year after year. Learn what they are so you can avoid making the mistakes your predecessors made.

4.1 Recruitment Planning and Strategies

Before your first advertisement runs, you need a plan. Database mining, physician referrals, community outreach, and advertising each have roles—and limitations.

4.2 Prescreening and Initial Contact: The Ten-Minute Window

The phone rings. Someone saw your flyer. In the next ten minutes, you will determine whether this person might be eligible and whether they are genuinely interested. How you handle this call shapes everything that follows.

4.3 Conducting the Screening Visit

The screening visit is where potential becomes participant—or does not. Learn to verify eligibility systematically while creating an experience that makes people want to return.

4.4 Eligibility Determination: The Art of Inclusion and Exclusion

Applying I/E criteria seems straightforward until you encounter the participant who almost qualifies. Learn to make defensible decisions and document them properly.

5.1 Preparing for the Consent Encounter

The consent encounter begins before the participant arrives. Environment, materials, mindset, and time allocation all shape what happens next.

5.2 Conducting the Consent Conversation

A consent discussion is not a document reading. It is a dialogue designed to ensure understanding. Learn to lead this conversation without leading the witness.

5.3 Assessing Comprehension: Did They Really Understand?

Asking 'Do you understand?' produces a nod. Asking the right open-ended questions reveals whether understanding actually occurred. Learn the difference.

5.4 Documentation and Special Situations

The signature page proves nothing without proper documentation of the encounter. And when LAR consent, interpreters, or reconsent enter the picture, complexity multiplies.

6.1 Visit Preparation and Scheduling

A well-prepared visit runs smoothly. A poorly prepared one creates protocol deviations, rework, and frustrated participants. Learn to prepare like the visit depends on it—because it does.

6.2 Executing Protocol Procedures

The protocol says what to do. Executing it correctly—in the right sequence, at the right time, with proper technique—requires training, practice, and attention to detail.

6.3 Source Documentation: ALCOA++ in Practice

What is not documented did not happen. Learn to create source documents that tell the complete story—and that will still make sense when the FDA reviews them three years later.

6.4 Managing Visit Complications: Windows, Deviations, and Difficult Situations

Participants arrive late. Equipment fails. Labs get lost. Visit windows close. Learn to recognize when flexibility is acceptable and when deviation reporting is required.

7.1 Recognizing and Classifying Adverse Events

Not every bad thing that happens is an adverse event. Not every adverse event is serious. Not every serious adverse event is unexpected. Learn to make these distinctions accurately.

7.2 The 24-Hour Clock: Expedited Reporting Requirements

When a serious adverse event occurs, the clock starts. Every hour that passes without proper notification is an hour closer to regulatory non-compliance—and the consequences fall on you.

7.3 Documenting and Following Up on Adverse Events

The initial report is just the beginning. What separates excellent sites from mediocre ones is what happens next—the documentation that tells the complete story and the follow-up that continues until resolution.

7.4 Causality Assessment and Judgment Calls

The investigator determines causality, but you gather the evidence. When the connection between drug and event is uncertain, how do you support a defensible assessment?

8.1 Understanding the Monitor's Role and Perspective

The monitoring visit does not have to feel like an inspection. Understanding who monitors are, what they need, and why they sometimes seem adversarial transforms the relationship.

8.2 Preparing for Monitoring Visits

The monitoring visit notification arrives, and the clock starts. What you do in the next five days determines whether the visit runs smoothly or exposes every gap in your documentation.

8.3 During the Visit: Conduct and Communication

The monitor has arrived. The next eight hours will shape her impression of your site for the duration of the trial. What you do in that time matters more than you think.

8.4 After the Visit: Follow-Up Letters and Corrective Actions

The monitor has departed, but your work is not finished. The follow-up letter arrives, findings demand response, and how you handle the next fourteen days determines whether this visit strengthens or strains the sponsor relationship.

1.1 What CRCs Actually Do: A Day in the Life

A realistic hour-by-hour look at coordinator work across different study types and settings, moving beyond job descriptions to daily reality.

1.2 Research Settings and Study Types: Where CRCs Work

Academic medical centers, community hospitals, dedicated research sites, and private practices each demand different skills and offer different experiences.

1.3 The Skills That Matter: What Separates Good from Great

Technical competence is table stakes. The coordinators who thrive have mastered organization, communication, judgment, and the ability to say no when necessary.

1.4 Career Trajectory: From Entry-Level to Leadership

The CRC role is rarely a terminal position. Understanding where the path leads—CRA, manager, regulatory, quality—helps you make decisions today that serve you in five years.

2.1 Protocol Receipt and Feasibility Assessment

That protocol on your desk represents months of sponsor work. Your job is to determine whether your site can actually execute it—and to be honest when the answer is no.

2.2 Budget and Contract Navigation: What CRCs Need to Know

You will not negotiate the contract yourself, but you must understand what it contains and identify when procedures are not covered before they become uncompensated work.

