How to Run a Coupler

Student Handout

© PKC Corporation. All rights reserved.

How to Run a Coupler

Contents:

 How to Run a Coupler                                                                                                                      
 ..................................................................................................................... .......................
                        1
   
Student Handout.................................................................................................................................. ...................1
Log On.................................................................................................................................... .............2
Select a Coupler........................................................................................................ ..........................2
Run a Coupler................................................................................................................................ ......2
Enter Data....................................................................................................................... .................3
Review Data........................................................................................................................ .............3
Review Guidance....................................................................................................... ......................3
Print Coupler Reports.......................................................................................................... .............4
Save a Coupler Session..................................................................................................... ..............4
Reload a Coupler Session
........................................................................................................................................................... ..4

Log On
You can access Couplers from any internet browser by entering Couplers.pkc.com.
Remember, there is no www.

At the Log On to Couplers screen enter the username and password provided by your teacher.
Click Log On.

You have now entered the PKC Coupler Portal. This site will help you locate the right Coupler
for your health need as well as provide you with tutorials and other help tools. In addition, you
can load a previously saved Coupler session on this site.

Select a Coupler
The Coupler you are looking for will either be listed on the Home tab or can be found using the
Find A Coupler tab. Once you locate the Coupler you wish to run, simply click on the Coupler
title to get started. Once your Coupler opens you will have an opportunity to read a Coupler
Introduction and review the Terms and Conditions before you begin. Please review PKC's
Terms and Conditions of Use and indicate your acceptance before continuing. You must
accept them in order to use this Coupler.

Run a Coupler
There are four steps to running any Coupler session. Enter Data, Review Data, Review
Guidance, and Finish (Print and Save). The more information you enter, the more you will get
back.

STUDENT HANDOUT© PKC Corporation. All rights reserved. 2

How to Run a Coupler

Note: For the best results navigating throughout the Coupler system, use the Previous
and Next buttons provided inside the Coupler – DO NOT use your browser’s Back and
Forward buttons.

Enter Data

All Coupler screens are point and click. Each Coupler will have an opening sequence screen
where you will see anywhere from 3 to 5 sections of the Coupler. Start with Sequence 1 and
work your way through each section until you have completed them all. Some Couplers have
sequences that are reserved for a professional healthcare provider (somebody in your doctor’s
office). They will be a different color and you should ask a healthcare provider to help you with
these sections.

Once you have entered a sequence, begin answering the questions by clicking on those things
that are true about you. You will see a check mark appear in the right column. Occasionally you
will be asked to enter specific data; for example, date of birth, height, or weight.

If you get to a response that you don’t understand or you are not sure if it applies to you, click it
twice and you will see a question mark appear in the right column. This will remind you to
discuss this in more detail later.

Keep going until you have completed all of your questions. Since you have done all this work,
now might be a good time to save before you get into the next steps. See Save a Coupler
Session below.

Review Data

Once you have entered your data, you will probably want to take a quick look at it to make sure
there are no errors. Click on the Review Data tab and you will see a list of Findings. A finding is
another name for each piece of data you have collected. Click on Change to go back and make
a correction. When you have made your changes, click Previous to return to the Review Data
screen.

Review Guidance

The most powerful and useful information generated by a Coupler is located in the Review
Guidance section. Click on the Review Guidance tab to reveal a complete list of the Guidance
options for your Coupler Session. This information comes from coupling your data with the
medical literature.

Click on any Guidance option to expose the details. Click on any reference number to see a
listing of the article in the literature. Print out any page in this section for your own information or
to share with your healthcare providers.

If there is a Guidance option that you would like to include in your reports or save with your
session, check the Flag box in the left column.

STUDENT HANDOUT© PKC Corporation. All rights reserved. 3

How to Run a Coupler

Print Coupler Reports

Each Coupler comes with a few standard reports that will allow you to organize and print out a
hard copy of your work. The standard reports are part of the Finish page. To find them, click on
the Finish tab. All reports are located under a heading that says something like Print Your
Reports. Click on any report to see that report on screen. If you want a hard copy, use your
browser’s print button.

You should also note that any screen in a Coupler session can be printed using the browser
print button.

Save a Coupler Session

Coupler sessions contain personal health data that should be treated with the highest level of
security and privacy. Only you can decide if you are going to save your Coupler session and
only you can decide where to save it.

Talk with your teachers and parents about a safe place to keep you sessions.

If you choose to save a session you will find a Save button conveniently located in the upper
right of every Coupler screen. You will also see a Save option on the Finish tab. Click on any
Save button (they all operated the same way), choose Save, browse to your safe location,
change the name from the default pkcsess.xml to something you will recognize later (however,
do not change the xml extension), click OK.

Now you have saved your Coupler session as an XML document that can be read by the
Coupler engine at a later date.

Reload a Coupler Session

If you have previously saved a Coupler session, you can use your PKC Coupler Portal to
retrieve any saved session.

Navigate to the PKC Coupler Portal – see instructions to Log On.

Click on Reload in the upper right corner, browse to your safe location, select your saved
Coupler session XML document, and click Open. This will load your document. To re-start your
Coupler session, click on the Next button.

STUDENT HANDOUT© PKC Corporation. All rights reserved. 4