How did you get started in web design?

Chris Monnat: Practis was started in response to the lack of connectivity and inoperability found within the fragmented health care industry. The web is a great enabler. Since 1998, Practis has been designing, developing and maintaining custom websites for medical practices and health care organizations. Our clients represent health care organizations nationwide, ranging in size and scope, across the spectrum of care including physician group practices, health plans, home health agencies, surgical centers, and more.

What is the web site all about?

Chris Monnat: Compassion and Support is a New York State intitiative on issues related to end-of-life and palliative care. The site serves as an online repository of information and resources for both professionals and patients on this issue.

Why did you choose ExpressionEngine?

Chris Monnat: We choose ExpressionEngine for this project because of its ease of use and it is the most feature rich system we have come across. This project required a system with no “dept limit” as far as information architecture was concerned and it also required a system that had a simple user interface and low learning curve. We found that ExpressionEngine fit all of our criteria and more. ExpressionEngine allowed us to do all the things that we needed to do without interfering too much with “features” that we didn’t need. It allowed us to turn on what we wanted and ignore the rest which, in our opinion, is crucial to any content management system implementation.

What part of the site are you most proud of?

Chris Monnat: The MOLST Training Center, and in particular the MOLST Training Videos and the associated post-test evaluation and certification. This is where professionals can come to learn more about the MOLST initiative. After watching the training video they can take an online exam and then receive a customized PDF certificate as proof of completion.

Give us an overview of how you implemented a multilingual site in ExpressionEngine.

Chris Monnat: Providing multilingual content can be a difficult task. For this project we translated the overview text using the Google Translator and then provided a link at the bottom of the page where users could use the Google Translator to view the remainder of the site. It has been our experience that this is the quickest and most cost effective way of implementing multilingual content in a site.