Participants can join your project in a few different ways, as described in enrolling using MyDataHelps. You can also invite participants manually.
- Open your project and go to the "Add/Invite Participants" tab.
- Paste in comma-separated value (CSV) data or upload a CSV file containing the participant data.
- Select "Preview and Send Invitations."
- Confirm the data for each participant in the invitation preview, and elect whether to enable MyDataHelps enrollment and send invitation emails. These options are described in more detail below.
- Select "Add Participants."
By default, invited participants may enroll in the project using the MyDataHelps app. You can un-check the "Enable Enrolling via MyDataHelps" option if you want to enroll participants via a shared study device in a clinical setting.
Also by default, a standard invitation email is sent to all participants. You can un-check the "Send Invitation Email" option if you don't want to send these automatic emails. Some projects prefer to send invitations through their existing email channels, where you can customize the appearance of invitations, control the timing of deliveries, or track email analytics.
Updating Invitations
If you include a the "ParticipantIdentifier" field in your CSV data, you will be presented with the "Update Existing Participants" option. If this option is checked, the system will update data for any existing participants whose identifiers are on the list. New participants will be added as normal.
Existing participants will not receive an email invitation, and you will not see the "Send Invitations" option if there are no new participants. Email and phone number are associated with the participant's MyDataHelps account, and cannot be updated in this fashion.
Formatting Your CSV Data
You can enter invitations manually in the text field, or upload a Comma-Separated Value (CSV) file, exported from Microsoft Excel or a similar application.
The first line will contain the field names for each column. Additional lines will contain data for each participant, one per line, with the fields separated by commas. For example:
Email,LastName,Gender
test@example.com,Smith,Male
test2@example.com,Jones,Male
test3@example.com,Williams,Female
Available fields are listed in the right panel. They include standard fields, described below, and any custom fields you have defined for your project.
Standard Fields
Field | Description |
---|---|
Email |
The participant's email address. This field is required. |
ParticipantIdentifier |
A unique ID you assign to each participant. Note: If you enable "Requires Identifier Validation" in your project settings, the participant will be required to input this identifier to complete enrollment. RKStudio will not send or display this identifier to the participant, so you will need to provide the identifier to the participant yourself, or enter it for them in a clinic setting. |
|
The pieces of a participant's name are entered as individual fields. |
DOB |
The participant's date of birth. Supported formats include:
|
Gender |
The participant's gender. Supported values include:
|
SecondaryIdentifier |
This field can represent any other identifier you wish to associate with the patient, such as a Medical Record Number. |
Custom Fields
If you have defined your own custom fields for participants, you can set those custom fields in the CSV data just as you would a standard field. For example, if you have a custom field named "SurgeryDate", you can specify it for any participants whose date of surgery is known at the time of invitation and leave it blank for others.
Email,LastName,SurgeryDate,Gender
test@example.com,Smith,6/1/2020,Male
test2@example.com,Jones,,Male
test3@example.com,Williams,8/15/2020,Female
Be sure that the name in the title row exactly matches the name of your custom field.
Required Fields
An email address or participant identifier is required for each row, to uniquely identify each participant. The participant identifier is required (even if you have specified an email) if you have enabled "Requires Identifier Validation" in your project settings. All other fields are optional.
For instance, if you'd like to just invite a handful of people via email and do not want to enter an identifier, name, DOB, or anything else, you can enter something like the following:
test@example.com
test2@example.com
test3@example.com
Omitting Fields for Certain Participants
Other than email, which is required for every row, you can omit fields for some participants and not others. Just be sure to leave an empty placeholder in the CSV data for the missing field.
Email,LastName,FirstName,Gender |
Incorrect Jones has only 3 fields, but there are 4 titles. |
Email,LastName,FirstName,Gender |
Correct Jones has an empty placeholder field for FirstName. |