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INFORMATION FOR

May Web Community Meeting: Overview of YaleMedicine.org, Accessibility, and Other Upcoming Projects

May 17, 2017

Thanks to all who participated in our May Web Community Meeting! Below is an overview of the topics we discussed and the presentation is available for download, as well.

New YSM Office of Communications

In August 2016, the YSM Office of Institutional Planning & Communications became of the YSM Office of Communications, embracing a completely new team of writers, editors, and video and photography producers dedicated to Yale Medicine. The office is managed by Mary Hu, Associate Dean of Communications, and has three branches:

  • Content - Nicole Wise, Executive Editor
  • Production, Design, and Web Services - Lena Smith Parker, Director
  • Technology - Justin Fansler, Director

Web Accessibility Initiative

Yale University and Yale School of Medicine are working toward improving web accessibility in accordance with the American Disabilities Act and the Standards for Accessible Design. YSM Office of Communications is working with the Office of General Counsel, ITS, and the Resource Office on Disabilities to audit Yale School of Medicine websites and move forward with a three-pronged approach to improving web accessibility:

1. Content.

YSM Office of Communications is undergoing an audit of all YSM websites, which will help us find inaccessible content and identify global content issues to adjust.

Web Support & Services will help web editors prioritize, update, and potentially remove inaccessible content that has already been posted.

2. Training.

Web Support & Services will provide in-person and online training to help web editors understand how to make existing and new content more accessible. Eventually, some element of training will be mandatory for all users who have access to edit web content.

3. Design.

YSM Office of Communications is planning the next YSM web template design, with accessibility at the forefront. This design will improve accessibility for all YSM websites.

YSM will strive to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), in its latest version, as set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Yale Medicine Launch

In August of 2016, the clinical practice of Yale School of Medicine rebranded from Yale Medical Group to Yale Medicine. In March of 2017, the newly designed YaleMedicine.org website launched to the public.

This website utilizes a powerful shared taxonomy, connecting content to Yale providers in a patient-friendly approach. The underlying synonyms built into the taxonomy allow patients to search for lay terminology such as “heart attack” and be connected to the cardiologist who identified “myocardial infarction” as an area of expertise. The technology supports a new team of Yale Medicine content producers, dedicated to developing captivating stories about our patients, programs, and caregivers. From the content, we plan to build a pervasive social media following, increasing the number of new patients and loyalty with current patients, to help grow the clinical practice.

If you have a great clinical story, or know of a patient who might be willing and interesting, please contact your dedicated Office of Communications writer resource! https://medicine.yale.edu/ipc/who/index.aspx

Clinical Content Decommission Project

YaleMedicine.org is the new face of all clinical care for Yale School of Medicine. It is vitally important that all online content for patients is provided in one location for several reasons:

  • Dedicated Content Team: There is a group of professional writers now dedicated to keeping YaleMedicine.org updated. Every day they are thinking about how to improve content for patients. We’ve never had this kind of resourcing for a website before; let’s use them!
  • Search Engine Optimization: Search engines do not like duplicative content. If the same instructions for a patient are provided in two different websites, for instance, Google will provide both URLs, deferring to the older and more trusted medicine.yale.edu.
  • Marketing Campaign: Yale Medicine will soon begin multiple powerful marketing campaigns and patients will be driven to the YaleMedicine.org. It is imperative that all faculty and staff who provide clinical care keep the information on YaleMedicine.org updated and correct for the increased traffic, both to our websites and through phone calls and patient visits.
  • Better Website Experience: The algorithm behind YaleMedicine.org is built to be patient-friendly, and to serve up content to the patient based on their search terms. This technology is different than any other website at YSM, and encouraging patients to use YaleMedicine.org will ultimately improve the service we can provide to them, by giving them accurate phone numbers and relevant medical advice.

The Decommissioning project will begin with YSM websites which are made up of 75% or more of clinical content. Web Support & Services will work directly with website owners to:

  • Remove clinical content from YSM websites;
  • Make sure all necessary content is available to patients on YaleMedicine.org; and
  • Review and assess each YSM website to enhance the education, training, and research content that remains.

Tools.Medicine.Yale.Edu Decommissioning

Form Builder Conversion to Qualtrics

Many of you are familiar with what we called the FormBuilder tool. This tool is in the process of being replaced with the Yale Qualtrics tool at https://yalesurvey.qualtrics.com/. YSM Web Support & Services is working to rebuild your forms in Qualtrics and transferring ownership as appropriate.

Support documentation is available here:

Event Calendar Tour

We have been rebuilding the calendar tool in the Profile System (at profile.yale.edu). During this meeting, we provided a tour of how the new calendar will work, and many suggestions were made that will be reviewed and considered for the development path.

Media Library Update

The Media Library tool is being retired. Existing videos are being migrated to YouTube and other online tools. Future planning includes building a Media module in the Profile system so editors can add videos and audio to events, news, SDL pages, and profiles.

CV Builder Tool

Planning has begun for a new CV Builder tool. It has long been a goal that the Profile System would be able to provide an on-demand download for faculty CVs. The project will require several phases, and the next steps will be in the areas of publications, grants, classes, and then additional missing data.

Please let us know if you would like to be added to the web editor list, to be notified when we have update meetings by emailing ysm.editor@yale.edu.

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