Manage People in the Patient Database

What this is

The Patient database is your organization's single list of people, kept independently of any study. You register a person once, keep their contact details, contact preferences, and health history up to date, and add them to studies when they are ready. The same person record is reused for every project they join, so you do not create duplicates when someone takes part in more than one study.

Each person record has:

• A CB-ID, a Curebase identifier that stays with the person across every project and site.

• A home site, the site whose patient database they were added to.

• Profile information: identity, contact details, contact preferences, and clinical history.

• Project records: every project the person has been added to, with their participant ID and status.

• A history: notes, a contact log, documents, and an activity timeline of every change.

When to use it

• A new patient is referred to your site, or you are building a list of potential study candidates.

• You have an existing list of patients in a spreadsheet or another system.

• You need to update someone's contact details, preferences, or health history.

• A person asks not to be contacted.

• A person is ready to join a study.

Before you start

• You need patient database permissions. Your organization administrator grants them. Without them, Patient database does not appear in the sidebar.

• Adding and importing people each need their own permission. If you can view the list but do not see Add patient or Import, you do not have that permission.

• You need access to at least one site before you can add a person.

Find a person

1. In the sidebar, click Patient database. The list shows everyone in your organization's patient database that you can access, with a count of people at the top.

2. Type in Search to find people by name or contact details.

3. Optional: Narrow the list with filters:

   • Sex, Date of birth, Race and ethnicity, and Primary language filter on profile information.

   • Medical condition and Medication filter on the person's clinical history.

   • Project, Project status, and Site filter on where the person is enrolled.

   • Do not contact shows or hides people who asked not to be contacted.

4. Optional: Use Display to choose which columns appear. Your choice is saved for your next visit. Available columns include CB-ID, Date of birth, Contact info, Projects, Status, External ID, Referral source, City, State, Time zone, and Do not contact.

5. Click a person to open their record.

Add a person

1. In Patient database, click Add patient. The New person dialog opens.

2. Choose a Site. The person is added to this site's patient database. If you only have one site, it is chosen for you.

3. Enter First name, Last name, and Date of birth.

4. Enter an Email, a Phone, or both. At least one is required so the site can reach the person.

5. Optional: Enter an External ID (MRN) to link the person to your medical record system.

6. Optional: To add the person to a study at the same time, complete Enroll in a study now:

   • Choose a Study. Only studies running at the selected site are listed.

   • Review the Subject ID. When the study generates IDs, it shows "Assigned by the study's subject ID scheme." When you enter it yourself, it must match the scheme and be unique within the study.

   • The header changes from "patient database only" to "enrolling in a study" so you can confirm which you are doing.

   • Skip this section to add the person to the patient database only. You can add them to a study later.

7. Click Continue. Sitebase checks for possible duplicates:

   • If Possible duplicate appears, a person you can access already matches this name and date of birth, email, or phone. Click Open with that person's name and CB-ID to use the existing record, or continue to create a new person.

8. On Review, check the details. Click Edit to go back to any step.

9. Click Create person, or Create & add another to save and start a new blank person. The confirmation shows the new person's CB-ID.

Import people from a CSV file

Import adds many people at once. It does not update existing people and does not enroll anyone in a study.

Upload the file

1. In Patient database, click Import.

2. Choose the Site. Everyone in the file is added to this site's patient database.

3. Optional: Click Download template to get a CSV file with the expected columns.

4. Drag and drop your CSV file, or click Select CSV file. The file must be a .csv file with at least one data row, up to 5,000 rows, and up to 5 MB.

5. Read Before you upload. Each person needs a first name, a last name, and a phone number or email address.

6. Click Continue.

Map columns

1. For each column in your file, choose the matching Person field, or Don't import to leave it out. Each field can be used once.

2. Map the three required fields: First name, Last name, and a Phone number or Email address. Continue stays unavailable until they are mapped.

3. Optional: Turn on Show unmapped only to find columns you have not mapped yet.

4. Click Continue.

Review rows

1. Check how many rows are ready to import and how many cannot be imported. Rows with a missing required value or a value in the wrong format are left out, and each one is listed with its reason (see Import rules).

2. Read the notes on how values are saved:

   • Phone numbers and email addresses become the person's primary phone and primary email.

   • Height and weight are saved as measurements dated on the import date.

   • Rows without a time zone get the site's time zone.

3. Click Continue.

Resolve duplicates

A row is a duplicate when its first name, last name, and date of birth all match an existing person, or its phone number or email address matches a person you can access.

1. Choose how to handle each flagged row:

   • Accept creates a new person from the row anyway. Use it when the match is a different person who shares details, such as family members with one phone number.

   • Reject skips the row and leaves the existing record unchanged. Use it when the row is the same person.

   • Skip all duplicates rejects every flagged row at once.

2. Resolve every flagged row. Continue stays unavailable until you do.

Import

1. Click Import followed by the number of people. Progress shows as people are added.

2. Read the summary: how many new people were added, how many duplicates were skipped, and how many rows were not imported.

3. Click View people to see them, or Import another file.

Each imported person's history shows that they were added by import.

Work with a person's record

Click a person in the list to open their record. The record has these tabs: About, Contact, Clinical, Contact log, Project Records, Notes, Documents, and Activity. To change a section, click Edit on it, make your changes, and click Save. Every change is recorded on the Activity tab.

About

Identity and background: name, pronouns, date of birth, sex, race and ethnicity, language, time zone, referral source, and external ID. The person's time zone is copied to their participant record when they are added to a study.

Contact

Phone numbers, email addresses, address, and contact preferences.

• Add email and Add phone add another address or number. Phone numbers have a type: Mobile, Home, or Work.

