Client List Automation

Most of us know that building client lists can be tedious and time consuming. Today I found myself going over a member directory wondering if I should use copy-paste to import contact information into Outlook, or create a webbot that would automate part of the task. I read "Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers" by Michael Schrenk a long time ago, but had never build a webbot until today, simply because I had no use for them. Using the LIB_parse and LIB_http libraries I wrote a simple script which did most of the work for me. After all this time I had found an application for things to do with a webbot.

Website Design

Can you redesign our website? Its a frequent request and yet sometimes the existing design is both pleasing and usable and I'm left wondering about the decision to create a new design. Why did they decide to redesign their website? And how did they come to this decision?

Turns out the decision is often based on a gut feeling, something along the line of "we just don't like it". Before deciding on a new design for your medical website, write down the goals for your medical website, and then ask yourself, does your website do what you want it do? The goals for your medical website could be to see more new patients, or receive fewer calls to the office.

If the answer is yes, there is no need to change the existing design. Even if the answer is no, think about how the new design will help you achieve these goals. Use Google Analytics to see if visitors are quickly leaving your site, not returning, or taking unexpected paths. These can be signs of an unpleasant or unusable design. If you are not tracking web statistics you still don't have to go by instinct alone. Lookup web design rules and for each rule check if your design adheres to the rule. Not adhering to any rules either? Chances are you could use a new design for your medical website.

Robert Matousek
Medfuse
Medical Web Experts
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FTP Replacement

Client requested a solution for FTP replacement. Current workflow consists of customers uploading audio files to an FTP server. Employees then download the audio files, create transcriptions, and upload word documents. Some customers have automated the uploading of audiofiles by creating scheduled tasks. The client has specified the following requirements:

• user will receive a message about the status of the file upload
• administrator can search for transcription document that belongs to an audio file

In other words, track all inputs and outputs to the business process and handle errors gracefully. Also, most customers have better things to do than worry about uploading audio files, thus minimize the impact of the change.

FTP has some obvious disadvantages though, such as ease of use, security, etc. It would probably be easier to use HTTP instead, and log all file uploads and the relationship between audio files and word documents in a database. Is there a way to allow existing customers to keep using FTP, and still use a database on the backend?

Also, is anyone familiar with online services such as Onehub or Boltfile? They offer plenty of functionality and seem to be relatively inexpensive. I think they could offer a valuable alternative to developing a customized solution.

Robert Matousek
Medfuse
Medical Web Experts
View online demo