Website creation and consultation

Site owners and administrators must be a benefits-eligible, quad-based employee of the Medical School with an active role in Peoplesoft. In the case of a recognized IPCI, an owner or administrator may be someone with an active Harvard Sponsored Role. Students are ineligible for HMS-branded websites, regardless of platform or service provider.

We use secure, high-availability platforms to manage HMS websites. This ensures the rapid creation of accessible, HMS-branded sites. They adhere to industry standards and best practices, making the websites scalable and future-proof. Moreover, ongoing support and maintenance for these sites are also handled, guaranteeing long-term security and functionality.

The HMS web terms of service govern all use of the HMS web services, the web publishing platforms, and the services available to the Harvard Medical School community (the service). By using the platforms or service, you agree to be legally bound by these terms.

If you work in an HMS Quad-based department, center, program, or initiative and are a benefits-eligible Harvard employee, your group may qualify for a website on the HMS web platform. This Drupal-based platform has pre-set design elements, templates, and branding supported and managed by HMS IT and OCER. If you fit this category and would like more information, email Ben Sharbaugh, Senior Director of Digital and Branding at OCER, benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu.

Examples:

• Flagship HMS site
• Department of Biomedical Informatics

Harvard Web Publishing offers two self-service web platforms, HarvardSites Drupal and HarvardSites WordPress, to benefits-eligible Harvard employees. The platform is currently free, though fees may be introduced.

Requesting approval for a HarvardSites site

Before requesting a site, you need prior approval. To get approval:

1. Email Ben Sharbaugh, Senior Director of Digital and Branding at OCER, at benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu.
2. Include a brief description of the site's purpose.
3. Provide the full name and email address of the site owner (if different from the person submitting the request).

Creating a HarvardSites website

After approval, you can sign in using your HarvardKey to manage a new site for personal use or for your department, office, initiative, or lab. These websites are self-service, meaning you will use an existing platform with preset templates to design your pages. You can work at your own pace.

For more details, visit the Harvard Web Publishing website.

Support for HarvardSites

For more information about HarvardSites at Harvard, visit the HUIT HarvardSites page. If you need support for your HarvardSites site, submit requests to Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT) at ithelp@harvard.edu.

Web creation services at Harvard Medical School are available only to benefits-eligible, quad-based HMS employees with an active role in Peoplesoft. Therefore, these services are not available to individuals employed by HMS-affiliated hospitals or research institutions, including if the individual has a primary appointment in a preclinical, Quad-based department. See the following list of contacts at each affiliate who can assist with web creation services at your primary institution:

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center – Vanessa Hill, VP Marketing, Brand & Digital, vanessa.hill@bilh.org
• Boston Children's Hospital – William Gagnon, Senior Director of Digital Engagement, Marketing & Communications, william.gagnon@childrens.harvard.edu
• Boston VA Medical Center – Ben Sharbaugh, Senior Director, Digital & Creative at HMS, benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu
• Brigham and Women's Hospital
  • Mass General Brigham's Digital Service Hub
  • BWH Web Edits Team, webedits@bwh.harvard.edu
• Cambridge Health Alliance – Jeff Nussbaum, Senior Director of Program and Services Marketing, jnussbaum@challiance.org
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – Luise Dittrich, Senior Web Editor, luise_dittrich@dfci.harvard.edu
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
  • Garett Kopczynski, Webmaster/Manager of Administration, garett.kopczynski@harvardpilgrim.org
  • Maya Dutta-Linn, Director of Communications, maya.dutta-linn@harvardpilgrim.org
• Hebrew Senior Life – Ben Sharbaugh, Senior Director, Digital & Creative at HMS, benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu
• Joslin – Katherine Delaney, Website and Digital Brand Manager, katherine.delaney@joslin.harvard.edu
• Judge Baker Children's Center – Christina Minassian O'Keefe, VP of Administration & Operations, cokeefe@jbcc.harvard.edu
• McLean – Scott O'Brien, Director of Digital Strategy Team, sobrien12@partners.org
• Mass Eye and Ear – meewebsite@meei.harvard.edu
• Mass General – Kristen Joyce Drury, Senior Manager of Digital Marketing, kjoyce2@partners.org
• Spaulding – Ben Sharbaugh, Senior Director, Digital & Creative at HMS, benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu
• VA Boston Healthcare Center – Ben Sharbaugh, Senior Director, Digital & Creative at HMS, benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu

HMS subdomains (SUBDOMAIN.hms.harvard.edu) will be approved by the Use of Name Committee for the following:

HMS Quad-based preclinical departments and offices

Examples:

• dbmi.hms.harvard.edu
• genetics.hms.harvard.edu
• ghsm.hms.harvard.edu
• fa.hms.harvard.edu
• postdoc.hms.harvard.edu
• campusplanning.hms.harvard.edu

Faculty members employed by Harvard, eligible for Harvard benefits, and with labs based in preclinical departments on the HMS campus can request domain names

Note – The word lab should be included in the domain name, as shown in the Zitnik and Rogulja examples above.

