A Technical Demonstration of Rexdb, an Open Source, Integrated Data Management Platform for Autism Research

Background:  RexDB is an open source, integrated data management platform for the collection, integration, curation and exploration of human biomedical and translational research. Its extensible, web-native platform can be used to help researchers securely integrate, manage, query and share their behavioral, medical, genomic, imaging and biospecimen-inventory data from multiple studies.  After several previous development iterations used to deliver data management solutions for a wide range of studies in autism and associated disorders research, Prometheus Research decided to open source all aspects of the RexDB research platform for the greater scientific community.  This open sourcing initiative began in 2011 with a completely new redesign of all elements of this platform.

Objectives:  The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate to potential users of the RexDB platform its core functionality.  It will cover the basic configuration of a research study and its instruments, entering data regarding research subjects and their participation in complex studies, and the exploration of the resulting data for use in creating datasets for analysis.  Users will be given instructions on how to download, install and launch the RexDB platform and configure it for a simple study for autism study.

Methods:  The RexDB platform is divided into four core functional software modules comprised of numerous individual components; RexPlatform, RexAcquire, RexIntegrate and RexPlore.

RexPlatform is a toolkit that enables the installation of all necessary software for hosting, building and extending a RexDB instance.  It contains a thin data-access layer called RexQL and tools used to deploy database schemas, conduct ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) operations and rapidly build screen interfaces.

RexAcquire is a comprehensive Electronic Data Capture (EDC) platform that includes mechanisms to directly capture data from various clinical informants, as well as a duel-data validation entry system designed for rapid keyboard entry by clinical staff members.

RexIntegrate is used to help researchers securely integrate, manage, query and share their behavioral, medical, genomic, imaging and biospecimen-inventory data.  It contains a study management data structure to manage the complexities of single visit or longitudinal studies.

RexPlore enables users to create custom, shareable data sets from RexIntegrate that will allow them to explore and understand their research data.  It allows them to summarize, visualize, and statistically analyze their form, participant, study and biospecimen research data within the product and export the results to numerous third-party tools, such as Excel, SAS, SPSS or R.

Results:  The RexDB software platform has been used to deliver solutions for integrated data management needs of individual laboratories conducting single studies to large-scale autism research initiatives covering multiple sites conducting multiple studies utilizing multiple research instruments.  This platform has enabled groups that have significantly impacted the autism research space, such as the Simons Foundation, Autism Speaks and the Marcus Autism Center, to manage their complex data collection, integration and analyzation needs.  

Conclusions:  The open sourcing of this platform will afford autism researchers the opportunity to more easily collect and share their results across the entire field of research.