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Participant Fields Overview

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While most project teams are familiar with survey fields (variables collecting survey responses), MyDataHelps Designer also has fields that collect participant information. By storing participant information like name, participant ID, or diabetes diagnosis date in their own fields, you can:

  • Perform dynamic text replacement (e.g. “Hi [name]”).
  • Easily access information (e.g. display participant ID as a segment column).
  • Use it for logic (e.g. “if DiabetesDiagnosis is not empty, send DiabetesSurvey”).

All data stored in these fields is accessible on the Participant Info tab of the Participant Viewer.

Table of Contents

Types of Participant Fields

Refer to the Types of Participant Fields article for more information.

MyDataHelps Designer has a few participant field types that can store participant information:

  • Demographic Fields: These are fields that capture standard demographic information (e.g. name, email, gender, etc.). New demographic fields cannot be created.
     
  • Identifier Fields: These are fields used to identify a participant, including a MyDataHelps ID that is consistent across all projects and a project-specific participant ID.
     
  • Custom Fields: These are fields that can capture almost any type of value required by your project(s). You can create many different types of custom fields, including text, numerical, and dates.
Custom fields are restricted to letters, numbers, and/or underscores (Word characters). Using CamelCase is recommended for ease of readability. Legacy projects may have custom fields with other characters, including spaces. These legacy fields will not be impacted. However, users will be restricted to Word characters only for any custom fields they add to their legacy projects moving forward.

Populating Participant Fields

Refer to the Populating Participant Fields article for more information.

There are many methods to populate your participant fields with values:

  • Participant Surveys: Populate via a participant’s survey answer.
    Example: Store a participant’s Yes or No answer to “Do you smoke?” in a SmokeStatus custom text field.
     
  • Coordinator Surveys: Populate via a study team’s input in a coordinator survey.
    Example: When completing a Participant Withdrawal coordinator survey, store the selected reason for withdrawal into a WithdrawalReason custom text field.
     
  • Schedules Actions: Populate a custom field automatically when a schedule is triggered.
    Example: Clear the value of the NextVisitDate custom date field when the Visit Canceled schedule is triggered.
     
  • Segment Actions: Populate a custom field manually for an entire segment of participants.
    Example: For a segment of participants younger than 18 years old, set the Minor custom text field to Yes.
     
  • Participant Viewer: Populate individual participant fields for a specific participant manually.
    Example: Update a participant’s phone number.
     
  • CSV Upload: Populate participant fields in bulk across any number of participants and fields. Can occur prior to invitation or after enrollment.
    Example: Upload a screening log CSV that contains many of the demographic and custom field data for participants.
A participant’s email can automatically be populated by their MyDataHelps account email address and their project-specific ID is automatically generated when they are added to the project.

Using Participant Fields

Refer to the Using Participant Fields article for more information.

Participant fields are powerful and can be applied in a variety of manners:

  • Dynamic Text Replacement: Personalize notifications by dynamically displaying participant field values such as name. Survey prompts and default values can be configured to display participant field values, such as a surgery date.
     
  • Segment, Schedule, & Survey Navigation Logic: Drive your project with participant field values. The filter criteria for both segments and schedules can leverage participant fields; schedules can also be triggered by custom date fields. Ensure only relevant survey steps are displayed to participants by skipping steps based upon participant information (e.g., skip “How many cigarettes do you smoke?” if their SmokingStatus custom text field is “No”).
     
  • Accessing Participant Info: Easily access key information about your participants by displaying participant fields as segment columns or referencing them in the Participant Data Export.

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