Example:

• zitniklab.hms.harvard.edu
• reich.hms.harvard.edu
• brugge.med.harvard.edu
• harveylab.hms.harvard.edu
• roguljalab.hms.harvard.edu
• abrahamlab.med.harvard.edu
• baymlab.hms.harvard.edu

Many labs do not use HMS domain names and instead use custom .org or .com URLs, like Zak Kohane (zaklab.org) and Galit Lahav (lahavlab.com)

Approved HMS institutes, programs, initiatives, and centers (IPCIs), and School-wide initiatives approved by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine

Examples:

• primarycare.hms.harvard.edu
• bioethics.hms.harvard.edu
• computationalbiomed.hms.harvard.edu
• artsandhumanities.hms.harvard.edu
• nutrition.hms.harvard.edu

Educational programs

Note – Some programs exist on their own HMS subdomains (like the Program for Medical Education and Postgraduate Medical Education), and some are pages off of the department's or office’s web page (like the Master's of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery).

Examples:

• meded.hms.harvard.edu
• ghsm.hms.harvard.edu/education/master-medical-sciences-global-health-delivery

HMS Central needs that support the School's operations and mission 

For example, Faculty Affairs's Faculty Handbook, Technical platforms and applications developed by HMS IT, and so on.

Examples:

• facultyhandbook.hms.harvard.edu
• profpromotions.hms.harvard.edu
• tableau.hms.harvard.edu (restricted)
• cv.hms.harvard.edu

HMS research cores

For example:

• tcmp-core.hms.harvard.edu

Projects or funding sponsored by the Office of the Dean

Examples:

• Bertarelli Rare Cancers Fund (brcf.hms.harvard.edu)
• Tananbaum Healthcare Transformation Fund (thtf.hms.harvard.edu),

Project Managers contracted by the Office for External Education

Using two- or three-letter initials to represent the company or course of study, for example:

• Northwest Executive Education (nw.hms.harvard.edu)
• Kaplan (pc.hms.harvard.edu)

HMS Quad preclinical department- and faculty-led projects and initiatives that are not institutional or School-wide initiatives

These projects and initiatives should be built on the department, lab, or office website. These requests should be vetted through the department website administrator and would carry the following domain names:

• Department initiatives – Format as DEPARTMENT_NAME.hms.harvard.edu/INITIATIVE_NAME. Examples:
  • genetics.hms.harvard.edu/resources
  • neuro.hms.harvard.edu/resources/rt-pcr
  • hcp.hms.harvard.edu/research-data
• Lab initiatives – Format as LAB_NAME.hms.harvard.edu/INITIATIVE_NAME. For example:
  • klein.hms.harvard.edu/resources
  • reich.hms.harvard.edu/software
  • baymlab.hms.harvard.edu/tools.html
  • zitniklab.hms.harvard.edu/data
  • zitniklab.hms.harvard.edu/software

Ineligible groups

Any other individuals, groups, or entities not mentioned above — including student groups, affiliate-based faculty who are not employed by or eligible for benefits from Harvard, faculty whose labs are not based in preclinical departments physically located on the HMS campus, programs, initiatives, centers, and so on — are not eligible for HMS domain names, and these requests will be declined.

The web team manages the creation, support, and ongoing improvement of dynamic websites. Our developers carry out website enhancement projects from conceptualization to completion, delivering high-quality and scalable web solutions that stay future-friendly by following industry standards and best practices.

• We build external- and internal-facing websites based on the Drupal open-source content management system.
• We manage HMS websites at scale using a secure, high-availability  platform to spin up accessible, HMS-branded websites quickly.
• We handle ongoing support and maintenance for the sites under our purview.
• We provide project management support for web projects, ensuring that goals, timelines, and budgets stay balanced.

To submit a work request, email warp-web-help@hms.harvard.edu or submit a STAT service request. Our team works in 3-week cycles with an established SLA guideline.

Training details are available on our web training page. For more assistance, contact Sam Peasley at sam_peasley@hms.harvard.edu.

You can request a consult with the web team if you're unsure where to start or whether the solution you've imagined best fits your requirements. We’ll help you:

• Choose where and how to build, rebuild, or improve your web presence.
• Address various aspects of your web needs, from your site's information architecture to the setup and configuration of a CMS or web technology.