Managing Users in OpenSpecimen

Initial Considerations

There are two types of users in OpenSpecimen:

• Regular users who can login and be given rights to access protocols and specimens.

• Contact users who cannot login, but their names are available in the users dropdown list for the purpose of recording their name in a variety of fields. An example would be a PI who owns a protocol, but will never log in to OpenSpecimen.

Users are assigned ‘Roles’ which controls what they can see and what they can do in the system. This document will cover how to add new users and how to assign the correct roles for each person depending on their job.

Creating new users and adding/editing roles can only be done by people assigned as ‘Administrators’ at your Site.

It is the responsibility of each laboratory to manage their own users by creating them, unlocking them (users get locked out after 90 days of not logging in), assigning roles, and archiving users once they have left the laboratory.

Related University Policies

Assigning accurate user roles ensures that your lab complies with University policies regarding access to PHI.

The Process

Adding Users

1. Navigate to Users from the main hamburger menu.

2. Click ‘Create’

3. Select the user ‘Type’

   1. Regular if the user needs to login

   2. Contact if the user just needs to appear in the dropdown list (this is useful for PIs that do not log into OpenSpecimen).

4. Email address: always use a University address for the user, unless creating a contact user for a distribution.

5. Domain name: choose 'The University of Utah'

6. Login Name: use their unid with the ‘u’: i.e. u1234567

7. Institute: University of Utah Health

8. Select ‘No’ for all other settings, unless directed

9. Click ‘Create’

Adding Roles

1. Roles are only assigned to Regular users and define what the user has access to.

2. Once the user is created, navigate to the user and click on their name.

3. Once you’ve opened the user’s overview page, click on ‘Roles’

4. Open

   

   To add a new role, select ‘Add Role’.

4. Select the ‘Site’ with which they are associated.

5. Select either individual protocol(s) or ‘All Current and Future’ based upon whether the new user should be able to access all protocols associated with their lab-specific site or just specific protocols.

6. The role to assign depends on the user being added and what their job entails.

   1. Tissue Banker: can see PHI, create/edit participants, collect visits & specimens, and can process and store specimens, and manage containers.

   2. Technician: can only create and process specimens. They do not have privileges to view PHI. They cannot manage/create containers, so containers must exist to store specimens.

   3. Principal Investigator: has read-only access to all features, but can create and manage all query features.

   4. Coordinator: has similar access to tissue bankers but cannot manage containers

   5. Administrator: Can perform all functions within their Site, including adding new users and creating protocols.

Add user to User Group

User groups are used for sharing queries, for some custom workflow accessibility, sharing carts, some print rule functionality, and viewing specimen catalogs.

1. Navigate to the new user.

2. Select the box to the left of the user’s name.

3. A button will appear at the top of the screen ‘Add to User Group’, click on that and select the correct user group or a create a new group.

4. Contact users should not be added to groups as they have no ability to log in to OpenSpecimen.