Export File Type and Format Summary
After downloading exported data from MyDataHelps Designer, you will have a number of data files in either Comma-Separated Value (CSV) or JSON format. Each file contains data from a single project. This article summarizes the data files and how to use them.
Data exports may contain Protected Health Information (PHI), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and/or other health-related sensitive information, and must be transferred/stored in accordance with your organization’s security policies in order to ensure participant privacy and data security.
Data Files
The following tables describe the data files, and indicate whether they are available in the JSON export, the CSV export, or both. You can select the export format in your project's data export settings.
Most files contain incremental data from activity such as surveys taken, tasks, collected device data, logs, and other events. However some contain complete datasets or static snapshots, particularly participant data, survey versioning, and external accounts, and will be noted as such below.
Participant Data
Survey Data
Analytics Events Data
Symptom Shark Data
All Symptom Shark exports contain all data for the project; they are not limited to the export period.
Active Task Data
When your project uses the CSV export format for Survey Results, data for Active Tasks is exported in separate data files, organized by task type. When your project uses the JSON export format, Active Task data is included in the SurveyResults file.
Apple Device/Wearable Data
Fitbit Device/Wearable Data
Garmin Device/Wearable Data
Google Fit Device/Wearable Data
Oura Device/Wearable Data
External Accounts Data Exports
Geographic Data
Additional Data
CSV Column Names
As new fields are added to MyDataHelps Designer or to the sensor data services, those fields may be added to the data export files as well. Always use the column headers (the first line of each CSV file) to identify which fields appear in each column. The column header names will remain the same even if the column order changes or new columns are added.
JSON Formatting
Exports selected as JSON will be formatted in Newline Delimited JSON (NDJSON) format, unless otherwise noted. NDJSON consists of an array of JSON objects, one per line.
Associating Data Between Files
Whether you're using JSON or CSV exports, your project data will be spread out across multiple files. Identifiers aid you in cross-referencing data between these files.
Cross-Referencing Participant Data
The participants file lists all participants. In addition to their names, birthdates, etc., the participant is given a unique Participant Identifier. You'll find this same Participant Identifier referenced in other data files - survey results, sensor data, etc.
For example, consider this sample participant data. Chris Smith has Participant Identifier 81a5ca06-6bdb-423e-9ed7-49d81aa4be2a:
ParticipantIdentifier,GlobalKey,EmailAddress,FirstName,MiddleName,LastName,Gender,DateOfBirth,SecondaryIdentifier,EnrollmentDate,EventDates
81a5ca06-6bdb-423e-9ed7-49d81aa4be2a,5be1902c-e9d9-e711-815b-b9576bf93116,chris@example.com,Chris,,Smith,,1987-08-14,,2017-12-05T18:25:59Z,{}
When we look at the survey results data, we'll see that this result entry is also from participant 81a5ca06-6bdb-423e-9ed7-49d81aa4be2a, so we know it's from Chris.
SurveyResultKey,SurveyKey,SurveyName,SurveyVersion,ParticipantIdentifier,SurveyTaskKey,Type,StartDate,EndDate,DevicePlatform,DeviceName,DeviceOSVersion,InsertedDate
73b25dbd-e9d9-e711-815b-b9576bf93116,dcbede15-67c9-e711-815a-a2abfc96a420,Consent,0,81a5ca06-6bdb-423e-9ed7-49d81aa4be2a,,Consent,2017-12-05T13:25:47-05:00,2017-12-05T13:25:58-05:00,iOS,"iPhone7,1",10.0,2017-12-05T18:25:59Z
We can also find Chris in the survey tasks data, to see which survey tasks he's been assigned and whether they're completed. This will help you measure survey adherence.
SurveyTaskKey,ParticipantIdentifier,SurveyKey,SurveyName,Status,DueDate,InsertedDate,CreatedBy,ModifiedDate
9bb25dbd-e9d9-e711-815b-b9576bf93116,81a5ca06-6bdb-423e-9ed7-49d81aa4be2a,059966f9-e3a7-e711-8159-cb0f82935acb,Medical History: Cardiovascular Diagnoses,Incomplete,2017-12-19T18:26:00Z,2017-12-05T18:26:00Z,MyDataHelps Designer Survey Scheduler,2017-12-05T18:26:00Z
In the case that the Participant Identifier is not static (i.e., at some point during the course of the study, this value gets updated) and you encounter issues with not finding participants by their current identifier, the ParticipantID field can be used instead. This is a static, system-assigned ID for each participant.
Cross-Referencing Survey Data
Survey results are also linked together with cross-reference keys. The following table shows how you can associate data from different survey result files.
[Legacy] Data Files
The following data files may exist for ongoing and completed projects, but are not available for new projects.