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Typical Recruitment & Enrollment Workflows

In general, most projects follow one of these three workflows:
  1. Open Recruitment: Used when participants will be discovering your project. This lets them self-enroll by completing a survey, creating an account, and beginning their participation.
  2. Invitation Only: Used when you have a list of participants to send email and/or SMS invitations or are recruiting in-person. This provides them with a participant-specific link by which they can self-enroll—completing a survey, creating an account, and beginning their participation.
  3. Coordinator-Gated Enrollment: Used when a coordinator needs to review participants for eligibility or those on a waitlist. After completing a coordinator survey documenting that the participant can be invited, a schedule will send the participant an invitation notification that allows them to finish enrollment.

To some degree, you can combine these workflows. For example, you can have both Open Recruitment for participants who find you and Invitations for when you have a list of potential participants.

Open Recruitment

If you do not have a list of participants and they will instead be discovering your project, an Open Recruitment approach allows them to complete screening and enrollment to begin participation all on their own.

Workflow:

  1. Participant learns of a study on a website and clicks a link, launching the recruitment survey.
  2. Participant completes the recruitment survey with basic eligibility checks and consents if eligible.
    1. If ineligible, thanked for their time and stopped in the survey.
  3. Participant is brought to account registration after the survey.
  4. After creating their account, they’re enrolled and begin participation.

Configuration:

  • Screening & Consent Survey
    • Include eligibility questions
    • Include navigation logic to redirect ineligible participants to an End Of Survey Step with Hide Next Button checked (so they do not continue to account creation)
  • Enrollment Settings
    • Invitation Email: N/A
    • Enrollment Survey: Select your screening & consent survey
    • Open Enrollment: Disabled
    • Recruitment Surveys: Add your screening & consent survey; set Actions to take upon survey completion to “Open MyDataHelps account registration”
    • Coordinator Intake Surveys: N/A
  • (Optional) Enrollment Reminders
    • Create email and/or SMS notifications with a Register MyDataHelps Account Link for participants who submit the screening & consent survey but do not create an account
    • Create a segment of participants not enrolled and screened eligible
    • Use a Based On Participant Events schedule filtered for the not enrolled segment just created to send the enrollment reminders X days after entering the segment

Invitation Only

If you already have a list of participants to invite to your study, an Invitation Only approach allows you to send them a notification with a participant-specific link to join on their own.

Workflow:

  1. Study team bulk uploads participants and contact information to MyDataHelps Designer, sending invitations.
    1. If sending SMS notifications, you’ll need to manually send or schedule them.
  2. Participant receives the invitation and follows the link in the email to join.
  3. Participant completes the recruitment survey and consents if eligible.
    1. If ineligible, thanked for their time and stopped in the survey.
  4. Participant is brought to account registration after the survey.
  5. After creating their account, they’re enrolled and begin participation.

Configuration:

  • Screening & Consent Survey
    • Include eligibility questions
    • Include navigation logic to redirect ineligible participants to an End Of Survey Step with Hide Next Button checked (so they do not continue to account creation)
  • Invitation Email & SMS
    • Create an invitation notification with a Web Survey Link
    • Select your screening & consent survey
    • Set the Follow Up Action to “Open MyDataHelps account registration”
  • Enrollment Settings
    • Invitation Email: Set to your invitation email created above
    • Enrollment Survey: Select your screening & consent survey
    • Open Enrollment: Disabled
    • Recruitment Surveys: N/A
    • Coordinator Intake Surveys: N/A
  • (Optional) Invitation Reminders
    • Create email and/or SMS notifications with a screening & consent survey link for participants who do not submit the screening & consent survey 
    • Create a segment of participants not screened
    • Use a Based On Participant Events schedule filtered for the segment just created to send the invitation reminders X days after entering the segment
  • (Optional) Enrollment Reminders
    • Create email and/or SMS notifications with a Register MyDataHelps Account Link for participants who submit the screening & consent survey but do not create an account
    • Create a segment of participants not enrolled and screened eligible
    • Use a Based On Participant Events schedule filtered for the not enrolled segment just created to send the enrollment reminders X days after entering the segment
  • Bulk Upload
    • Use the Add/ Invite Participants tab to bulk invite participants

Alternatively, if you are recruiting participants in-person, you can add them manually and invite them to join on their own. The process is the same as the above, with the exception of:

  • You’ll create a Coordinator Intake Survey that captures their contact information and optionally a participant identifier. You’ll use this intake survey instead of the bulk upload.
  • You’ll create a Schedule that is triggered by the coordinator intake survey being completed, sending the invitation email and/or SMS.
  • On the Enrollment Settings tab, you’ll add your coordinator intake survey under Coordinator Intake Surveys.

Coordinator-Gated Enrollment

If your study involves gathering interested participants for a waitlist or study team review, a Coordinator-Gated Enrollment approach allows participants to submit information prior to them being invited to enroll.

Workflow:

  1. Participant learns of a study on a website and clicks a link, launching the recruitment survey.
  2. Participant completes the recruitment survey, providing contact information.
  3. Study team reviews the participant, completing a coordinator survey to confirm enrollment approval.
  4. Participant receives the invitation and follows the link in the email to join.
  5. Participant is brought to account registration after the survey.
  6. After creating their account, they’re enrolled and begin participation.

Configuration:

  • Screening Survey
    • Include all questions needed to assess eligibility
    • Capture contact information (email address and/or phone number)
  • Consent Survey
    • Capture consent
  • Coordinator Survey
    • As needed, create a checklist survey of all eligibility to be confirmed by the coordinator
  • Invitation Email & SMS
    • Create an invitation notification with a Web Survey Link
    • Select your consent survey
    • Set the Follow Up Action to “Open MyDataHelps account registration”
  • Invitation Schedule
    • Create a schedule that is triggered by the coordinator survey being completed
    • Sends the invitation email and/or SMS
  • Enrollment Settings
    • Invitation Email: N/A
    • Enrollment Survey: Select your consent survey
    • Open Enrollment: Disabled
    • Recruitment Surveys: Add your screening survey
    • Coordinator Intake Surveys: N/A
  • (Optional) Enrollment Reminders
    • Create email and/or SMS notifications with a Register MyDataHelps Account Link for participants who submitted the screening & consent survey but did not create an account
    • Create a segment of participants not enrolled and screened eligible
    • Use a Based On Participant Events schedule filtered for the not enrolled segment just created to send the enrollment reminders X days after entering the segment