Part of taking part in research is telling the study team when something changes — a new symptom, a symptom getting worse, or a crash. TrialPilot gives you simple ways to report these from your phone, and it takes what you report seriously.
In an emergency, call emergency services
Report a new or worsening symptom#
Depending on how your study is set up, you can report a new or worsening symptom directly from the app. Reporting is designed to be short:
- Open symptom reporting from Home.
- Describe the symptom and how severe it feels.
- Add any context that helps explain what happened.
- Submit the report.
The app confirms that your report was submitted, so you are never left wondering whether it went through.
There is no such thing as a symptom too small to report. If something feels different and you are unsure whether it matters, reporting it lets the study team decide — that is their job, not yours.
Capture a PEM episode#
PEM — post-exertional malaise — is when symptoms crash after physical, mental, or emotional effort, often a day or more later. If your study supports it, you can capture a PEM episode in the app, with severity and context, the same way you report other symptoms.
Capturing a crash is useful even when it feels routine to you. For conditions like Long COVID and ME/CFS, crashes are exactly the signal many studies exist to understand. And if a crash means you miss a few days of check-ins, that is expected — the gap itself tells the study something real, and nothing in the app will guilt you for it.
When a report needs urgent attention#
Some symptom patterns should not wait for a study team to read them. If what you report matches a red-flag pattern, the app shows you emergency guidance immediately — at the moment you report, on the same screen. You are pointed to emergency resources right away, not after someone reviews your report later.
The study team still sees the report and follows up, but the app never makes urgent guidance wait on a human review.
What happens on the study side#
Your report does not disappear into a void. On the study team's side:
- A clinician reviews it. Symptom reports go to a review queue where a clinical reviewer looks at what you reported, its severity, and its context.
- It may become a formally recorded adverse event. In research, an “adverse event” is the formal record of a medical problem that happens during a study. If your report becomes one, that is not a sign something went wrong with you or your reporting — it is the study doing its job: documenting what happened, watching for patterns, and keeping participants safe.
- Urgent reports get follow-up. If your report triggered emergency guidance, the study team follows up and documents it — but your first pointer to emergency care already happened at the moment you reported.
If you're curious how study teams handle reports on their side, see Safety operations.
Reviewers see your report under your study code, not your name. For more on what study teams can and cannot see, read Your data and privacy.