Typical 'Collect Data' Event

How do I set up a 'Collect Data' event for a typical device (pedometer, scale)? 

  1. After you add your device to the study, select 'Study Arms' from the Manage Study drop-down list. Then select 'Manage Event Schedule' for the arm where you want to add the 'Collect Data' event.  
    1. (warning) Not sure how to add a device? See 'Collect Data' Event for instructions.



  2. Click the blue 'Add New event' button and select 'Collect Data' as the event type. The devices can be viewed by navigating to the Devices section in Manage Study.



  3. Select the device from the options in the drop-down list. This will auto-populate all of the devices that you have set up in Way to Health.  




  4. Name the event. 



  5. Choose the day when the event should start and the event window.  The event window is the time that the participant has to complete either a weigh in or a pedometer sync.  
    1. (lightbulb) Tip! For pedometer or scale device upload events, typically, participants are asked to start weighing in or syncing their pedometers on Day 0 or Day 1 and they have the entire day to do so (12:00 am - 11:59 pm) 


  6. Indicate how many times the event should repeat.
    1. (lightbulb)Tip! For pedometer or scale device upload events, typically, participants are asked to weigh in or sync their pedometer every day for the entire duration of the study. 


  7. For daily data collection, typically you don't want to send a message on the Collect Data event itself since it will occur at the frequency selected. 
    1. (lightbulb) Tip! To inform the participant that they should sync their Fitbit or weigh in on their scale every day, create a 'Send a Message' event with instructions or welcome to study message. 

  8. You are now ready to build logic on the 'Collect Data' event.  Click the 'Save and Define Logic' button. 



  9. Inside the 'Collect Data' logic, you can designate completion or compliance criteria. Select If 'This event was completed' for completion or 'This event's data' for compliance (meeting goal). 



  10. Choose the device field (i.e steps) and the operator (i.e >).  Then select either amount or target.
    1. Amount: a set number for all study participants. For example, 7,000 steps
    2. Target: an individualized step count goal for each study participant 
      1. (warning) Note: In order to use a target for compliance, a target generator must be set up from the 'Target Configurations' page.  See Targets for guidance. 



  11. If evaluating compliance, WTH will automatically set compliance as an action. Click the blue 'Save Feedback' at the bottom of the page.



  12. Your new 'Collect Data' event is now visible in the Overview of the schedule. 



  13. (plus) Want to send the participant a message based on the step count total from the previous day? Instead of building this as a logic message directly in the Fitbit event, send the message via an 'Add Logic' event.  See Send a Conditional Message for more information on how to set up custom feedback messages based on devices and other event types.

    1. Why should I send the message via 'Send a Conditional Message'? If you send the message using logic built directly off of the Add Data event, you will not have control over the timing of the feedback message. Way to Health will send the message to the participant immediately following the Add Data event closes, and this is typically at midnight. While Way to Health has a safeguard in place to prevent messages from going out prior to 8 am (unless otherwise specified in the profile), a participant may not appreciate receiving a text message at 8 am on a Saturday(sad).  With 'Send a Conditional Message' you can control the timing of the feedback messaging.

  14. (plus)If you want to relay the participant's target to them in the daily message (i.e. 'You only walked X steps yesterday and your goal was Y steps.  Try harder today!') then you should build this as a  'Send a Conditional Message' Event and use your defined Variables.