Summary

This article will show you how to create reference questions and how to use question paths and dynamic forms.  

Table of Contents

Reference Questions allow for dynamic relationships to be established between forms (and thus events) for a patient. The value of another form or question will be the answer options for your Reference Question. This most common use of this feature is to tie Adverse Events to Concomitant Medications.

Concepts Covered

This tutorial covers the following topics:

  • Creating Reference Questions
  • Using Question Paths
  • Using Dynamic Forms

Step 1: Create a Reference Question

In this tutorial, you will create a question on the Concomitant Medications form that asks which Adverse Events were associated with the medication, if any.

Creating a Reference Question is no different from creating any other question. It has a Data Type and Display Type just like normal, and needs to be added to the Question Layout and Display worksheets after you have created the Question Type.

The Con Meds form is the last form in our Question Types worksheet, so go to the first blank line and create a new questionTypeId of “cmaeref”. Make sure to keep logChange, logAlert, and logSkip as their default values, and give it the following parameters:

questionTypeIdQuestion TextData Type
cmaerefAE Number(s) (Check all that apply):Reference

Step 2: Determine the Display Type

A Reference Question should almost always have a Display Type of RadioCheckbox or MultiCheckbox. Since you want the user to pick from a list of available options, the Display Type needs to be something that allows this.

In our case, it may be possible that multiple Adverse Events are related to the Concomitant Medication, therefore enter a Display Type of MultiCheckbox. This will allow the user to check as many Adverse Events as they wish.

Step 3: Specify the Reference Path

You are almost done creating the Reference Question. Next, you will need to specify the Answer Options, which in the case of a Reference Question, tell it what question or form to reference.

Note: Do not reference a question on the same form as the reference question.

The Answer Options will be the path to the question or form you are interested in. It should start with a forward slash ” / ” and begin at the top level of the patient’s forms. In our case, you want the available options to be all of the Adverse Event forms, so enter “/aesum/ae[n]“. This will allow the user to choose from any of the ae formTypes created underneath aesum. You used the “[n]” because the ae formType is a dynamic form, and there could be any number of them created.

Note: A reference path can lead to a form or a question. 
Form Example: /aesum/ae[n]
Question Example: /aesum/ae[n].aestartdate



Note: A reference path can include multiple paths! Simply separate the paths with semi-colons and you can pull information from multiple forms or questions or a combination of both! (ie. /aesum/ae[n];/mhsum/mh[n] would provide a listing of both Adverse Event and Medical History entries).


Step 4: Add the Question to the Question Layout

Now that you have created our Reference Question, you need to add it to the Question Layout worksheet just like any other question.

The Concomitant Medications form is at the bottom of the worksheet, so add the question to the first blank line.

Step 5: Add the Question to the Display

The last step is to add our Reference Question to the Display worksheet. Again, add it to the bottom of the worksheet. Enter a Group Id of “4″ for this question.

Note: When a Reference Question references a form/question that is deleted, then the reference value will display in double brackets {{}} in order to visualize that the referenced form/question is deleted.

Note: When selecting a referenced question in one form, changing the value of the referenced question afterwards will result in a black warning.

In Conclusion

After completing this tutorial, you should feel comfortable in the following topics:

  • Creating Reference Questions
  • Using Question Paths
  • Using Dynamic Forms

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