Investigators conducting a clinical trial may be asked to send large quantities of case report forms to the sponsor via facsimile, which can be very time consuming. How quickly a printed page feeds through a facsimile machine was tested using a case report form with 16 different shaded boxes, three facsimile machines, and two printers. How do shaded boxes on a form affect the scanning time? The darkest and the lightest shading took the shortest amount of time, the medium shading the longest. Since printers, copiers, and facsimile machines can vary, an actual case report form(s) from a patient binder should be faxed to determine scanning time.
