Handling Event Blocks
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.
Setting Event Block based on Arm-Specific Enrollment Survey
You can use data from an arm-specific enrollment survey to schedule an Event Block.
One of the following scenarios could happen:
If the participant has been Started and the date from the survey is in the future, it will be scheduled and events will run as normal.
If the participant has been Started and the date from the survey is in the past, it will be scheduled and the events will be marked as Skipped.
If the participant sits in the Ready status and the date from the survey becomes in the past, it will be scheduled and the events will be marked as Skipped.
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.
Adding New Events within an Event Block of an Arm
You can add new events to an Event Block after a study has launched.
For participants that do not have that Event Block, nothing happens when a new event is added.
For participants that have the Event Block and the event is non-repeating, one of the following will happen:
If the event is in the past, it will get marked as Skipped and nothing participant-facing will occur.
If the event is in the future, it will be scheduled for that date and the event will trigger when that date comes.
For participants that have the Event Block and the event is repeating, the following will happen:
All repeats in the past will be marked as Skipped.
All repeats in the future will be scheduled and ran.
Updating Event Block Settings
You can adjust Event Block settings on the arm level after participants have started in the study.
Making edits to Event Blocks will affect participants in one of 3 ways:
Participants who had the Event Block but now don’t meet the criteria for the new changes will have the Event Block removed.
Any events associated with the Event Block will also be removed.
Participants who did not have the Event Block but now meet the criteria for the new changes will be given the Event Block.
Participants who had the Event Block and still meet the criteria for the new changes will have their old block removed and a new block will be added.
You can also delete Event Blocks after participants have started.
If a participant has the Event Block and it is deleted on the arm level, their block will be deleted. Any events that have already happened will remain with the Event Details. Any events that were in the future will be deleted.
If a participant has the Event Block but all of the events are in the future, the entire block will be deleted.
If a participant doesn’t have the Event Block, nothing happens to their event schedule.
Updating Events within an Event Block
You can edit events within an Event Block after participants have started.
Making edits to events within Event Blocks will affect participants in one of 3 ways:
Participants with the Event Block but the event has already been rescheduled on the participant level, nothing happens.
Participants with the Event Block and the event hasn’t been rescheduled, the event will update to match the new edits.
If the event is non-repeating and was already marked Completed/Compliant/Skipped, the event adjusts to match the new edits but remains Completed/Compliant/Skipped. Therefore, the event will not trigger any participant-facing content or logic to run.
If the event is non-repeating and is moved to be in the past for the participant, it is marked as Skipped and logic won’t run on those events.
If the event is non-repeating and is in the future, it will run as normal.
If the event is repeating, any events in the past will remain marked Completed/Compliant/Skipped and any events in the future will be updated and run as normal.
Participants without the Event Block won’t have anything occur.
Rescheduling Participants' Event Blocks
Event Blocks can be rescheduled manually or by the system when new data comes in. Rescheduled Event Blocks can cause changes to participants' event schedules.
Manually rescheduled Event Blocks will update all events within the block to their new dates and can cause one of the following:
If the Event Block is being moved into the future:
Any Completed/Compliant/Skipped events will remain that way and logic won’t run on those events.
Any future event will run logic as normal.
If the Event Block is being moved into the past:
Any Completed/Compliant/Skipped events will remain that way and logic won’t run on those events.
Any future events will be marked as Skipped and logic will not run on those events.
New data that comes in can cause the system to reschedule Event Blocks based on the Event Block settings. When that happens:
The Event Block will update the date to match the new date.
All events in the block will be reopened and evaluated based on the new date.
Any event in the past will be marked ask Skipped and will not run any logic.
Any event in the future will run logic as normal.
Scheduling Events with Dates from the Past
When creating events within an Event Block, there is a setting to determine what happens to the event if the date of the Event Block is in the past.
For non-windowed events:
If the event is configured to be skipped, it will get marked as Skipped and logic/messaging will not run on the event.
If the event is configured to be scheduled immediately, it will be completed and logic/messaging will run as soon as the date for the Event Block comes into W2H.
For windowed events:
If the event is configured to be skipped, it will get marked as Skipped and logic/messaging will not run on the event.
If the event is configured to be scheduled immediately, it will be completed and logic/messaging will run as soon as the date for the Event Block comes into W2H. The window on the event will match the original window and the start/end times will adjust based on when the event is scheduled.