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Summary
REDCap integrates with the 3rd party Mosio service to invite participants to complete their surveys using SMS text messaging. This article describes how this service works and the basic setup steps.
Introduction
REDCap has the capability to send survey invitations, alerts, and reminders via SMS text messages using Mosio. The integration with Mosio also supports two-way communication with participants, as well as text-based surveys in which REDCap sends each question via text and awaits a reply. Mosio is an approved SMS provider at Michigan Medicine. HITS recommends the Basic plan for most small labs and research studies.
Usage
Mosio Account Setup
To use this feature, you must have a Mosio.com user account and a paid plan (Basic plan recommended). If you do not have a Mosio account, it is very easy to go to Mosio.com and create one. (Michigan Medicine research teams should use their @med.umich.edu account to signup, which would automatically add them to the the Michigan Medicine contract).
Before you begin the setup steps below, you must 1) set up your own Mosio account, then 2) select a paid plan, and then 3) configure a phone number to be used for this REDCap project (see steps here).
In the Project Setup page of REDCap, under "Enable optional modules and customizations", there is a button to enable Mosio SMS services. However, only REDCap administrators can enable this. Contact MICHR support to enable the module in your project.
Once the module is enabled and a phone number has been purchased for the account, obtain the API Key under Account Overview in Mosio, and copy the API Key.
Setup & Configuration
In REDCap, open Project Setup, click Enable/Modify under Mosio SMS, then past the API Key under the Mosio API Key field in the popup.
Note: Whenever you set the services as Enabled below and then click the Save button, REDCap will check with your Mosio account to confirm if all the credentials and info are correct. REDCap will not allow you to enable the Mosio SMS and voice call services below until it has verified that the API key is valid. If successful, you will also see your REDCap project ID in Mosio's Account Overview, just below the API Key.
Once your REDCap project is connected to your Mosio account, you can then configure how you want to use Mosio in your project. Some of the options available include:
- Initiate survey as SMS conversation
- Send survey invitation with survey link via SMS
Any or all of these invitation delivery methods can be utilized within a single project.
Mosio can be enabled in a project that is already in Production status as it's an administrator-only task, but other than enabling the feature any project-level implementation would be up to the study team to determine based on their study-specific needs.
SMS Surveys
When participants take an SMS survey, questions are asked one at a time as an SMS text message conversation/thread. Much like email, SMS is not considered a secure form of communication, so you may not want to administer surveys as SMS conversations if the participant will be submitting identifying information (PHI or PII), unless you have been granted special permission from the participant to do so (and have consulted with Information Assurance). Given such sensitive privacy issues, only your local REDCap administrator can enable the optional setting to use SMS surveys. Please notify your administrator about this if you wish to have this option enabled.
Other Considerations
Compatibility
Most of REDCap's survey features still function much the same when taking a survey via SMS, web, or email. This includes the enforcement of required fields, field validation, branching logic, using the Survey Queue for multiple surveys (only works with Auto-Start enabled), survey email notifications and confirmations, the Participant List, Automated Survey Invitations, survey Stop Actions, and computer adaptive tests (CATs) downloaded from the REDCap Shared Library. One of the few survey features that is not compatible is the Survey Login feature.
Cost
In order to use the Mosio SMS services in a REDCap project, you will need a paid Mosio plan. The Basic plan includes 3,000 outgoing messages per month, while incoming messages are free. See plans here.
Privacy & Security
It is important to understand that this feature utilizes the third-party service Mosio, which means that all SMS messages will be routed through Mosio's servers. Although Mosio is approved by HITS and Information Assurance for sensitive data, including PII, it is important to keep in mind that SMS itself is unsecure. When participants reply with a text message, the content of that message is unencrypted until it reaches Mosio's serviers, and during that time it is subject to the vulnerabilities of the cell phone network. Once the message arrives on Mosio's servers, the contents are stored in a HIPAA-compliant manner.
If this is a service you are interested in, we would strongly recommend setting up a test project in the REDCap Training environment to familiarize yourself with the use of this service. You'll also need to create your Mosio account and provide MICHR Support with the API Key as instructed. MICHR does not charge anything in REDCap to use this feature, but as a third-party service, Mosio does charge fees depending on your plan and utilization.
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About the Author
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The Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) strives to develop and advance translational science – a field of study that aims to identify and overcome long-standing challenges in the translational research pipeline. MICHR examines translational research at a systems level with the goal of generating scientific and operational innovations that reduce translational barriers and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of all translational research.
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