MyDataHelps Designer allows custom notifications to be sent to participants via the MyDataHelps app (a "push notification"), SMS/text, or email. You may create any number of custom notifications for your organization, share them across all your projects, and make them available in multiple languages. MyDataHelps Designer's advanced rules engine can send notifications based on a variety of conditions, including date, patient demographics, and more.
Contents
Notification Types
MyDataHelps Designer can send three types of notifications:
- Push - a notification "pushed" from MyDataHelps to the participant's mobile device.
- SMS - a text message sent to a mobile phone number.
- Email - an electronic mail message.
Push notifications will only be visible to the participant if they have MyDataHelps installed and have notifications enabled on their device.
Notification Triggers
MyDataHelps Designer's advanced rules engine can send notifications based on a variety of triggers, including:
- Date (e.g., weekly or on a specific date)
- Recent Activity (e.g., adherence, survey answers, enrollment, device usage, surgery date)
- Clinical Data (e.g., labs, medications)
- Participant Demographics (e.g., age, sex, date of birth)
Triggers may be simple (e.g. send notification at 2PM on Friday August 7th) or involve more complex rules (e.g. send notification if a survey has not been completed in 17 days). Please see the Scheduling article for further information on automating notifications.
You can have multiple triggers for the same notification, as long as they share a common message.
Creating Notifications
To create a notification:
- Navigate to the "Notifications" section of MyDataHelps Designer.
- Click "Add Notification" in the top left.
- Select the notification type (SMS Message, Push Notification, Email).
- Complete the necessary fields based on the notification type, as explained below: SMS Notification Fields, Push Notification Fields, Email Notification Fields.
Notification Identifiers
All notifications have an internal identifier. This must be unique within your organization.
It is helpful to develop a consistent naming convention for identifiers before you start creating notifications. Many projects use a format of {Project}-{BriefDescription}-{Type} for their notifications. For example, SLEEP-Recontact-Email. This indicates to the project team that this notification is used for the SLEEP Project, is used for a recontact purpose, and is an email. You may use "ALL" for the project if a notification is shared across all your projects.
If you change an identifier after the delivery triggers have been activated by CareEvolution, the trigger will no longer work and the message will not be sent.
Notification Descriptions and Triggers
Each notification has a description field. This is for reference by you and CareEvolution support, and is never shown to the participant. Use the description to record:
- Your own notes about the notification's purpose.
- Notes for CareEvolution support staff describing your desired delivery triggers, the conditions under which you want the notification delivered. See Notification Triggers for more information.
You can have multiple triggers for the same notification, as long as they share a common message.
SMS Notification Fields
| PROPERTY | FUNCTION |
|---|---|
| Identifier | Used internally to identify the notification. See Notification Identifiers for details. |
| Description | Notes about the notification's purpose and delivery triggers. See Notification Descriptions and Triggers for details. |
| Body | The contents of the SMS/text message, in plain-text format. |
Push Notification Fields
| PROPERTY | FUNCTION |
|---|---|
| Identifier | Used internally to identify the notification. See Notification Identifiers for details. |
| Description | Notes about the notification's purpose and delivery triggers. See Notification Descriptions and Triggers for details. |
| Title | A title/heading shown above the message body. |
| Body | The main body of the message, in plain-text format. |
Email Notification Fields
| PROPERTY | FUNCTION |
|---|---|
| Identifier | Used internally to identify the notification. See Notification Identifiers for details. |
| Description | Notes about the notification's purpose and delivery triggers. See Notification Descriptions and Triggers for details. |
| Subject | The email subject. |
| Body | The body of the email message. You may use the default rich text editor or code your email using HTML (click the </> symbol within the editing bar to open the code view). It is a recommended best practice to test the delivery using real emails, on various email applications, before sending to participants. |
To upload an image from your computer to your email notification, either drag and drop it into the rich text editor window or click the image icon in the toolbar. This image will automatically be hosted by CareEvolution. To view the "Source" URL of the hosted image, click on the image, then click the pencil icon.
Viewing Your Notifications
You can view and edit your custom notifications by going to the "Notifications" section of MyDataHelps Designer (in the top menu bar).
Click on any notification to edit it. Select the trash icon to delete it.
If you have many notifications, you can use the drop-down menu at the top right to switch between showing all notifications or only notifications of a particular type. You can also use the search box to search your notifications.
Copying Notifications
If you have multiple similar notifications, you can copy an existing one as a starting point.
- Click the "Copy" button next to the existing notification.
- The new notification will have the original's identifier, with "_copy" appended. For example, "SLEEP-HealthTip-Email_copy."
- Edit the new notification. Give it a proper identifier, according to your naming convention, and change the other fields as needed. Be sure to edit every language if you are using multiple languages.
Using Dynamic Fields in Notifications
Within the title/subject or body of any notification, you can use dynamic fields like a participant's demographic information (name, state) or custom fields (if you have defined any). See Using Dynamic Fields for more information.
Make sure the custom field has been defined in each project that wishes to use a notification containing that custom field.
Creating Multi-Lingual Notifications
To make a notification available in multiple languages:
- Select the "Language" menu at the top of the notification and select a language.
- Enter the translated text for the notification in that language. Any fields left blank will use the English text. The identifier, description and type are the same in all languages.
Testing Notifications
The envelope icon will send a test notification so you can check out how the message looks when delivered.
You will be prompted to enter the identifier of the participant who will receive the test notification. You can find participant identifiers in the participant viewer.
You may want to create a dummy/test participant in your project linked to your own phone/email for test purposes.
If there is a problem delivering the message, the system will display an error message explaining why. If the system says that the delivery was successful but the participant did not receive it, see the next section for troubleshooting tips.
Sending Notifications
There are 3 different ways you can send a notification to a participant:
- To schedule notification delivery on a specific day, on a periodic basis, or based on events in the participant experience, please see Scheduling Survey Delivery
- To send a notification to a group of participants based on pre-set criteria, please see Performing Actions With a Segment
- To send a notification to a particular participant please use the Notifications Tab in the participant viewer for the participant of interest
By default, an email/SMS notification will be delivered to the email address/phone number that is stored in the demographic field for the participant. However, you can also create custom fields to store additional phone numbers and email addresses and send notifications to those.
Troubleshooting Notifications
If a participant is having trouble receiving notifications, check the "Notifications" tab in the participant viewer to see what notifications have been delivered to that participant.
The "Delivery Status" column indicates whether the notification was delivered successfully, so check there first to see if there are obvious errors. For example, if it says "MissingContactInfo" for an SMS or email notification, the participant may not have a mobile number or email address on file.
If you believe the notification should have gone through, but the participant still isn't receiving it, there are a few additional things you can check:
- Make sure their contact information (email and/or mobile number) is correct.
- For emails, make sure the email isn't being routed to their spam folder.
- For push notifications, make sure the participant hasn't disabled notifications in their device settings. Participants must also have the MyDataHelps app downloaded and be logged in for push notifications to be received.
If the problem persists, you can contact us for additional assistance.