Advice on designing a CommCare app for this survey

Users
1

Hello all -- I would like your wise advice on the smartest way to implement
CommCare for a certain purpose.

We are considering using CommCare to implement a large health survey, which
will ask the respondent questions and get some medical information,
totaling about 100 fields.

Then, for a certain number of those respondents (for simplicity, let's say,
just for those people that answered "Yes" on question #5) we are going to
want to then schedule exactly two follow-up visits ... one three months
later, and one six months later... and in those visits, we will ask more
questions and collect a bit of extra medical info into forms.

Notice that since the number of follow-up visits will be only two, and at
these two follow up visits, the questions asked will be much fewer than the
large initial form -- My first reaction is that this might not be a good
situation to use case management to record

Here are my first two guesses on how this could be done in CommCare. But,
please (1) let me know if one or both of these could be good or bad, and
(2) let me know any other method that I am forgetting.

1-- I could build it so that the initial long survey form creates two
"child cases" if the user answered "yes" to question 5. One of those child
cases would be in a form called "Followup visit 1" and the other would be
called "followup visit 2." Those forms would have only the fields that
would be needed for those visits.

  • However, if I did this method... would it be difficult to do data
    reporting so that a report would, in one single line, integrate all three
    separate forms for, for example, respondent #41, Joe Smith? The report
    would have one entry that had not only what he said on the big initial
    visit, but also what that respondent said over in the followup 1 form, and
    also what he responded over in the followup 2 form?
  • Any other benefits or problems with this method?

2-- Or, I could build it so that there was only one large form, which had
not only the 100 initial questions in it, but also after that, a section
with the fields for followup visit 1, and then the section of fields for
followup visit 3, all together in one large giant form. Then I suppose
that ... it could be configured as an Edit Form...? so that 3 and 6 months
later, we could return to it on those subsequent visits and fill out the
second and third sections.

  • This one truly doesn't quite feel like it would be a very good way to
    do it. Just that it would make reporting quite clear as all that patient's
    data would be in one big form. Thoughts?

3-- Lastly -- what other method could I use to implement the survey plus
two follow-up visits, as I describe above?

I greatly appreciate your smart thoughts and your experienced knowledge on
this... Also, I might implement CommConnect SMS messages to remind people
of those two follow-up visits at 3 and 6 months, in case that influences
your thoughts on the best structure.

THANKS --

Eric

2

Eric,

I would highly recommend the first option over the second. We do not
recommend or support the second workflow whereby you'd be saving forms as
incomplete for a long period of time and returning to them later. There are
two major possible issues that can arise here from this.

First, if you update your application on HQ while your device has
incomplete forms, its possible for your device to get into a state where it
can no longer parse the saved incomplete forms and that data will be lost.
Second, incomplete forms don't get sent to the server so if anything
happens to the device or you need to uninstall that application in that six
month period, all that data will be lost or your workflow will be broken.

Having two follow up forms, each with their own case list that shows only
eligible cases to be followed up with (IE the 3- or 6- month period has
passed and these are the cases that answered "yes" to question 5) seems far
more organic and will likely be much more manageable for your field team.

I can't speak too much to your options for getting this export into the
format you describe, but this should be straightforward with either our
tools or a transformation on your exported data. In particular, case data
exports
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/Case+Data+Export should
do exactly what you're looking for provided you don't overwrite any case
data in the followup forms.

Best,
Will

··· On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 4:46 AM, Eric Stephan wrote:

Hello all -- I would like your wise advice on the smartest way to
implement CommCare for a certain purpose.

We are considering using CommCare to implement a large health survey,
which will ask the respondent questions and get some medical information,
totaling about 100 fields.

Then, for a certain number of those respondents (for simplicity, let's
say, just for those people that answered "Yes" on question #5) we are going
to want to then schedule exactly two follow-up visits ... one three
months later, and one six months later... and in those visits, we will ask
more questions and collect a bit of extra medical info into forms.