• Set as primary makes that phone or email the main one. The primary phone and email are used when the person is added to a project.

• Remove deletes a phone or email. If you remove the primary one, you are asked to Choose a new primary.

• Contact preferences record how the person agreed to be contacted:

  • Phone call, SMS text message, and Email outreach. Phone call needs a phone number, SMS needs a mobile number, and Email needs an email address.

  • Preferred contact time: Morning, Afternoon, or Evening.

  • Interested in future research records whether the person wants to hear about other studies.

  • Do not contact (see Mark a person as Do not contact).

Clinical

The person's health history, kept with the person rather than any one study:

• Conditions and Medications, each with start and end dates. End dates cannot be earlier than start dates.

• Allergies.

• Lab results, with value, unit, reference range, and collected date. Results outside the reference range show Out of range.

• Measurements & vitals: height, weight, blood pressure, and heart rate. BMI is calculated from the latest height and weight. Dates cannot be in the future, and systolic must be greater than diastolic.

• Social history: tobacco, alcohol, and drug use.

Clinical history powers the Medical condition and Medication filters on the patient database list, which helps you find candidates for a study.

Contact log

A record of every call, email, text, and letter with the person.

1. Click Add log.

2. Choose the Type: Call, Email, SMS, or Postal Mail.

3. Set the Contact date and time. It cannot be in the future.

4. Optional: Choose the Project the contact was about. Leave it on No project for contact that is not about one study. A log with a project shows "for" the project name in the list.

5. Enter a Note about what happened. It is required, up to 1,000 characters.

6. For a call, choose the Contact outcome. It is required for calls, and Add log stays unavailable until it is chosen:

   • Connected – Spoke to Contact

   • Left Voicemail

   • No Answer

   • Call Back Scheduled

   • Wrong Number / Disconnected

7. Optional: Under Permissions, turn on Has PII to limit the log to people with PII access. Use it when the note includes identifying details.

8. Optional: Turn on Add a note to create a linked note on the person at the same time, and write the note, up to 5,000 characters. The log then links to it with Open linked note.

9. Click Add log.

Calls, emails, texts, and letters logged from the Contact Center appear on this same contact log.

Project Records

Every project the person belongs to, with their Participant ID and Status. See Add a person to a project.

Notes

Notes about the person that apply across all projects. Use them for context that is not tied to one study. Notes added inside a project appear there as project notes.

Documents

Files that stay with the person across every project, such as lab results and medical history.

1. Choose a Document type: Lab Results or Medical History. You must choose a type before you can choose a file.

2. Choose the file to upload. You can upload one PDF or image at a time, up to 100 MB.

3. The document appears in the list with who uploaded it and when.

• Click Download to save a copy.

• Change the Document type on a document to reclassify it.

• Click Remove to take a document off the profile. Removing hides the file from the profile, but the stored file is kept, and the removal is recorded on the Activity tab.

Uploading, changing the type of, and removing documents each need document permissions. Without them, the upload controls and Remove do not appear.

Activity

A timeline of every change to the record: who made it and what changed, including profile edits, contact preference changes, notes, flags, contact logs, documents, and project additions. Use Category to filter to Profile, Contact Preferences, Health Profile, Documents, Notes, Communications, or Projects.

Mark a person as Do not contact

Use this when a person asks not to be contacted or can no longer be reached.

1. Open the person's record and go to Contact.

2. Click Edit on Contact preferences.

3. Turn on Do not contact.

4. Choose a Reason:

   • Moved

   • Deceased

   • No response

   • Invalid contact info

   • No contact requested

5. Click Save.

Turning on Do not contact does three things:

• It turns off phone call, SMS, and email outreach for the person.

• It blocks adding the person to any project, one at a time or in bulk. The person's Project Records tab explains why Add to project is unavailable.

• It shows the person as Do not contact in the patient database, where you can filter on it.

Turning it off clears the reason. Outreach channels stay off until you turn them back on.

Add a person to a project

You can add one person from their record, or many people at once from a project's participants list.

Add one person from their record

1. Open the person's record and go to Project Records.

2. Click Add to project. This is unavailable when the person is marked Do not contact.

3. Choose the Project. Projects the person is already in are not offered.

4. Choose the Site if the project runs at more than one of your sites. The person's home site is chosen when the project runs there.

5. Enter or confirm the participant ID, following the project's ID scheme.

6. Submit the dialog. Sitebase creates the participant from the person's name, primary email, primary phone, and time zone, so keep those current first.

Add many people at once

1. Open the project's Participants list and click Add from patient database.

2. Select people: search and filter, then select people, up to 100 at a time. Select every person matching the current filters selects them all.

3. Choose project: pick the project. Sitebase shows how many selected people are already in it.

4. Review eligibility: people who cannot be added are excluded with a reason:

   • Already in this project

   • This email is already used by a participant in this project

   • Do not contact

   • No site for this project

   • Bulk add works when the project's participant IDs are optional or generated automatically when a participant is created. If the project requires an ID to be entered at creation, add people one at a time from their record.

   • The project must have a default participant status before anyone can be added in bulk. If it does not, ask the study builder to set one.

5. Confirm: check the summary. Each person is placed in the project's default participant status, people without a time zone get their site's time zone, and each gets an entry in Project Records and their activity history.

6. Click Add followed by the number of people.

Field reference

New person

Import rules

Tips

• Search before you add a person. The duplicate check catches most matches, but searching first saves a step.

• Use Reject for duplicates you are unsure about, then compare the records by hand. Merging records later is not available.

• Keep primary contact details and time zone current before adding someone to a study, because the participant record copies them.

Still need help? Submit a help request here.