Stages

During the trial lifecycle, you may need to run a lot of analysis on the N-SIDE Suite, from protocol design to the last packaging run optimization. To avoid having a huge pile of trial setups and/or plans, the work should be split in stages.
A new stage should be created every time a user is working on a trial with a different purpose.

That way, every stage will contain the trial plans that were used to work towards a certain goal, during a limited time span. For example, if a trial has already been modeled for protocol design perspective months before trial start, there might be a lot of plans testing different package type designs, addition or removal of patient visits and/or local depots, etc. When you come back a few months later to work, for example, on the IRT parameters optimization, a new stage should be created to start from a clean sheet. All the previous setups and plans will still be available in the previous stage, but it will be a lot simpler for users to find their way through their work.

When creating a new trial, the first stage will be automatically created. It should then be renamed for clarity with a name that is self-explanatory regarding to the content of the stage.
Inside the trial view, the selected stage will be displayed in green on the sidebar. A drop-down on the right is available to have a look at the trial stages and select another stage or create a new one.