This release includes new features surrounding Contact Methods to standardize Relationships, enhance the accuracy of address collection and archiving, and keep notes on how to best communicate with participants.
New Features & Functionality
Relationship to Participant is now a drop-down list.
We are excited to announce the release of an important enhancement to our Contact Methods cards! This feature allows you to standardize the Relationship to Participant field to make it easier for your team to understand who the participant has given as an alternate contact and what their relationship is.
In this update, Study Admins can create a customized Relationship to Participant drop-down (list) which is created at the study level on the Requirements page. The drop-down list features are implemented at a Global (site-wide) level and will be applied to all studies and the Registry. Learn more about how to create your drop-down options here.
Work with your team to create a consistent, site-wide Relationship to Participant drop-down list. This list will aid recruiters, research assistants, and managers to understand who is important to your participant, what their relationship is, and give clues on how to address the alternate contact. The options should be descriptive and concise.
Some example Relationship to Participant options include:
- Parent
- Legal Guardian
- Spouse
- Child
- Sibling
- Case Worker
- Caregiver
- Healthcare Provider
- Friend
How are current data in this field handled in the update?
This release also updates all current Contact Methods cards with the default setting of “Other” option in the new drop-down. The text that was previously in the field before this change will appear in the details box below the drop-down. The data previously entered is also maintained in your data export.
Previous data will appear on the Contact Methods list like this example:
Leave a Contact Note on an individual’s Contact Methods card.
This new release allows users to further personalize and tailor their interaction with contacts. Participants often have unique circumstances around contact needs. For example, a participant may have one phone number to call during the day time, and another phone number to call on evenings. Now, you can leave a Contact Note on a Contact Method card to communicate with team members on what to consider when reaching out to this contact.
When you go to the Contact Methods on a participant’s profile card, they’ll have a blue comment icon on their card if they have a Contact Note. You can click on this icon to pop open their card and see the Contact Note.
See when a contact person or method was archived.
Participants may change who their alternate contacts are, which contact methods they use, and where they’re living, especially in a long study. Users have always had the option to archive a contact person or method that’s no longer in use, but may still be important for participants. Teams can now see when that contact method or person was archived so that they can determine how old the contact is and whether it may still be worth contacting.
Users will still archive contact methods and people as they did before by clicking on the yellow folder icon. To see when the information was archived, the user will click “Show Archived Contacts” or “Show Archived Method” and hover over the folder icon.
Site Admins can also view when contact information was archived by exporting Participant Contacts using the Export Tool. They also have the ability to import an archived date and time.
Can I see the archive information for data that was archived before the release?
Users can only see the archived date and time data for contact information that’s archived after the release.
Participant’s addresses can now be verified by Google.
This release also includes an update to make sure your team is collecting verified addresses! The Address field on a Contact Methods card is now synced to Google Streets to help users determine and verify a participant’s address. Users will start typing in the address and choose the correct one from the list. Once the correct address is chosen, Ripple will populate the remaining fields. This will help ensure that users are collecting accurate, verified address information for mailings and data analysis.
Where can I use this feature?
This feature is only available when a user opens up a Contact Methods card within a participant’s profile. If a participant or user is typing in their address on a survey, they will not be able to use this feature.
How are current data in this field handled in the update?
Current data will not be changed or removed.
Fixes
- The Contact Outcome Values now have a delete button next to all created Outcome options. Note: you cannot delete the “Other” option.
Ripple v.1.106 & v.1.107