Notice that since the number of follow-up visits will be only two, and at
these two follow up visits, the questions asked will be much fewer than the
large initial form -- My first reaction is that this might not be a
good situation to use case management to record

Here are my first two guesses on how this could be done in CommCare. But,
please (1) let me know if one or both of these could be good or bad, and
(2) let me know any other method that I am forgetting.

1-- I could build it so that the initial long survey form creates two
"child cases" if the user answered "yes" to question 5. One of those child
cases would be in a form called "Followup visit 1" and the other would be
called "followup visit 2." Those forms would have only the fields that
would be needed for those visits.

  • However, if I did this method... would it be difficult to do data
    reporting so that a report would, in one single line, integrate all three
    separate forms for, for example, respondent #41, Joe Smith? The report
    would have one entry that had not only what he said on the big initial
    visit, but also what that respondent said over in the followup 1 form, and
    also what he responded over in the followup 2 form?
  • Any other benefits or problems with this method?

2-- Or, I could build it so that there was only one large form, which had
not only the 100 initial questions in it, but also after that, a section
with the fields for followup visit 1, and then the section of fields for
followup visit 3, all together in one large giant form. Then I suppose
that ... it could be configured as an Edit Form...? so that 3 and 6 months
later, we could return to it on those subsequent visits and fill out the
second and third sections.

  • This one truly doesn't quite feel like it would be a very good way
    to do it. Just that it would make reporting quite clear as all that
    patient's data would be in one big form. Thoughts?

3-- Lastly -- what other method could I use to implement the survey plus
two follow-up visits, as I describe above?

I greatly appreciate your smart thoughts and your experienced knowledge on
this... Also, I might implement CommConnect SMS messages to remind people
of those two follow-up visits at 3 and 6 months, in case that influences
your thoughts on the best structure.

THANKS --

Eric

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3

Hello Will -- I definitely appreciate this thorough feedback. The issues
about incomplete forms will be valuable info for me moving forward. Also,
since you didn't allude to any other possible additional ways of doing this
app, I'll assume that the child case method I described is clearly the
correct way this would be done in commcare.

