Event Blocks allow for flexible scheduling which can help managing participant schedules easier. However, Event Blocks and events within blocks can act differently between participants. Different event block triggers can also affect how an Event Block is created. Here are the scenarios that could occur when using Event Blocks on a live study:
Specific Date and Birthday Event Blocks
Specific Date Event Blocks are used to set events on specific dates (e.g. Christmas).
If your study is using Event Blocks based on specific dates, it is important to note all participants may not receive that Event Block if you have an intervention length set on the study arm.
For example: If your study is 6-months long and you have a Christmas Event Block, participants that enroll in January will not receive that Event Block because they would finish before they could get to that block.
Participant Birthday Blocks are special blocks that occur on the participant’s birthday which is obtained during enrollment via the Account Creation or Profile form.
Similar to Specific Date Event Blocks, depending on the intervention length, not all participants will receive a Birthday Event Block.
Adding New Event Blocks to an Arm
When adding new Event Blocks to a live study, it can affect participants.
For Specific Date and Birthday blocks:
Participants that have an intervention window including these dates will have these blocks scheduled.
Participants that have an intervention window that is outside of these dates will not get these blocks.
For Data Source blocks:
It will not immediately get scheduled for the participant. This block will appear in the participants' Unscheduled tab in their Events page where staff can manually schedule the Event Block.
When new data comes in for that block, then it will get scheduled for the participant.
If data comes in for an Event Block that is in the past, it will either be marked as Skipped or will get scheduled immediately, based on the settings of each event within that block.