The Web Platforms Team, part of the HMS IT Web and Advanced Research Platforms (WARP) group, in conjunction with the Office of Communications and External Relations (OCER), provides support for a wide array of HMS web properties, including the HMS flagship site, department/center/core sites, and lab websites.

Harvard Medical School offers a variety of support models for community members who want to build, expand, or update a website. Depending on where within the HMS community your work is based, there is a path for you to build a website. See more details below.

Website Creation Support Models

  • Quad-based departments, centers, and initiatives

    If you work in an officially designated, HMS quad-based department, center or initiative, you may be eligible for a website on the HMS web platform. This is a Drupal-based platform with pre-set design elements, templates, and branding that is supported and managed by HMS IT and the Office of Communications and External Relations. If you fit in this category and would like more information, please contact: benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu.

    Examples:

    HMS Flagship Site
    Department of Biomedical Informatics

  • Quad-based individuals and labs, off-quad individuals with a primary appointment at HMS

    Harvard University offers a self-service web platform (currently at no cost) based on WordPress, through CampusPress to anybody with a primary appointment or role at Harvard Medical School.  Using HarvardKey, individuals can log in and create a new site for their personal work or their department, office, initiative, lab, etc… These sites are self-service (you will use an existing platform with preset templates build your own pages) and can be built at your own pace. For more details on this platform and additional services available to Harvard users, visit Harvard Web Publishing.

    HMS-based users of CampusPress are also eligible to use a custom HMS theme for their site to bring it more in line with the HMS flagship website.

    Click here to create a CampusPress site.

    Examples:

    Harvard University template: https://btca.hms.harvard.edu/

    HMS template: http://identity.hms.harvard.edu 

  • Affiliate/hospital-based community

    If your primary appointment is at one of the HMS affiliate hospitals, you are not eligible to use CampusPress or the HMS drupal platform. Please see the list below for contacts at each affiliate who will be able to help you with your web needs using your institution’s web services.
     

    Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center:Chris Boyer (Chris.Boyer@bilh.org), VP of digital strategy & market intelligence

    Boston Children’s Hospital


    Boston VA Medical Center

    Brigham and Women’s Hospital: Ron Henry (rdhenry@bwh.harvard.edu), senior manager of digital communications, and/or BWH Web Edits team (webedits@bwh.harvard.edu)

    Cambridge Health Alliance:Jeff Nussbaum (jnussbaum@challiance.org), senior director of program and services marketing

    Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Luise Dittrich (Luise_Dittrich@DFCI.HARVARD.EDU), senior web editor

    Hebrew Senior Life

    Joslin: Katherine Delaney (Katherine.Delaney@joslin.harvard.edu), website and digital brand manager

    Judge Baker Children’s Center: Christina Minassian O’Keefe (cokeefe@jbcc.harvard.edu), vice president of administration & operations

    McLean: Scott O’Brien (SOBRIEN12@PARTNERS.ORG), director of the digital strategy team

    Mass Eye and Ear: website@meei.harvard.edu

    Mass General: Kristen Joyce Drury (KJOYCE2@PARTNERS.ORG), senior manager of digital marketing

    Spaulding

  • Requesting an HMS Domain

    If you have built a new website on either the HMS Drupal platform or OpenScholar and you hope to use a new, custom HMS subdomain (e.x. newwebsite.hms.harvard.edu), you must send your request to the Use of Name committee for approval. HMS domains are only available to quad-based groups and must be specific to the work you are doing (avoid broad terms).

    Questions

    If you need additional clarity or would have specific questions about this process, please email Ben Sharbaugh (benjamin_sharbaugh@hms.harvard.edu).

Website Services

  • Web Design & Development

    WARP-Web manages the creation, support and ongoing improvement of dynamic web-based sites and systems. Our developers help to carry website enhancement projects from conceptualization to completion, delivering high-quality and scalable web solutions that stay future-proof by following industry standards and best practices.

    • We build external- and internal-facing websites quickly and affordably by leveraging open-source content management systems like Drupal.
    • We manage HMS websites at scale using a secure, high-availabilty cloud-based platform to quickly spin up accessible, HMS-branded websites.
    • 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, please email warp-web-help@hms.harvard.edu or submit a STAT service request. Our team works in a 3-week "sprint" cycle with an established SLA guideline.

  • Web Content Management Training

    Hands-on CMS training of the HMS web platform is provided by OCER. If you or your department need training, please contact Sam Peasley (sam_peasley@hms.harvard.edu) for more details.

    For HMS-specific Drupal online documentation and web help, please visit our training site: https://webtraining.hms.harvard.edu/training-documentation

  • Web Consulting

    We can help to analyze your web-related needs and suggest options to identify the solutions that best address your unique challenges. We adapt our expertise in proven web strategies and best practices to your situation, helping you to avoid pitfalls and delays and navigate the best route toward success. If you’re not sure where to start, or whether the solution you’ve imagined is the best fit for your requirements, we’re the folks to ask.

    • We’ll help you choose where and how to build, rebuild or improve your web presence, whether hosted on our own servers, in Acquia Cloud or Site Factory, or on Harvard’s CampusPress CMS.
    • We can advise on various aspects of your web needs, from your site’s information architecture to the selection, setup and configuration of a CMS or web technology.

  • Website Hosting

    Our web hosting service provides a home for your self-developed website. Let us take care of the underlying web and systems maintenance, and help you to register a name for your site, so you can focus on what’s most important to you – your website content and design. If the available options for hosting at HMS don’t meet your needs, talk to us about external vendor hosting options.

    • We provide on-site hosting for simple (html, php, web application framework) sites.
    • Automated site uptime monitoring is included as part of the hosting service.
    • Hosting is provided in a modern, open source Linux Apache/MySQL/PHP (“LAMP”) environment.
    • Web application hosting is also supported, subject to requirements availability in our environment.