The end of the study should be clearly documented in the research protocol; it should refer to the point of final data capture (the point at which all required data has been collected to answer the research question(s) in the protocol). For clinical trials, this is usually defined as the date of the last patient’s last visit (LPLV).
At the end of the study participants should be thanked for their time and their very valuable contribution to research and reminded of the following (relevance will be dependent on study type):
- What happens to their data and samples
- Their treatment and care post-participation
- How the results will be disseminated to them