VMC Web Development

Hi All,

As promised, the new non-consumer (.edu) templates are now available in SiteBuilder (SB). The Web Team has created several templates for your use. And the really cool thing is, they are available before the new .edu refresh will be released. So, you can beat us in showing a new face.

The new templates are not mandatory. We are offering them for use if you want to mirror our efforts. They work like the old ones. The one click to change is still in affect with some new stuff. They automatically offer the user a dynamically built sitemap.

The next upgrade, coming real soon, is that the Search feature will be adjusted to search each site individually. This will give the visitor better results. I’ll let you know when we have that in place.

These new templates are clean, colorful, and hopefully aesthetically pleasing.

Finally, I would like to hear from you all about your needs. Where can we help you do your Web job more effectively?

Have a great day and stay tuned for more.

Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy the freedom of graphic development, someone (me) tells you that it is being managed centrally.

The medical center has spent a lot of time and money creating a brand for the institution.  They have employed an advertising/marketing firm as well as used its in-house staff to develop a brand that is quickly recognized as an institution of excellence.

A brand is like a signature, it tells viewers about the person, corporation, etc. in an easily recognized graphic element.  In our case the brand is the shield with arrows and the “V”, the text “Vanderbilt Medical Center”, and the the tag line “Hearts and Minds.”  The brand has to be used as set forth by our institution.

So, if your department is considering developing a logo, please contact Deanna Nelson in VMC Communications at 2-2215 before you do anything.  She has the naming policies, graphic details, and more to assist you.

By the by, this isn’t anything new.  We have had graphic standards in place since before I started at Vanderbilt over 19 years ago, but with the new effort to communicate more effectively with our patients, they (the graphic standards) will be more aggressively enforced.

TTFN,

This is one of those days when several topics have arisen that I needed to share with everyone.  This one is about the photographs used on the consumer side of VMC.

As a degree medical illustrator, the gorier the image the better.  I have prepared illustrations for courtroom use based on police photographers’ work, police and physician reports, and x-rays.  This would be disturbing to normal people, but not someone in my profession and perhaps yours.  But, this is not true for the majority of the public.

In many cases, my team is sent some gruesome images that departments want posted on their public Web sites.  They are aimed at educating the public, but I am not sure that is what happens.  Please remember that the public does not share our fascination with blood and guts.  This calls for a second look at what we put up.  If you question how it would be received by the public, send it my way and I’ll be glad to give you my input as well as the Marketing Managers’.
I would also ask that we not post pictures of the crew drinking beer and the like on public sites.  No one enjoys a good time more than me, but that is not the image we want to share with the public.

This all said, I know that sharing images of surgical fields, special specimens, etc. is part of learning.  My request is that the audience is considered first.  Put yourself in their shoes, if you can, and then proceed.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Terry

Like everything in the Web world, we are having to make things up as we go.  The latest has to do with VMC URL’s.  My office is charged with securing all URL’s for the medical center.  It isn’t a daunting task, but it can get crazy.  So, we have been asked to define policies regulating their use.

To date, the only restriction we have had is that we never use the word “Vandy.”  I can live with that.  But with the upcoming VMC consumer site and the way our sites are indexed, we need to be more thoughtful with our naming conventions.

We know that search engines, like Google, use the domain name as a search criteria.  The better the URL describes the content of a site, the more accurate the search.  We also know that we will use the www.Vanderbilthealth.com as the advertised URL for the consumer site.  We plan to add titles like: www.vanderbilthealth.com/heart for the product lines.  This will not mean that centers, departments, hospitals cannot have their own unique domain name, it will be the naming convention my office uses to keep it all straight.

So, if you already have or want a different domain name, that’s fine.  Contact Jason Coles at 322-2298 and he will see if it is available and make the purchase on your behalf.  You can direct the domain name to your site and use it in your advertising.  Just know what we are doing.

If you have any questions, please call me at 3-1659.  I don’t bite and want to help you be successful.

All,

As promised, I have asked Jonathan Dees to send all the VMC SiteBuilder Webmasters the preview for the new VMC Consumer Web Site. Please remember, that this is a work in progress and is not ready for prime time (release outside the institution). The Quality section is still under construction, just an FYI.

As I noted in the message sent out today, the Quality section is still under construction. The “Find a Doc” and “Driving Directions”, I believe are almost done; we are still tweaking them.

We are also in the process of building a new SiteBuilder tool. It is going to be more difficult to use, but that is what happens when we offer more functionality. It won’t be ready for release until late this year.

After you visit the new site, would you please complete a short online survey? It can be found at: http://www.vanderbilthealth.com/feedback-internal.html

Please remember to put yourselves in your “I am a patient” mode. The new URL is: http://www.vanderbilthealth.com

VMC Communications has completed several patient focus groups and put in a lot of time and effort to make this an awesome site for patients. We feel we have been successful. What do you think?