Thanks! --Eric

··· On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 8:13:40 PM UTC+7, William Pride wrote: > > Eric, > > I would highly recommend the first option over the second. We do not > recommend or support the second workflow whereby you'd be saving forms as > incomplete for a long period of time and returning to them later. There are > two major possible issues that can arise here from this. > > First, if you update your application on HQ while your device has > incomplete forms, its possible for your device to get into a state where it > can no longer parse the saved incomplete forms and that data will be lost. > Second, incomplete forms don't get sent to the server so if anything > happens to the device or you need to uninstall that application in that six > month period, all that data will be lost or your workflow will be broken. > > Having two follow up forms, each with their own case list that shows only > eligible cases to be followed up with (IE the 3- or 6- month period has > passed and these are the cases that answered "yes" to question 5) seems far > more organic and will likely be much more manageable for your field team. > > I can't speak too much to your options for getting this export into the > format you describe, but this should be straightforward with either our > tools or a transformation on your exported data. In particular, case data > exports > should > do exactly what you're looking for provided you don't overwrite any case > data in the followup forms. > > Best, > Will > > On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 4:46 AM, Eric Stephan <este...@fhi360.org > wrote: > >> >> >> Hello all -- I would like your wise advice on the smartest way to >> implement CommCare for a certain purpose. >> >> We are considering using CommCare to implement a large health survey, >> which will ask the respondent questions and get some medical information, >> totaling about 100 fields. >> >> Then, for a certain number of those respondents (for simplicity, let's >> say, just for those people that answered "Yes" on question #5) we are going >> to want to then schedule exactly two *follow-up visits* ... one three >> months later, and one six months later... and in those visits, we will ask >> more questions and collect a bit of extra medical info into forms. >> >> Notice that since the number of follow-up visits will be only two, and at >> these two follow up visits, the questions asked will be much fewer than the >> large initial form -- My first reaction is that this might *not* be a >> good situation to use case management to record >> >> Here are my first two guesses on how this could be done in CommCare. But, >> please (1) let me know if one or both of these could be good or bad, and >> (2) let me know any other method that I am forgetting. >> >> 1-- I could build it so that the initial long survey form creates two >> "child cases" if the user answered "yes" to question 5. One of those child >> cases would be in a form called "Followup visit 1" and the other would be >> called "followup visit 2." Those forms would have only the fields that >> would be needed for those visits. >> >> - However, if I did this method... would it be difficult to do data >> reporting so that a report would, in one single line, integrate all three >> separate forms for, for example, respondent #41, Joe Smith? The report >> would have one entry that had not only what he said on the big initial >> visit, but also what that respondent said over in the followup 1 form, and >> also what he responded over in the followup 2 form? >> - Any other benefits or problems with this method? >> >> 2-- Or, I could build it so that there was only one large form, which had >> not only the 100 initial questions in it, but also after that, a section >> with the fields for followup visit 1, and then the section of fields for >> followup visit 3, all together in one large giant form. Then I suppose >> that ... it could be configured as an Edit Form...? so that 3 and 6 months >> later, we could return to it on those subsequent visits and fill out the >> second and third sections. >> >> - This one truly doesn't quite feel like it would be a very good way >> to do it. Just that it would make reporting quite clear as all that >> patient's data would be in one big form. Thoughts? >> >> 3-- Lastly -- what other method could I use to implement the survey plus >> two follow-up visits, as I describe above? >> >> I greatly appreciate your smart thoughts and your experienced knowledge >> on this... Also, I might implement CommConnect SMS messages to remind >> people of those two follow-up visits at 3 and 6 months, in case that >> influences your thoughts on the best structure. >> >> THANKS -- >> >> Eric >> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "commcare-users" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to commcare-user...@googlegroups.com . >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > >
4

Hi,

My initial thought would be to use case management. This may be
semantics...I would use case management but I wouldn't use child cases
(subcases). I suggest one module with three forms. The first form is your
100 question form that opens a case, the second is your 3 month follow-up
that updates an existing case and the third is your 6 month follow-up that
updates and closes an existing case. This keeps all of your forms in one
module.

The question I can't answer is if you can conditionally close cases based
on the answer to question 5 or if you would have to have a fourth form in
your module that closes cases that don't meet the follow-on criteria.

