Current user information - pre currentUserField function

I want to be able to show/hide a field (or panel) on the Contacts module depending on whether the 'current user' meets a condition. I've thought about a custom field on the User module and also using a Role (using Andre Lopez'  isUserInRole function) but no success yet.

We are currently on Sugar Enterprise 11.0.2 and see that the currentUserField function in version 12 looks like it will meet this need.

However, we will not be upgrading for a few more months and I'm wondering if there is another method I can use via, for example, a Dependency file.

I'm not skilled in deeper Sugar coding approaches.

Thanks

Neil