Some participants in your database are not free to recruit yet. They may still be taking part in another study on the same area of the body, or be in a washout, the rest period right after one.
Availability does that check for you. For each participant it shows the first date they are free again for the body zone your study needs, so nobody has to cross-check between studies by hand.
How it works
Think of each body zone as a room that only one study can book at a time.
A study books the zone for as long as the participant takes part.
The washout keeps it booked a little longer, so the skin can recover.
When you start a new study, Datacapt looks at who has that room free by the date you need it.
That single date, the availability date, is worked out from each participant's real study history.
Their history | Effect on availability |
A recent study on the same zone | Free again after it ends, plus its washout. |
An ongoing or upcoming study on the same zone | Counted until its expected end. |
A study on a different zone | No effect. Different room. |
No relevant history | Free from the day they were added to your database. |
Which participants hold a zone
A participant occupies a body zone, and gets a washout applied automatically per study type, in these cases:
Completed: real completion date, plus washout.
Excluded: exclusion date, plus washout.
Disqualified: only if they completed the anchor visit. Then anchor date, plus study duration, plus washout.
Enrolled, on an ongoing or upcoming study: if the study uses the scheduler and the participant has an anchor visit, anchor date plus study duration plus washout. If it does not use the scheduler, study end date plus washout.
Prospect, contacted and qualified never occupy a zone.
How much setup you actually need
There are three levels. Level 1 is required; the other two are not decoration, because each one fixes a specific inaccuracy.
Level | What it gives you |
1, required | A body zone and study dates on each study, plus one default washout in settings. Enough to filter your database. |
2, optional | Study types with their own washout, so the rest period matches each protocol instead of one default. |
3, recommended if you use the scheduler | An anchor visit, so Datacapt uses each participant's real end date rather than the study's. |
Level 3 is worth explaining, because it is the one that silently costs you candidates. While a study is ongoing, Datacapt does not know when each participant personally finishes, so it falls back to the study's end date. If the last slot is Friday but somebody actually finished on Monday, that person looks busy until Friday plus washout, and you skip them for no reason.
💡 Tip: with no excluded zone set, everyone simply shows their sign-up date and nothing is blocked. A washout of 0 means no rest period, and negative values are treated as 0.
Already using Datacapt? Backfill first
You do not need to reconfigure every past study. Availability is calculated from real history, so the one thing worth doing is making sure existing studies carry the two required fields: a body zone and study dates.
⚠️ Warning: a study missing either field is skipped in the calculation. A participant who was genuinely busy on that zone then shows as available, and nothing flags it. Backfilling those two fields is what makes your dates trustworthy.
In order of usefulness:
Ongoing and upcoming studies: always. These are what make people unavailable right now.
Recently finished studies: the ones whose end date plus washout still falls in the near future. These still block people.
Old, long-finished studies: usually skip them. Once end date plus washout is in the past, backfilling changes nothing.
You do not need study types, per-type washout or anchor visits on past studies. Those are precision layers for new ones, and for finished studies Datacapt already uses the real completion date.
💡 Tip: the fastest way to start is to set your default washout once, backfill body zone and dates on ongoing and recently finished studies, then open Run availability dates. You will have a populated column in minutes, and older studies can wait.
Set up Level 1
Two required fields on each study, plus a default washout once. This is enough for availability to work.
🔬 Explore how it works
Click through this interactive guide to learn the process in seconds.
🛠️ Step by step guide
On each study
Go to Recruitment Studies and open the study.
Open Settings, then General.
Set the Study zones and the study dates, start and end, then Save.
Once, globally
Go to Platform Settings, then Recruitment, then Washout.
Set a default washout: a number plus days, weeks or months.
💡 Tip: study settings stay editable after participants are booked. A parent zone such as Arms automatically includes its sub-zones, right and left. The optional fields, expected duration, exclusion zone and study type, add precision and feed Levels 2 and 3.
Set up Level 2
Give each study type its own washout, so the rest period matches your protocols.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Go to Platform Settings, then Recruitment, then Study types, and add the types you run. Names must be unique.
Open Platform Settings, then Recruitment, then Washout, and give a type its own washout.
⚠️ Warning: a per-type washout applies to new studies only. Existing studies keep whatever washout they were created with, so setting this up does not retrospectively correct your current availability dates.
💡 Tip: new types get the default value automatically. Deleting a type that is in use asks you to pick a replacement first.
Set up Level 3
Mark one visit as the anchor visit, D0, so Datacapt uses each participant's real end date instead of the study fallback.
🛠️ Step by step guide
In the scheduler, open the visit and tick Mark as anchor visit. This is editable while the study is in draft.
In the calendar, when creating or editing an event, link it to a study first, then tick Mark as anchor visit.
Once ticked, an Anchor visit tag appears on the slot.
⚠️ Warning: availability does not control self-scheduling. A participant in a pool can still book any open slot, including one before their availability date. Align the schedule window with the earliest acceptable date, or split your pools by availability.
💡 Tip: only one anchor visit per participant per study. Without one, dates fall back to study level and nothing breaks.
Compute the dates
From the subject database, on the Availability date column, open the gear icon and choose Run availability dates. In the popover, either preload from a recruitment study or fill in the excluded zones and washout yourself, then select Set availability date.
⚠️ Warning: the dates are not saved. They are calculated fresh on each run and clear when you refresh the page. Run it again when you need them. Only your popover inputs persist, and only if you save a view.
Filter and sort
Add the Availability date filter, using the operator is on or before, and pick your target date. The column sorts, combines with other filters, and can be saved in a view.
💡 Tip: run the dates before filtering, or the column has nothing in it. Past dates are blocked in the picker.
Recruit from a study
+ Add Participants opens the same popover pre-filled from the study, then the participant picker with the filter already applied.
💡 Tip: this is a guide, not a wall. Remove the filter chip to add somebody who becomes available a little later, for margin or a sponsor exception. A pool locks its date when created, so later changes will not empty a list you have already built.
Permissions you need
To see the Availability date column: your workspace has the Recruitment Studies module and you have access to it. Without that access the column is hidden entirely. Recruitment > Recruitment studies > Access.
To run the computation: access to both the subject database and Recruitment Studies.
To edit study settings, meaning body zone, dates and washout: recruitment study settings edit rights. Recruitment > Recruitment study settings > Edit.
To manage global study types and washout: the recruitment studies settings permission, which grants read and write together. There is no read-only view. Recruitment > Recruitment studies settings > Access and edit.
To mark an anchor visit: your existing scheduler or calendar edit rights. No new permission.
Saved views: users with edit rights on the subject database can create, edit and delete them. Read-only users can switch between views only.
💡 Tip: three things worth knowing.
Missing settings are skipped. A study with no body zone or no end date is left out, so keep the studies you recruit against configured.
Body segmentation is provided by Datacapt. Fully custom segmentation is not supported yet.
Data and GDPR: availability dates are calculated on the fly and never stored. No new participant data is created, and people without recruitment access never see the column.