Study Manager Tutorials Guide
Welcome to the Study Manager Tutorials. These tutorials are designed to be completed as a series. Their purpose is to help you to learn Study Manager one module at a time, and to understand how the modules relate to each other. Completing each tutorial in succession will introduce the key features and operations required to use Study Manager successfully. In addition, by going through the tutorials in the recommended order, you will learn that data entered in one area is accessed from many other parts of the program. For example, a study entered in the Studies screen is referenced in just about every module of the program. After completing the tutorials, you should feel comfortable about entering your own data into the program, and have gained some insight on how you want to use Study Manager.
The tutorials all refer to a sample study protocol, which you enter and track, using the different tutorial modules. Begin with the Adding a Protocol tutorial. This tutorial walks through the major steps involved in entering a basic, sample study protocol. The subsequent tutorials will take you further through the major features and functions of the program. As noted previously, all tutorials will refer back to the sample protocol. It is possible to skip some tutorials, but you learn more by completing them all.
Adding a Protocol
Budgets & Financial Events Setup
Adding Patients & Patient Visits
Financial Reconciliation
Optional-Can be done separately
Scheduling
Schedule Builder & Multiple Appointments
Recruitment
Document Tracking
Tracking amounts owed to providers and patients (This is an optional tutorial, but it does require going through Adding a Protocol, Budgets & Financial Events Setup, and the Adding Patients & Patient Visits tutorials BEFORE this tutorial can be completed.)
These tutorials are best viewed in Internet Explorer. There may be differences in style or format when using other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox.
If you wish to download a printable version of these tutorials, click here.
Since Core Data affects nearly every aspect of Study Manager, quality of data is important. If you need help planning the entry of your core data, or assistance with your Study Manager implementation, please contact Advanced Clinical Software for training and consulting options.
Some of the tutorials reference a “System Administrator” or “Administrative User” for Study Manager.
Whether you are part of a large organization, or a smaller company with only a few users, it is important to designate one user as the Administrator of the program. This person must consider the big picture when entering core data that will be used in the dropdown menus and screens throughout the program. Entering core data is an important step and should be done with as much preparation and planning as possible.
We point this out here, because portions of the tutorials focus on entering core data. It may be necessary to consider the strategy for training and core data entry. In many cases, core data cannot be deleted once it has been used in other parts of the program. For this reason, it’s important to make sure users going through the tutorial understand whether or not they are entering “real” or “fake” data. In some cases, the program administrator may want to enter the core data for other users to use, and have them skip those parts of the tutorials.
In order to complete all sections and activities in the tutorial, a user must have broad feature access. As a system administrator, you have a few options:
Create a non-production environment: You may wish to set up a non-production environment where users are granted broad security access and may use tutorials and “play” with the system prior to implementing the production environment. This prevents erroneous data from entering your production environment and allows you to more carefully control security access in the production environment. This is recommended if you have over 10 users and a dedicated Study Manager system administrator.
Note: To setup a “non-production” environment, you may need a separate set of servers, completely separate from the production Web and Database server(s). If you need assistance setting up a “non-production” environment, contact ACS Customer Support. There will be a Technical Support charge for this service.
Restrict access in the production environment: You may wish to restrict access, allowing users access to only certain modules for the tutorial. In this case, make sure to (a) add data required by the tutorial, but which users do not have privileges to add, and (b) inform users about which sections of the tutorial they will not be able to complete, if any.