cleme
commented
2 years ago An initial solution that could generalize current metadata assignment. In theory, we currently should have two different types of metadata: subject-specific (e.g. nationality), and specimen-specific (time at which specimen was collected). MMEDS could/should have a function that merges subject-specific and specimen-specific metadata to generate a new specimen-specific metadata, which includes all subject-specific metadata that is fixed (no change throughout duration of study) and variable (changes over time, e.g. disease, and takes particular value at time when specimen was collected).
Notice this is not only true for ACTIVATE but for all studies.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Some variables, like those related to diseases, are true for a subject only for certain periods of time. Currently, there is no way to automatically match these time periods to times that specimens were collected.
Describe the solution you'd like Implement a change to the schema and pipeline that allows for specimens to automatically be assigned subject variables if they match up to a time when that variable was true.
Additional context This became relevant after discussing the ACTIVATE project, which will have data for what periods of time infants had diseases.