Within the project settings, you can choose to define specific surveys that can be completed via web to add a participant to your project in MyDataHelps Designer. This does not require the participant to immediately create a MyDataHelps account or download the app. For example, the “New Participant Survey Links” feature can be used to implement waitlists to gather interest in your study or to screen participants before having them create a MyDataHelps account and join your project.
While waitlists and screening surveys are not the only options available with the New Participant Survey Links, this article will cover how you can utilize New Participant Survey Links to implement these.
Gathering Participant Interest via Waitlist
Waitlists can be especially useful before your project launches, so that you don’t miss out on potential interested participants. The first step in implementing a waitlist is creating the survey. The waitlist survey should collect the participant’s contact information, as well as any other pertinent information for the study. In the example below, the project is collecting first name, last name, and email address.
When collecting demographic information via survey, make sure to map the appropriate survey responses to the corresponding demographic fields, such as “Email.”
Once you have published your survey, you will need to define it within Project Settings. Since we are implementing a waitlist, we will not enable enrolling via MyDataHelps or select a follow up action for the participant upon completing the survey. To configure this:
- Navigate to your project > Enrollment Settings > New Participant Survey Links.
- Select the Waitlist survey from the drop-down menu
- Click Save Project Settings at the bottom of the page
As soon as a potential participant completes the survey using the QR code or link in the image above, they will be added to the Participants tab. We recommend creating a segment that evaluates for potential participants who are not enrolled and have a Survey Answer for the waitlist survey. You can either create schedules or utilize segment actions to notify participants once enrollment opens.
Screening Participants Before Account Creation
Participant screening surveys allow interested parties to determine whether they are eligible to enroll without investing significant time, therefore, improving the overall participant experience with your digital study. In this scenario, we will implement a screening survey, and if the participant is eligible to join the study, they will be prompted to create a MyDataHelps account and join the study.
Start by creating your screening survey. If you only wish to gather information of eligible participants, the survey should contain validation logic that prevents the users from completing it if they are not eligible. For example, the Eligibility survey step below, warns a participant that they are not eligible if they answer “No” to either question and advises them to exit the survey.
Once you have published your survey, you will need to define it within Project Settings > New Participant Survey Links, similar to the steps outlined in the previous section. Since eligible participants should be directed to enroll after completing the survey, check “Enable Enrolling via MyDataHelps” and select a follow-up action of “Open MyDataHelps account registration.”
Allow Enrollment via Code must be enabled in order to allow participants to proceed directly to account registration.
Additional Applications
As mentioned above, these are not the only two scenarios that can be accomplished using New Participant Survey Links. For example, you could create a link for your consent survey or set your consent survey as the follow up action after completing the eligibility screening. In this scenario, you will want to update the “Enrollment Survey” field within Project Settings so that the participant does not have to complete consent twice. For example, you could have a brief introductory Welcome survey as your “Enrollment Survey” that greets the participant immediately upon MyDataHelps account creation.
Keep in mind that these New Participant Survey Links are not unique, so each time the survey is completed using the link or QR code, a new participant will be added to the Participants tab of your project (e.g., if the same participant clicks on it twice and completes the survey, you will have duplicate entries for that participant).