2.3 Regulatory Submissions: IRB, Sponsor, and Institution

The regulatory packet that takes two weeks when done right takes two months when done wrong. Learn to assemble complete submissions that do not bounce back.

2.4 Site Initiation and Activation: Crossing the Finish Line

The SIV is not a celebration—it is a working session. Learn to prepare effectively, engage meaningfully, and ensure you are truly ready when the sponsor says go.

3.1 Essential Documents Explained: What and Why

ICH E6(R3) lists the essential documents. This lesson explains what each document actually is, why it matters, and what happens when it is missing.

3.2 Building the Binder: Organization and Structure

Tabs, sections, indices, and filing systems that make documents findable under pressure. Because the monitor will ask for something, and you will have ninety seconds to produce it.

3.3 Ongoing Maintenance: Keeping Current Throughout the Study

A binder built at start-up and never touched again is a binder that will fail audit. Learn the habits that keep documentation current without consuming your life.

3.4 Common Deficiencies: What Monitors and Inspectors Find

The same problems appear in FDA warning letters year after year. Learn what they are so you can avoid making the mistakes your predecessors made.

4.1 Recruitment Planning and Strategies

Before your first advertisement runs, you need a plan. Database mining, physician referrals, community outreach, and advertising each have roles—and limitations.

4.2 Prescreening and Initial Contact: The Ten-Minute Window

The phone rings. Someone saw your flyer. In the next ten minutes, you will determine whether this person might be eligible and whether they are genuinely interested. How you handle this call shapes everything that follows.

4.3 Conducting the Screening Visit

The screening visit is where potential becomes participant—or does not. Learn to verify eligibility systematically while creating an experience that makes people want to return.

4.4 Eligibility Determination: The Art of Inclusion and Exclusion

Applying I/E criteria seems straightforward until you encounter the participant who almost qualifies. Learn to make defensible decisions and document them properly.

5.1 Preparing for the Consent Encounter

The consent encounter begins before the participant arrives. Environment, materials, mindset, and time allocation all shape what happens next.

5.2 Conducting the Consent Conversation

A consent discussion is not a document reading. It is a dialogue designed to ensure understanding. Learn to lead this conversation without leading the witness.

5.3 Assessing Comprehension: Did They Really Understand?

Asking 'Do you understand?' produces a nod. Asking the right open-ended questions reveals whether understanding actually occurred. Learn the difference.

5.4 Documentation and Special Situations

The signature page proves nothing without proper documentation of the encounter. And when LAR consent, interpreters, or reconsent enter the picture, complexity multiplies.

6.1 Visit Preparation and Scheduling

A well-prepared visit runs smoothly. A poorly prepared one creates protocol deviations, rework, and frustrated participants. Learn to prepare like the visit depends on it—because it does.

6.2 Executing Protocol Procedures

The protocol says what to do. Executing it correctly—in the right sequence, at the right time, with proper technique—requires training, practice, and attention to detail.

6.3 Source Documentation: ALCOA++ in Practice

What is not documented did not happen. Learn to create source documents that tell the complete story—and that will still make sense when the FDA reviews them three years later.

6.4 Managing Visit Complications: Windows, Deviations, and Difficult Situations

Participants arrive late. Equipment fails. Labs get lost. Visit windows close. Learn to recognize when flexibility is acceptable and when deviation reporting is required.

7.1 Recognizing and Classifying Adverse Events

Not every bad thing that happens is an adverse event. Not every adverse event is serious. Not every serious adverse event is unexpected. Learn to make these distinctions accurately.

7.2 The 24-Hour Clock: Expedited Reporting Requirements

When a serious adverse event occurs, the clock starts. Every hour that passes without proper notification is an hour closer to regulatory non-compliance—and the consequences fall on you.

7.3 Documenting and Following Up on Adverse Events

The initial report is just the beginning. What separates excellent sites from mediocre ones is what happens next—the documentation that tells the complete story and the follow-up that continues until resolution.

7.4 Causality Assessment and Judgment Calls

The investigator determines causality, but you gather the evidence. When the connection between drug and event is uncertain, how do you support a defensible assessment?

8.1 Understanding the Monitor's Role and Perspective

The monitoring visit does not have to feel like an inspection. Understanding who monitors are, what they need, and why they sometimes seem adversarial transforms the relationship.

8.2 Preparing for Monitoring Visits

The monitoring visit notification arrives, and the clock starts. What you do in the next five days determines whether the visit runs smoothly or exposes every gap in your documentation.

8.3 During the Visit: Conduct and Communication

The monitor has arrived. The next eight hours will shape her impression of your site for the duration of the trial. What you do in that time matters more than you think.

8.4 After the Visit: Follow-Up Letters and Corrective Actions

The monitor has departed, but your work is not finished. The follow-up letter arrives, findings demand response, and how you handle the next fourteen days determines whether this visit strengthens or strains the sponsor relationship.