Update Existing Participant Data

While managing your project, you'll likely need to update participant information. There are a few ways to update participant information in MyDataHelps.

Edit Participant Information Directly

A simple way to update existing participants is to open MyDataHelps Designer and click the project. Click the “Participants” tab, and locate and click the participant you would like to update. Next, click “Participant Info” and update the necessary fields.

You will not be able to update email address, phone number, or time zone. Otherwise, all fields may be updated.

Use Coordinator-Entered Surveys

Coordinator-Entered Surveys can be set to update key participant information, such as demographics or custom fields, ensuring that the data entered is formatted as configured in the survey, which avoids potential errors from free-text field entry on the Participant Info tab. For more information on how to use this feature, see the article on Using Coordinator-Entered Surveys.

Bulk Update via CSV

Another way to update existing participant data is to upload a CSV file to the “Add / Invite Participants” tab with the “ParticipantIdentifier” field, along with any information you want to update. Click “Preview and Send Invitations” and make sure “Update Existing Participants” is checked on the next screen. Click “Add Participants” and the participant information will be updated. 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 information 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:

ParticipantIdentifier,Email,LastName,Cohort
MDH001,test1@example.com,Doe,A
MDH002,test2@example.com,Deer,B
MDH003,test3@example.com,Ray,C

A ParticipantIdentifier is always required when updating participants via CSV. If you are instead inviting participants, then only an email address is mandatory. All other fields are optional.

Available fields are listed in the right panel. They include standard fields, described below, and any custom fields you have defined for your project. For an example CSV file with participant data field suggestions, click “Download Example CSV File” at the bottom right hand side of the page.

Standard Fields

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.

ParticipantIdentifier,Email,LastName,SurgeryDate
MDH001,test1@example.com,Doe,1/1/2022
MDH002,test2@example.com,Deer,2/1/2022
MDH003,test3@example.com,Ray,3/1/2022

Be sure that the name in the title row exactly matches the name of your custom field.

Required Fields

A participant identifier is required for each row to uniquely identify each participant when updating existing participants. All other fields are optional.

If you'd like to just invite a handful of people via email without any additional information, you can enter something like the following:

Email
test1@example.com
test2@example.com
test3@example.com

Omitting Fields for Certain Participants

When uploading or updating participants, you can omit optional fields for some participants and not others. Just be sure to leave an empty placeholder in the CSV data for the missing field.

ParticipantIdentifier,LastName,FirstName,Gender
MDH001,Smith,John,Male
MDH002,Jones,Male

ParticipantIdentifier,LastName,FirstName,Gender
MDH001,Smith,John,Male
MDH002,Jones,,Male