Web Services Overview

The Department of Surgery's website is managed through a CMS (content management system) called Sitefinity. As of the start of 2020, the site contains just over 500 pages.

Maintaining the site is a collaborative effort among several groups of people: (1) Department of Surgery faculty and staff; (2) the Web Services team at the School of Medicine; and (3) coming soon, the new Communications Unit in the School of Medicine.

Department of Surgery responsibilities:

• Regularly review the website and send requests for updates to SoM Web services.
• Write new content for the website as needed. (Content is generally authored by faculty, but sometime staff members get involved, too.)
• Provide images for the website (with assistance as needed from School of Medicine staff).

School of Medicine Web Services responsibilities:

• Take content from DoS faculty/staff and put it on the website, applying best practices, knowledge of Sitefinity features, graphic design expertise, etc.
• Provide DoS faculty and staff with access to stock photos as needed.

School of Medicine Communications Unit responsibilities:

• Collaborate with DoS faculty/staff on writing new content for the website.

Primary Contacts

Department of Surgery: Emma Brokaw (emma.brokaw@cuanschutz.edu)

School of Medicine Web Services: Dan Robinson (dan.robinson@cuanschutz.edu)

School of Medicine Communications: Chanthy Na (chanthy.na@cuanschutz.edu)

The Offical DoS Website vs. Custom Websites

As a rule, the official Department of Surgery website should meet the website needs of all units and programs within the department. Any new content added to the official DoS website is covered by the Department's contract with School of Medicine Web Services, at no additional cost to individual Divisions or programs.

If a faculty member or program in the department needs a website with special functionality that Sitefinity just can't offer, or if one of the restrictions discussed on the Guidelines page of this site is a deal-breaker, it is possible to get a custom website built outside the main departmental site. Custom sites can be built either by the web-development team at the School of Medicine or by an outside vendor.

The cost of building an outside site of this kind will generally fall on the Division or program that wants the site built. Although these sites are hosted outside of the www.cuanschutz.edu domain, they still have to meet university branding standards, which means consultation with University Communications.

If you are interested in getting a custom site built, a good first step is to consult with Shelly Lange, who has knowledge of resources and processes at University of Colorado, UCHealth, and CU Medicine. Shelly can help you decide whether a standalone site is the best option and, if so, how to get it built in a way that meets your timeline and budget.