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CRA (OPS) study plan

CRA · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 7 hours per week

Week 1

Ethical and Regulatory Foundations of Clinical Research

  • Summarize the historical cases (Nuremberg, Tuskegee, thalidomide, Belmont) and state the ethical principle each produced.

  • Map each ICH GCP E6(R2) principle to the corresponding 21 CFR 50, 56, or 312 citation in a crosswalk table.

  • Differentiate the approval, amendment, and continuing-review responsibilities of the IRB, the sponsor, and the investigator.

  • List the required elements of informed consent under 21 CFR 50.25 and identify five common consent deficiencies.

  • Define when a legally authorized representative is required and which populations are treated as vulnerable.

Your checkpoint

A one-page regulatory crosswalk table plus a 25-item Domain 1 practice set scored at 80% or higher, with every missed item logged and explained.

Week 2

Monitoring Visits and Source Data Verification

  • Sequence the activities of pre-study, initiation, interim, and close-out visits and list the documentation required at each.

  • Perform source data verification on three mock subject files, flagging every transcription discrepancy between source and CRF.

  • Apply the ALCOA-C criteria to classify ten seeded source-documentation errors.

  • Draft a post-visit follow-up letter for a mock visit containing three findings ranked by severity.

Your checkpoint

A complete mock monitoring report with a findings log, severity ranking, and a CAPA plan covering three subjects.

Week 3

Study Preparation and Site Qualification

  • Build a site qualification checklist covering personnel, facilities, equipment, and recruitment potential.

  • Evaluate investigator CVs and a draft Form FDA 1572 against protocol and training requirements.

  • Calculate a site's enrollment feasibility using historical screen-failure and retention rates.

  • Identify the essential documents that must exist at a site before a qualification visit.

Your checkpoint

A written site qualification report for a mock site ending in an explicit go/no-go recommendation with supporting evidence.

Week 4

Site Initiation and Study Start-up & Safety Reporting and Adverse Event Management

  • Assemble the essential-document sections of the trial master file required by the end of site initiation.

  • Draft an initiation visit agenda and a site training log covering protocol, IP handling, and AE reporting.

  • Reconcile delegation-of-authority log entries against training records and the Form FDA 1572.

  • Classify twelve mock events as SAE, serious non-AE, or non-serious AE using ICH E2A definitions.

  • Assign expedited reporting timelines (7 vs 15 days) by applying expectedness, causality, and severity, and draft one MedWatch 3500A narrative.

Your checkpoint

An SAE reporting packet containing the classification worksheet, the timeline decisions with justification, and a completed MedWatch 3500A draft.

Week 5

Investigational Product Accountability and Handling

  • Trace an investigational product shipment from receipt through dispensing, reconciliation, and return or destruction.

  • Compute accountability discrepancies in a mock drug log and state the required escalation path and timeline.

  • Outline storage, temperature-excursion handling, and blinding-emergency procedures for a double-blind trial.

  • Identify the documentation required to support IP destruction and site-level unblinding.

Your checkpoint

A reconciled mock IP accountability log showing the variance analysis and a corrective action note for each discrepancy found.

Week 6

Data Management and Query Resolution & Study Close-out, Documentation, and Records Retention

  • Write queries for ten seeded data errors, matching query type to the nature of the discrepancy.

  • Distinguish SDV-driven, edit-check, and medical-review queries and state their expected resolution timelines.

  • Describe medical coding and the prerequisites for database lock.

  • List close-out visit activities and separate documents retained at the site from those retained by the sponsor.

  • State the record retention and access requirements under 21 CFR 312.62 and ICH GCP.

Your checkpoint

A close-out checklist, a site-versus-sponsor records-retention matrix with retention periods, and a completed 15-item query-writing exercise.

Week 7

Ethical and Regulatory Foundations of Clinical Research & Monitoring Visits and Source Data Verification

  • Re-map the ten highest-yield regulations to the specific monitoring activities each one governs.

  • Classify twenty scenario items as major or minor protocol deviations and justify each call.

  • Re-test Domain 1 and Domain 4 question sets and re-teach every subdomain that fell below 80%.

  • Rehearse the escalation and documentation steps for a suspected serious breach of GCP or of the protocol.

Your checkpoint

An updated weak-area log showing every previously sub-80% subdomain re-tested at 85% or higher.

Week 8

Ethical and Regulatory Foundations of Clinical Research & Study Preparation and Site Qualification & Site Initiation and Study Start-up & Monitoring Visits and Source Data Verification & Safety Reporting and Adverse Event Management & Investigational Product Accountability and Handling & Data Management and Query Resolution & Study Close-out, Documentation, and Records Retention

  • Complete two full-length timed mock exams under exam conditions without notes.

  • Review every missed item and write a one-line rule capturing the underlying concept.

  • Recite from memory the key numeric thresholds: 7- and 15-day expedited reporting, 30-day safety report, and records-retention periods.

  • Re-read the personal weak-area log and confirm each entry is closed.

Your checkpoint

Two completed full-length mock exams averaging 80% or higher, plus a final one-page 'numbers and timelines' reference sheet written from memory.

Milestones

Week 4: Domain 1, Domain 2, and Domain 4 practice sets each scored at 80% or higher, and the SDV exercise produced a graded findings log with CAPA.

Week 6: All eight domains covered at least once; cumulative practice accuracy across completed sets is 75% or higher.

Week 8: Two full-length timed mocks averaged 80% or higher with no individual domain below 70%, and the weak-area log is fully closed.