Greener Monitoring Survey – Remote monitoring via direct access to Electronic Health Records (EHRs
Date: 18 September 2026
The climate crisis is the biggest health threat facing humanity. It is estimated that healthcare emissions contribute to 4-5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Multiple initiatives and programmes of work are underway across the NHS, academic community and pharmaceutical industry to consider how the environmental impact of healthcare and healthcare research can be reduced.
Clinical trials contribute to healthcare emissions. A significant contributor to the carbon footprint of a clinical trials is the Sponsor team’s travel required to perform on-site monitoring. The level and extent of on-site monitoring is determined through a trial-specific risk assessment, however some monitoring activities that require an in person on-site monitoring visit, could be conducted remotely if the Sponsor team (Clinical Research Associates / Monitors) had remote, direct access to patient Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
A small number of NHS Trusts permit remote, direct access to Sponsor CRAs/ Monitors to facilitate remote monitoring. If more NHS Trusts were able to facilitate such access, the extent and need for on-site monitoring visits may be reduced which would save the greenhouse gas emissions associated with travel.
The UK Registered CTU Network Greener Monitoring Group, in collaboration with the RD Forum Sustainability Working Group are interested in understanding what EHR systems are in use in your Trust, whether they allow remote, direct access to clinical trial Sponsor CRAs/Monitors, and if not what the challenges and barriers are to facilitating this.
We would really appreciate your time in completing our short survey, which we anticipate will take 10-15 mins to complete. Please complete this survey by 1st November.
Link to survey: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/icr/cict-draft