I'm in the process of planning a research portal and would appreciate your insights on choosing the right technologies. The portal aims to facilitate the following features:
- Host Multiple Research Studies: Each study's data must be maintained in separate entities for ethical purposes.
- Sub-Studies: Individual studies can have sub-studies, with access permissions set at the sub-study level.
- Study Protocol and Components: The portal should allow for the
configuration of study protocols, components, and timepoints at a
different layer. It should automatically enable specific forms and fields based on the study protocol during data entry. - Data Collection: The research study will collect data using various
forms, with permissions applied at both the form and field levels. This includes collecting demographics, visit data, diagnosis data, biosample collection, sub-study level consent, and fields for
managing participation progress. - Access Checks for Multi-Site Data: Data collected at different sites within a study must undergo an access verification process.
- Flexible User Permissions Management: Users may have full edit rights
for one study while having minimal edit and view rights for
another, with permissions adjustable at the form and field level. - Query Interface: A robust query interface should be available across all forms within a study.
- Participant Tracking Interface: The system should include SMS and email alerts for both researchers and participants.
I have tried Drupal 10 with the Groups module, and while it somewhat works, the Groups module is not available for the latest version, Drupal 11. Additionally, Drupal 10 will reach end-of-life in two years. Furthermore, with all the permission checks in place, the pages load too slowly, especially with field-level permissions for site checks (with the site stored as a field within the form).
Also, Drupal Views has limited functionality for the query interface requirement, particularly for filtering and selecting columns across a study while checking access. It may need a third-party application for this.
I’m looking for an open-source CMS that is robust, flexible, and secure, of course!
