The Timer is a new node type available on the canvas that allows you to pause your care flow—either for a set amount of time or until a specific date. It’s perfect for introducing delays between steps and scheduling future actions.
Timers vs. Transitions
The Timer component is set to replace traditional transitions with timing constraints. You can currently still use transitions and define timing constraints without using the Timer component. However, switching over to the Timer component has several benefits:
Improved visibility
Timers appear as dedicated nodes on the canvas and in the activity feed, making it easier to visualize and understand your care flow’s timing logic at a glance.Greater control and easier testing
Timers can be manually skipped via the activity feed, allowing you to "time travel" through the care flow. This is especially useful for testing or advancing a patient without waiting for the actual delay to expire.More granular timing
With the Timer component, you can specify the exact hour of the day when the next step should be activated. It also automatically takes into account the patient's timezone.
Timer types
There are two Timer types supported:
Duration
Wait for a specific amount of time.
Example: wait for 5 days before continuing.
Until date
Wait until a specific date and time.
Example: wait until 1 day before the surgery date at 9:00 AM.
Duration
This Timer type is simple to set up—just define how long you want the care flow to wait before moving to the next step.
Until date
Choose a reference date, then optionally set an offset (e.g. 1 day before) and a specific time of day for the timer to expire.
Orchestration behaviour
Patient timezone
The Timer automatically respects the patient's timezone when calculating its expiration. If no timezone is set on the patient profile, the Timer defaults to using UTC.
You can set or update the patient's timezone via Awell Care, the API, or directly within the care flow (using the "Update patient" action). Timezones must be provided in IANA format (e.g. America/New_York, Europe/Brussels).
Past dates
If the Timer’s expiration date falls in the past, it will automatically expire at the next occurrence of the configured time of day.
Example:
You set the Timer to expire 1 day before the surgery date at 9:00 AM, but the flow reaches the Timer after that time has already passed.
In this case, the Timer will expire the next day at 9:00 AM, ensuring the timing behavior remains consistent.