VMC Web Development

A quick note to let everyone know that the new VMC Consumer Web Site will launch this Friday.  It has been a huge effort by a large group of staff members and consumers.  It is a site created for our patients, visitors, and families.  The new site is also a resource to us, Vanderbilt employees.

The URL to the site is: www.vanderbilthealth.com.  We look forward to hearing your comments and growing this project over the next several months.

The existing site: www.mc.vanderbilt.edu, will be refreshed in the coming months.  It will echo the new consumer site, but still have its own unique look and feel.  You will notice that the .edu site will change with the consumer launch, but it will be minimal.
I will be looking forward to your comments.

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?

We have gotten feedback from the first group we released to last week and overall the comments are very good. The majority of the input has focused on lack of content. As you can imagine, we are working hard to get content for the site.

Melissa Carro is our content writer/editor who also does an awesome job of organizing the information. Mel, as we call her, is an extremely competent professional and a hoot to work with. I hope everyone gets a chance to work with her over the next several months.

Ryan Huber is working on the design and the functionality. Jonathan Dees is doing most of the programming. Jason Coles is doing whatever needs to be done, so he is a master of many things.

Life is crazy here, but we hope to get this out to all VMC Web Developers in the very near future. Right now the different browsers are the challenge. Who knows what tomorrow will be.

Talk to you all again soon. Have a great day.

Terry

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are progressing well with the new VMC Consumer Web Site.  It was released today to a small internal audience for testing.  We will collect feedback from that group over the next few days and then, if all goes well, we will send it to you, the VMC Web developers, to get your input.

We are excited not only with the new look, but with some of the features like “Find a Clinician” and “Driving Directions.” Both tools have been enhanced to work with the specific product lines.

This, as you can imagine, has been a huge job, but promises to help us get our services out to the public in a better format.  One that is written in common language, organized intuitively for its users, and maintains a focus on the user.

For those unfamiliar with the team responsible for the new site, it is a large one.  Besides the VMC personnel, there have been scores of patients (current and past) and segments of the Nashville public.  It has been tiring, but very exciting.

I look forward to sending you all the link and hearing your feedback.

Have a great day!

Terry

Just a quick note to let all of our SiteBuilder users know I will be writing a special category of my blog just for you. I have mentioned to everyone that there is great new stuff coming for the VMC Web site and this section will highlight what is also happening with SiteBuilder.

Don’t panic, SiteBuilder will still be what it is today, but there will be another SiteBuilder with even greater flexibility. Initially it will only be available to patient-focused sites, but the research, education, and staff pieces will follow as soon as possible.

Over the years, all enhancements to SiteBuilder have been driven by you, the user. This will continue to be the case, plus you can use this blog to give me even more input. Yeah!

I keep all your input. If you have asked for something new and it hasn’t happened yet, don’t panic. We will get to the most requested.

So stay loose and keep visiting this blog.

Terry

I want to introduce myself and tell you what I am thinking regarding this blog.

My name is Terry Smith. I am working on my twentieth year at VMC. You can read my bio for more information, especially if you have insomnia. I am charged with overseeing all Web development for the medical center.

Part of ‘overseeing’ Web development includes being a resource to all VMC Web developers. I may not know the answers to your questions, but I will do my best to find them for you.

I am also charged with developing the main sections of the VMC Web site, or at least my team is. I have been fortunate to put together a team that is awesome. They include Jonathan Dees, Jason Coles, and Ryan Huber. Besides being awesome professionals, they are a hoot to work with.

In the near future you will be receiving links to our new VMC “Consumer’ Web Site. It was developed to simplify access to medical services by our patients, potential patients, and their families. We know that we, VMC staff members, are also our patients from time-to-time, so we want your input as well.

We will continue to maintain the main .edu Web site, but will refresh it later this year (2007). This is a huge undertaking and will be done in stages. There are many questions still to be answered and I will use this blog to give you all the answers we come up with, but don’t hesitate to give me your input. I may be sorry for saying this, but I know it will improve VMC. So, have at it!

I also want to use this blog to get and share your input with other VMC Web developers. I feel we, VMC, will be successful because we asked several consumers what they wanted of a consumer web site and now we want your input about the VMC.edu site. I can’t guarantee we can make them all happen, but we will continuously gather your input and do what the majority of staff members says is important to them.

For our SiteBuilder users, the Web Team will create a template similar to the new consumer and .edu sites. It will be just a matter of selecting the template and your site will be automatically converted. In the future there will be an advanced SiteBuilder tool developed. It will allow developers to move content modules with some other custom features. The consumer SiteBuilder tool will be built first.

As with SiteBuilder today, the new SiteBuilder’s base features will be free. We will have pricing schemes for us to build and maintain sites as well. Sites will be migrated to the new look over several months beginning with the consumer side. This will not be a forced migration, so don’t panic. Stay tuned for more information.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and I’ll look forward to working with you all in the future. Oh, I want to keep this blog informal, so please feel free to do the same.

Thanks!

Terry