Overview
CommCareHQ allows you to setup SMS surveys and reminders. These can be integrated with the data for existing CommCare application or provide a stand-alone SMS system. The overall reminder and survey system is called CommConnect.
Here are some example use cases:
- Sending a reminder to a health worker when one of their beneficiaries is due for a delivery.
- Sending counselling messages to beneficiaries (for example, reminding them to take their iron pills).
- Sending a short survey to a beneficiary (for example, asking if they've attended a clinic)
- Have a patient request information from the system. For example, if they are enrolled in a smoking cessation study, they may request support messages from the system.
At a high level, CommConnect lets you do the following:
- Recipients - Messages can be sent to a mobile worker (ex. a CHW) or a phone number stored in a case (ex. the beneficiary)
- Timed and Conditional Messages - Messages can be controlled and scheduled based on the state of a case (ex. the delivery date or whether a mother is high risk)
- Simple Message - A simple text message can be sent that references information in the case (ex. the case's name)
- Interactive Survey - An interactive SMS survey (based on a form designed in CommCareHQ). This can be used to update or close a particular case
- Incoming Keywords - A user can initiate interaction with the system (ex. requesting a counselling message) by sending a message to the system
Configuring Recipients
Both cases and mobile workers need to be configured specially for use with CommConnect.
Case Sharing
At the moment, if you're using Case Sharing for you application, there are some restrictions on which mobile workers can get sent a reminder. CommConnect can only send a reminder to the last user who modified the case. This means if a nurse and health worker are sharing a case, you won't be able to notify the nurse if a health worker identifies a high-risk patient.
