MyCap (participant mobile app)

Initial Considerations

 MyCap is a component of REDCap that lets researchers capture patient data through a participant’s phone or tablet (although phone is best - see FAQs below).  MyCap is similar to REDCap surveys in that participants enter data which is then saved to the researcher’s REDCap project.

Confirm with your IRB that the use of MyCap is acceptable for your specific study.

• It is generally sufficient to document what MyCap is (an app participants can install on a mobile device to complete remote data collection for any study using REDCap) in the application, and note that it has the same security features as REDCap, as well as these additional security features:

  • Participant data is stored locally on the device in an AES-256+SHA2 encrypted database. Data remains on the device if an internet connection is not available. Applies to both iOS and Android devices.

  • When an internet connection is available, data is transmitted directly to REDCap using a SSL (TLS v1.2) connection. A hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) is used to verify the integrity of the data and to authenticate the sender.

    • Data is wiped from the device after the MyCap app verifies that data has been successfully transmitted     

• Participants create a 6-digit PIN that is used to open the app. A participant can disable the PIN feature.

MYCap Limitations:

• REDCap functions NOT supported with MyCap:

  • Calculated Fields

  • Piping

  • Descriptive text

  • Smart variables

  • Dynamic query (SQL) fields

  • Signature Fields

• Does not support projects enabled with the Longitudinal data collection settings

  • Although MyCap is used to capture data over multiple time periods, MyCap cannot be enabled on projects using longitudinal data collection with defined events. Instead, MyCap settings are used to configure task-specific schedules.

• Branching logic:

  • works WITHIN a single instrument, but not across instruments. For example, a response in Survey A cannot trigger the display or hiding of a field in Survey B.

To review a table of supported field types, view the MyCap help section in your project:

Open

MyCap Configuration Overview

•  Before configuring your project, read the MyCap documentation located in your REDCap project

MyCap FAQ’s:

Can a contact be tied to a participant or group or participants?

• The list of contacts appear for all participants. Multi-site projects and some single-site project need the ability to specify which participant should see which contact(s). This is on the roadmap.

Can two participants in the same project share one device?

• No. We've gotten a lot of feedback that this should be supported. For example, a parent-child project where both parent and child are participating. This introduces many issues from a technical and procedural perspective. We are actively working on new screens to support this.

Can one participant use MyCap from two devices, such as a phone and a tablet?

• This is not recommended in most scenarios. The phone and tablet send task results to the server. The server does not send task results to the device. The participant's tablet will have no knowledge of a task that was completed on the phone.

  • Note that task results are sent from the server to the device when restoring a project. A participant can pick up where they left off if they got a different phone.

Can both MyCap and Twilio be enabled on the same project?

• Yes

Can a participant remove him/her self from participating in a MyCap project?

• A participant can delete a project from the MyCap mobile app if they are no longer participating in a project or the project has ended. Although REDCap users are not notified when a participant deletes a project from their device, the participant’s record will not be removed from REDCap or the MyCap Participant List and no data are deleted from the REDCap project.

  • Participants open the desired project in MyCap

  • From the activities page, participants click on the menu button (iOS) or Projects icon (Android). See screenshots.

  • The option to “Delete” the project will appear. Press delete.

  • Participants will be prompted to type, “DELETE”

• The project will be deleted from the participant’s app and will no longer appear in their list of projects

Can a study team member remove a project participant from MyCap? e.g., If they have been screened out of the study and should not have access to MyCap moving forward, but their pre-screen response must be maintained.

• Ask participant to stop using MyCap

  • If participant continues to use MyCap you can just ignore new task responses

• To forcefully break the connection between a participant's MyCap app and server you can:

  1. Edit the participants record

  2. Delete the MyCap participant code value (U-ABCD1234...). You may have to unhide the field with the @MC-PARTICIPANT-CODE in your instrument to see this value. E.g. Change "@HIDDEN @MC-PARTICIPANT-CODE" to "@MC-PARTICIPANT-CODE"

  3. If the participant completes a task the result will be sent to the server and the server will not be able to match the participant code to the record. A MyCap synchronization issue will be generated, but the data will not be attached to the record.

• Delete the record entirely. This would still create synchronization issues when the app sends data to the server and a participant code cannot be matched. Deleting the record would not work in your scenario as you want to keep participant data, but listing in case someone else is considering options.

What are active tasks and which active tasks does MyCap support?

• ·Active tasks use device’s capabilities to capture data that is not form based. Examples include tapping speed, range of motion, activity, balance, etc. List of Active Tasks: http://researchkit.org/docs/docs/ActiveTasks/ActiveTasks.html