A Doctor's Website

I have a doctor that would like to have his own website.  I know I've seen a couple people on here with website of their own.  I'm wondering if anyone has ever used a CMS package like Wordpress (or some other open source package) to create their clinical website.

If you have, I'd be very interested to see what you've done.  If no one has, then I'm thinking about exploring the creation of such a website that could be rolled out to new doctors quickly, but would allow the doctor to update the website using the CMS's admin pages.

Any thoughts on the idea?

I would say the differential would be :  joomla! vs. the rest. 

I'd *highly* suggest joomla!

www.joomla.org

The most important thing for a doc's office is that the CONTENT updates are trivial.  :)

It is very easy to update a joomla! site.

if you want it to look ultra pretty ... get some to make you a custom template for $50.

That's the general idea of what I have in mind.  I'm just wondering if someone has already done that with their site.

techguy:

That's the general idea of what I have in mind.  I'm just wondering if someone has already done that with their site.

>>I have a doctor that would like to have his own website.<<

www.MedicalTabletpc.com is content generated Joomla (Mambo migration).

I suggest Front Page for down and dirty speed and simplicity.

I use FP, Dreamweaver and Photoshop for www.digital-doc.com

 

Yahoo has ready to go templates for medical offices. You could have everything up in a day for maybe +/- $10. I think it is around $10/month for hosting as well.

digital-doc:

I suggest Front Page for down and dirty speed and simplicity.

I use FP, Dreamweaver and Photoshop for www.digital-doc.com

Certainly a "static" website would be the fastest website.

I would only suggest that if there is no need to make timely updates to the site.

With Joomla! your secretary can change the content.  So A doctor could say .. "Put an annoucement on the website that the flu shots are delayed but that the Flu Clinics will be   Nov 1, Nov8 and Nov 15th ".

And the secretary could do it :)

 

>>I would only suggest that if there is no need to make timely updates to the site.<<

I administer both.

I think FP has the edge for simplicity over Joomla! 1.0.10 Stable. FP is more like a Word Processor with tools. Upload is right mouse button click Publish. With FP wizards, a novice can develop and publish a web site in under 10 minutes. Try that with Joomla from scratch.

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What does Joomla need to run?

First you must have the base environment for Joomla!. We have thoroughly tested Joomla on: Linux, Free BSD, Mac OS X and Windows NT/2000/XP. Linux or one of the BSD's are recommended, but anything else that can run the 3 pieces of software listed below should do it. Apache: http://www.apache.org MySQL: http://www.mysql.com PHP (version 4.1.2 or higher): http://www.php.net There are several bundled distributions of Apache/MySQL/PHP available at sourceforge.net Server Configuration You MUST ensure that PHP has been compiled with support for MySQL and Zlib in order to successfully run Joomla. While we have reports that Joomla works on IIS server we recommend Apache for running Joomla on Windows. Optional Components If you want support for SEF URLs, you'll need mod_rewrite and the ability to use local .htaccess files.

http://help.joomla.org/content/view/108/62/

DrMurdoch:

digital-doc:

I suggest Front Page for down and dirty speed and simplicity.

I use FP, Dreamweaver and Photoshop for www.digital-doc.com

Certainly a "static" website would be the fastest website.

I would only suggest that if there is no need to make timely updates to the site.

With Joomla! your secretary can change the content.  So A doctor could say .. "Put an annoucement on the website that the flu shots are delayed but that the Flu Clinics will be   Nov 1, Nov8 and Nov 15th ".

And the secretary could do it :)

>>I would only suggest that if there is no need to make timely updates to the site.<<

Also very easy with FP. Simply open file make your changes in the Word Processor like html page, run a spell and grammar check if desired, and right mouse click and upload.

I've developed and administered both Joomla and FP/Dreamweaver. For a novice, FP has wizard that will have you develop an custom a multipage site in 10 minutes tops. Even faster if you are a fast typist and know what you want to say :-)

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Here are the minimum requirements for Joomla 1.0 PHP 4.2.x or above - http://www.php.net MySQL 3.23.x or above - http://www.mysql.com Apache 1.13.19 or above - http://www.apache.org You must ensure that you have MySQL, XML and Zlib support built into your PHP. Joomla can be used with most major browsers including: Internet Explorer (version 5.5+) Netscape, and Mozilla. These browsers take great advantage of Joomla's Administrative interface. The WYSIWYG editor, htmlArea from www.interactivetools.com, works only under Windows Internet Explorer. Extensive testing has also been completed using Mozilla 1.4, but the WYSIWYG editor is not available in this browser due to htmlArea being incompatible.

And from the Avoiding getting hacked Point of View, I'd suspect the non-database driven choice - FrontPage - is less apt to getting hacked.

 

Frontpage website look so cheap.  I don't know much about joomla, but I'll look more into it.  I was thinking about using Wordpress.  The nice part is that I could create a new template for a new doctor that wants a website, but all of the back end administration and updating of the site could be handled by them.  Front page could do some of that, but I love the idea of web forms that could be updated from anywhere without purchasing a software package or installing it.

Plus, wordpress(and I expect Joomla) has a lot of other nice features as far as statistics, backing up your db, polls and a few other things.  I think Wordpress is nearly as big of a concern as Joomla for hacking.  FP could also be hacked if people messed around, but static HTML is a little less hackable.

Joomla! is another level of web design above WordPress.

In fact, Joomla! can have WordPress as an "Addon".

 

For Predator's JD-Wordpress, this Addon is Amazing  (Read 724 times)

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,35628.0.html

Look around, all I can say is that Joomla! is great and more importantly getting better.  There is a very large developer base.

If you might be thinking of making a few doctor websites, getting good and then doing more .. I'd go with Joomla! for sure.

 

Joomla does look nice, though I don't think it has quite the installed base that Wordpress has.  Textpattern is not as refined as Wordpress though has a very dedicated group of developers who will do customizations for you for a small fee.  There are some inherent limitations of each of these products, not the least of which is the relative complexity of creating a unique site layout.  Existing templates can be modified with relative ease - and that may be enough - but extensive branding can be challenging without an indepth understanding of PHP and CSS.

I have not personally implemented Joomla, but I can recommend Wordpress for its ease of use and administration.  I have several sites up on that platform.  It is also nice to be able to allow others access to posting without giving them the freedom to muck up other settings.  Great for allowing the secretary to make postings but not delete the database. 

Hard coded sites are, as earlier posters suggested, best left to sites that are {relatively} static. If that is all you need, then CMS platforms are overkill.  I would caution against using older versions of Dreamweaver and *any* versions of Frontpage as they generate some (or in some cases a ton) of proprietary code that is neither standards compliant nor meeting the ever more important requirements of accessibility.  Remember that text editors are our friends, and Textmate on the Mac is amazing.  Unfortunately, I don't have a current recommendation for the PC.  That said, the important thing here is, choose the tool which best meets your clients' needs. 
 
Note that Target is being sued for accessibility violations under the Americans with Disabilities Act as we speak, and the outcome will largely effect the design of any web sites with commercial ties. 

Also, anyone with SEO knowledge understands the importance of having standards-compliant sites to aid in achieving optimal rankings, or in some cases even being listed at all.  You can see how compliant your DW or FP code is by going to http://www.sitening.com/tools/seo-analyzer/


Hope this helps!

Ken