Sincerely,
Craig

··· On Wednesday, September 10, 2014 1:25:04 PM UTC+5:45, Eric Stephan wrote: > > > Hello Will -- I definitely appreciate this thorough feedback. The issues > about incomplete forms will be valuable info for me moving forward. Also, > since you didn't allude to any other possible additional ways of doing this > app, I'll assume that the child case method I described is clearly the > correct way this would be done in commcare. > > Thanks! --Eric > > On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 8:13:40 PM UTC+7, William Pride wrote: >> >> Eric, >> >> I would highly recommend the first option over the second. We do not >> recommend or support the second workflow whereby you'd be saving forms as >> incomplete for a long period of time and returning to them later. There are >> two major possible issues that can arise here from this. >> >> First, if you update your application on HQ while your device has >> incomplete forms, its possible for your device to get into a state where it >> can no longer parse the saved incomplete forms and that data will be lost. >> Second, incomplete forms don't get sent to the server so if anything >> happens to the device or you need to uninstall that application in that six >> month period, all that data will be lost or your workflow will be broken. >> >> Having two follow up forms, each with their own case list that shows only >> eligible cases to be followed up with (IE the 3- or 6- month period has >> passed and these are the cases that answered "yes" to question 5) seems far >> more organic and will likely be much more manageable for your field team. >> >> I can't speak too much to your options for getting this export into the >> format you describe, but this should be straightforward with either our >> tools or a transformation on your exported data. In particular, case >> data exports >> should >> do exactly what you're looking for provided you don't overwrite any case >> data in the followup forms. >> >> Best, >> Will >> >> On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 4:46 AM, Eric Stephan wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> Hello all -- I would like your wise advice on the smartest way to >>> implement CommCare for a certain purpose. >>> >>> We are considering using CommCare to implement a large health survey, >>> which will ask the respondent questions and get some medical information, >>> totaling about 100 fields. >>> >>> Then, for a certain number of those respondents (for simplicity, let's >>> say, just for those people that answered "Yes" on question #5) we are going >>> to want to then schedule exactly two *follow-up visits* ... one three >>> months later, and one six months later... and in those visits, we will ask >>> more questions and collect a bit of extra medical info into forms. >>> >>> Notice that since the number of follow-up visits will be only two, and >>> at these two follow up visits, the questions asked will be much fewer than >>> the large initial form -- My first reaction is that this might *not* be >>> a good situation to use case management to record >>> >>> Here are my first two guesses on how this could be done in CommCare. >>> But, please (1) let me know if one or both of these could be good or bad, >>> and (2) let me know any other method that I am forgetting. >>> >>> 1-- I could build it so that the initial long survey form creates two >>> "child cases" if the user answered "yes" to question 5. One of those child >>> cases would be in a form called "Followup visit 1" and the other would be >>> called "followup visit 2." Those forms would have only the fields that >>> would be needed for those visits. >>> >>> - However, if I did this method... would it be difficult to do data >>> reporting so that a report would, in one single line, integrate all three >>> separate forms for, for example, respondent #41, Joe Smith? The report >>> would have one entry that had not only what he said on the big initial >>> visit, but also what that respondent said over in the followup 1 form, and >>> also what he responded over in the followup 2 form? >>> - Any other benefits or problems with this method? >>> >>> 2-- Or, I could build it so that there was only one large form, which >>> had not only the 100 initial questions in it, but also after that, a >>> section with the fields for followup visit 1, and then the section of >>> fields for followup visit 3, all together in one large giant form. Then I >>> suppose that ... it could be configured as an Edit Form...? so that 3 and >>> 6 months later, we could return to it on those subsequent visits and fill >>> out the second and third sections. >>> >>> - This one truly doesn't quite feel like it would be a very good way >>> to do it. Just that it would make reporting quite clear as all that >>> patient's data would be in one big form. Thoughts? >>> >>> 3-- Lastly -- what other method could I use to implement the survey plus >>> two follow-up visits, as I describe above? >>> >>> I greatly appreciate your smart thoughts and your experienced knowledge >>> on this... Also, I might implement CommConnect SMS messages to remind >>> people of those two follow-up visits at 3 and 6 months, in case that >>> influences your thoughts on the best structure. >>> >>> THANKS -- >>> >>> Eric >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "commcare-users" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to commcare-user...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >>
5

Eric,

To follow through a bit, yes, I'd recommend using a workflow case to
capture the process you're describing. Incomplete forms are intended to be
used as a tool to quickly save and restore state if, for instance, you
needed to resume a long form in an hour or a day. If you want to split up
an interaction into sections using a case to capture the overall process
will both provide a more robust and flexible way for people to be able to
complete that task reliably.

-Clayton

··· On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 4:19 AM, Craig A. wrote:

Hi,

My initial thought would be to use case management. This may be
semantics...I would use case management but I wouldn't use child cases
(subcases). I suggest one module with three forms. The first form is your
100 question form that opens a case, the second is your 3 month follow-up
that updates an existing case and the third is your 6 month follow-up that
updates and closes an existing case. This keeps all of your forms in one
module.

The question I can't answer is if you can conditionally close cases based
on the answer to question 5 or if you would have to have a fourth form in
your module that closes cases that don't meet the follow-on criteria.

