An ePRO form is built much like an eCRF, but it is sent directly to participants, who see one question at a time. The questionnaire therefore has to be intuitive enough for someone to complete on their own, without anyone to explain it.
This article covers the full lifecycle: create, edit, test, then publish.
🔑 Before you start
To send questionnaires by Email, by SMS, or through a QR code with participant login, go to Settings › Options › Enable subject personal information and turn on Activate Email, Phone Number, and Language.
⚠️ This stores participants' personal data. Once activated, review your study roles: Subject Management gives access to first name, last name, phone number and email. Restrict it to the people who need it.
Find your way around the ePRO forms page
The ePRO forms page lists every form created for the study, whatever its status. You can search, filter and reorder the list.
💡 Tip: reorder your forms to match the order participants receive them. It makes monitoring and tracking considerably easier once the study is running.
Create a new ePRO form
🔑 Prerequisite: ePRO Builder (Edit)
🔬 Explore how it works
Click through this interactive guide to learn the process in seconds.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Navigate to ePRO forms
Select Create new ePRO
Provide an ePRO name (used internally by the site) and a Survey name (visible to participants)
Choose to build the form from scratch or from a template
💡 Tip: the two names serve different audiences. The ePRO name is what your team searches for in the form list. The Survey name is the title the participant reads at the top of their questionnaire.
Edit a form in draft
🔑 Prerequisite: ePRO Builder (Edit)
A new form is saved as a Draft automatically, so you can build it in several sittings and test it as you go.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Navigate to ePRO forms
Select the edit icon on an existing form
Configure your sections, subsections, questions and conditions
💡 Tip: question types, conditional logic and calculated fields work the same way across all Datacapt forms. See the Form builder collection for how to build them.
Test your ePRO form
🔑 Prerequisite: ePRO Builder (Edit), Subject Management (Add), ePRO Records List (Access, Add)
Testing is essential: participants see one question at a time, so a form that reads well in the builder can still be confusing to answer. Test after each modification.
The steps below apply both to a new form and to an existing one, as long as the form is in Draft status.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Keep your ePRO form builder open in the current tab
In a new browser tab, open the same study and go to Subjects
Select the + button, then Create, to add a test subject. See Create new participants/subjects if you need help
Go to ePRO records
Select Invite subjects, then choose your ePRO form and the test subject
Choose how to send it: No invitation, Email or SMS. For a test, No invitation is enough
The record appears with the status Created if you chose no invitation, or Sent if you used email or SMS
On the record, open the options menu (3 dots) and select Open in new tab
Answer the questionnaire as a participant would
💡 Tip: as long as the form is in Draft status, you can keep editing it and testing again. You can also invite a subject from the subject page, under the ePRO tab.
Publish your ePRO form
🔑 Prerequisite: ePRO Settings (Access). Your study must be in Live status.
Once the questionnaire has been tested and validated, set its status to Published to start collecting participant data.
⚠️ Warning: publishing an ePRO form permanently deletes all existing test records. This keeps test data and real participant data cleanly separated, but it cannot be undone.
🛠️ Step by step guide
Navigate to ePRO forms
On the form you want, open the options menu (3 dots) and select Settings
Set the ePRO status to Published and click Save
💡 Tip: document the validation of your form before publishing, and do not publish a form that has not been fully reviewed. Changing a form after go-live is time-consuming and may affect data already collected.