Health Informatics: Information on Emergency Services - Wordpress Site - Case Study Example

Health Informatics: Information on Emergency Services URL: http mabumelha wordpress.com Introduction I used Wordpress.com to help set up my Health Informatics blog. I went through and decided when I was trying to build the information for the website, exactly what kind of health informatics information do I want to supply to the public. I figured after doing a little research that I would go with the Emergency Medicine setting. The ER is very important in the care of patients who have very serious injuries or have need of quick medical. Thus, I figure that on one page of the site I would present what Emergency Medicine is and What happens in the ER?. On other pages I decided to show the layout of a possible Emergency Medicine Setting, links to Emergency Medicine websites, and possible future articles in the field of emergency medicine. Why Wordpress? After looking at a few web blogging sites out there, I decided that Wordpress had the best capabilities of providing a website-like design within a blogger style setting. Wordpress has various themes that allow for a nice clean look to the website with a blogging perspective. Wordpress also allows the blogger to connect with various other social media sites on the web such as twitter and Facebook. Furthermore, Wordpress can also allow for content from those same sources to be placed upon the home page of the blog. The Framework The framework is the basis for where the will connect to in the website. Such as the Home page connecting not only to the different pages within the site, but also to Twitter and Facebook, and the RSS feed that provides information on the homepage. The framework basically Framework for http://mabumelhacity.wordpress.com What Exterior Sites Chosen I did choose some exterior sites to help complement the Wordpress site. These enabled be to add features onto the front page of the blog. These sites include: * Facebook * Twitter * A Yahoo! Account, which was needed to help open the Wordpress site in the first place, but also helps link to Flickr, a picture hosting site * I also chose an RSS News feed from a reputable Critical Care Information site SCCM, the Society for Critical Care Medicine The external sites help not only to spread the word about my health informatics site, but to also enhance the experience when someone comes to the site to see what it is we are presenting in the area of Health Informatics. The Layout The layout process is one that is not hard once you have the information you need to build the website at your finger tips. However, for the website features that I wish to employ, the free version of Wordpress is not able to do everything that I need. My example below shows what I intended for the website to look like: Basic Layout for the website. However, I chose a site where the sidebar was on the right instead of the left, since I felt that the sidebar information was not quite as important as I intended it to be in the layout portion of this project. I felt that all the content should go on the left switching places with the side bar, since we want people to come to our site for information not to check out what’s on the sidebar. Meta-Data The meta-data is another way of organizing the data. One way to look at it is as though it were your websites card catalog. In an older library, they used card catalogs to identify where in the library a certain book was located. And this was done through three main categories: Book Author, Title. The meta-data in this website works the same way. The tags, and keywords in this site, along with categories and authors are ways to find different posts and blogs, along with pictures, and various other information in the location of the website. Some sample keywords for a Health Informatics website could include: Emergency Services, patient, practitioner, doctor (just to name a few), ER, trauma room, etc. Another way to see this meta-data is to place a tag cloud and a category cloud on the front page of the website. With these clouds up front and available to the person looking at the page, they can decide from the keywords and phrases listed where they might like to travel upon the web page. Problems with the over all look Although, I wanted the site to have a header basically run across the screen’s width, I still went with one that I though had an appropriate look for a medical site. The only thing that I didn’t like was that the blog’s width was smaller than I had anticipated. But it still looked clean enough and professional enough for me to go ahead and use this particular theme. I do like the look of the over theme for this blog, and the ease of updating a blog that has already been written or partially written to help complete this on time. However, I probably should go back at some point and narrow down the number of posts displayed by the RSS feed and displayed by the tweets listed on my site. This way the sidebar may begin to look a little cleaner. Limitations Most people trying to use the free version of Wordpress as a business website know that it has its limitations. However, even with those particular limitations Wordpress still does what a lot of other blog sites like LiveJournal and Blogger cannot do. LiveJournal and Blogger, usually, can be incorporated into the use of another website where Wordpress already has that done for you. And every time I take a look at Wordpress they are coming up with something new to help improve the overall functionality of their site for their users. Even with not being able to place things exactly where you want them on the page, or the ability to place plug-ins on the free version of Wordpress to help increase the capabilities of Wordpress, I still think that the functionality of this site will be sufficient for aloowing us to get the information out to the public. Extensions created by Wordpress As I learned through the various help screens and tutorials of this website, what can and cannot be done, I learned that not only can the blog you create bring in RSS feeds but your site can become a RSS feed for others to enjoy through their favorite news reader. Even with the many limitations of Wordpress, they continue every day to bring a more improved website for everyone to use either for their own enjoyment or for their business venture. Some people who write on the Wordpress blog sites are trying to make money as they blog about their favorite things. Conclusion In conclusion, the Wordpress site that was constructed for this project was basic and simple. Basic and simple should be how most websites work, but with very little chance of confusion when it comes to seeing which page that a person would like to go visit. Fancy bells and whistles on a website are nice, but some times they get in the way. A long time ago, I once learned the acronym K. I. S. S., which does not stand for the rock band, but for the phrase keep it simple stupid. Thus, the simpler the site and the easier to navigate the site, the better you have a chance to bring back a customer or visitor who can find similar information upon another website. Though there are things that could have been added to this initial part of the project, and may be added later, Wordpress, even in its free version still has a world of possibilities that would allow a person to deliver the information out to those that can get to it. References Harrell, J. W. (n.d.). In and out of the emergency room-streamlined design of patient flow. Facilities & Operations , (18), Retrieved from http://www.asianhhm.com/facilities_operations/emergency_department_streamlining.htm Sanchez, T. (n.d.) What Happens in the ER? eZine @rticles.com Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Happens-in-the-Emergency-Room?&id=5662741 What is Emergency Medicine?>Emergency Medicine| Yale School of Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://medicine.yale.edu/emergencymed/whatis.aspx IDs and passwords Yahoo! And flickr Mabumelha.city / 586440hi Twitter MabumelhaCity / 586440hi Facebook MabumelhaCity / 586440hi Read More