Sincerely,
Craig

On Wednesday, September 10, 2014 1:25:04 PM UTC+5:45, Eric Stephan wrote:

Hello Will -- I definitely appreciate this thorough feedback. The issues
about incomplete forms will be valuable info for me moving forward. Also,
since you didn't allude to any other possible additional ways of doing this
app, I'll assume that the child case method I described is clearly the
correct way this would be done in commcare.

Thanks! --Eric

On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 8:13:40 PM UTC+7, William Pride wrote:

Eric,

I would highly recommend the first option over the second. We do not
recommend or support the second workflow whereby you'd be saving forms as
incomplete for a long period of time and returning to them later. There are
two major possible issues that can arise here from this.

First, if you update your application on HQ while your device has
incomplete forms, its possible for your device to get into a state where it
can no longer parse the saved incomplete forms and that data will be lost.
Second, incomplete forms don't get sent to the server so if anything
happens to the device or you need to uninstall that application in that six
month period, all that data will be lost or your workflow will be broken.

Having two follow up forms, each with their own case list that shows
only eligible cases to be followed up with (IE the 3- or 6- month period
has passed and these are the cases that answered "yes" to question 5) seems
far more organic and will likely be much more manageable for your field
team.

I can't speak too much to your options for getting this export into the
format you describe, but this should be straightforward with either our
tools or a transformation on your exported data. In particular, case
data exports
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/Case+Data+Export should
do exactly what you're looking for provided you don't overwrite any case
data in the followup forms.

Best,
Will

On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 4:46 AM, Eric Stephan este...@fhi360.org wrote:

Hello all -- I would like your wise advice on the smartest way to
implement CommCare for a certain purpose.

We are considering using CommCare to implement a large health survey,
which will ask the respondent questions and get some medical information,
totaling about 100 fields.

Then, for a certain number of those respondents (for simplicity, let's
say, just for those people that answered "Yes" on question #5) we are going
to want to then schedule exactly two follow-up visits ... one three
months later, and one six months later... and in those visits, we will ask
more questions and collect a bit of extra medical info into forms.

Notice that since the number of follow-up visits will be only two, and
at these two follow up visits, the questions asked will be much fewer than
the large initial form -- My first reaction is that this might not
be a good situation to use case management to record

Here are my first two guesses on how this could be done in CommCare.
But, please (1) let me know if one or both of these could be good or bad,
and (2) let me know any other method that I am forgetting.

1-- I could build it so that the initial long survey form creates two
"child cases" if the user answered "yes" to question 5. One of those child
cases would be in a form called "Followup visit 1" and the other would be
called "followup visit 2." Those forms would have only the fields that
would be needed for those visits.

  • However, if I did this method... would it be difficult to do data
    reporting so that a report would, in one single line, integrate all three
    separate forms for, for example, respondent #41, Joe Smith? The report
    would have one entry that had not only what he said on the big initial
    visit, but also what that respondent said over in the followup 1 form, and
    also what he responded over in the followup 2 form?
  • Any other benefits or problems with this method?

2-- Or, I could build it so that there was only one large form, which
had not only the 100 initial questions in it, but also after that, a
section with the fields for followup visit 1, and then the section of
fields for followup visit 3, all together in one large giant form. Then I
suppose that ... it could be configured as an Edit Form...? so that 3 and
6 months later, we could return to it on those subsequent visits and fill
out the second and third sections.

  • This one truly doesn't quite feel like it would be a very good
    way to do it. Just that it would make reporting quite clear as all that
    patient's data would be in one big form. Thoughts?

3-- Lastly -- what other method could I use to implement the survey
plus two follow-up visits, as I describe above?

I greatly appreciate your smart thoughts and your experienced knowledge
on this... Also, I might implement CommConnect SMS messages to remind
people of those two follow-up visits at 3 and 6 months, in case that
influences your thoughts on the best structure.

THANKS --

Eric

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