Healthcare Content Modeling 101

Importance of Input Fields in Structured Content

Input fields are the building blocks of a content type. They define the specific pieces of data that content creators can input and manage. By establishing a consistent set of input fields for each content type, you enable several advantages. The content will be organized, easy to manage, and displayed consistently across your organization’s digital channels. The latter includes the API that third parties can use to fetch your content.

Input Types

Fields come in different flavors, which we call input types. These can be designed to accept various types of data, such as:

• Text: Single-line or multi-line text fields for headings, intros, helpers, or other written content
• Rich text: Text fields with formatting options, allowing content creators to apply styles like bold and italics, and insert lists and images
• Images: Fields for uploading and managing images, including options for adding captions and alt text
• Dates: Fields for inputting dates or date ranges, often presented with a calendar picker
• Files: Fields for uploading and managing documents, such as PDFs
• Selections: Drop-down menus, checkboxes, or radio buttons for selecting predefined options or categories
• Relationships: Fields for linking content items to other content types, such as associating an article with its author. Also known as a “Selector”
• Geography: Field for storing a GPS coordinate for map or address usage

For a more technical description of possible input types, see this list (in the menu) with examples from the Enonic platform.

Example Input Fields for Healthcare Content Types

Below are examples of input fields you might include in healthcare content types:

• Summary: A multi-line text field for a brief description or overview of the content
• Body text: A rich text field for the main content, including paragraphs, images, and other formatting options
• Author: A relationship field that links the content item to its author, typically a staff profile content type
• Date: A date field for specifying the publication date of the content item
• Categories: A selection field for assigning the content item to one or more predefined categories, such as medical specialties or service lines
• Tags: A text or selection field for adding keywords or phrases that further help categorize the content
• Code: A field for taxonomy codes for unambiguous identification, like SNOMED CT
• Image: An image field for uploading and managing images, including options for adding captions or alt text
• Related content: A relationship field for linking the content item to other relevant content items, such as related articles, resources, or events
• Medical condition: A field specifying the health condition or disease addressed by a clinical guideline or research summary. Preferably as a universally readable code as SNOMED CT or ICD
• Target audience: Indicates whether the content is intended for healthcare professionals, patients, or the general public
• Author credentials: A field capturing the education, certifications, and professional experience of the author providing professional advice or clinical recommendations
• Last updated: An additional date field displaying when a research summary, news article, or clinical guideline was last updated. Ensures that users can access the most recent information
• Drug classification: A field for categorizing medications based on their therapeutic use, mechanism of action, or chemical structure
• Event format: Specifies the type of event. E.g. conference, webinar, or workshop, and whether it is in-person, virtual, or hybrid
• Legal document type: A field for categorizing legal texts, such as statutes or regulations

Custom Input Fields for Unique Requirements

Your organization will most likely have unique content requirements that necessitate custom input fields. For example, you might need a field for video embed codes, patient age ranges, or treatment duration. When creating custom input fields, consider the specific data you need to capture and how it will be used and displayed. As with content types, consult with relevant stakeholders to ensure that your custom input fields meet their needs and expectations.

Principles of Content Reuse and Relationships

A synergetic content model focuses on:

1. Maximizing content reuse
2. Establishing meaningful relationships between content types

This approach not only improves content management efficiency. It also enhances the user experience by providing context and promoting visibility.

Key principles of content reuse and relationships include:

• Modular content: Break content down into smaller, reusable pieces. Then combine and repurpose it in various meaningful ways
• Linking related content: Establish relationships between content items. Provides context and helps users find relevant information
• Centralizing shared information: Store information that is used in multiple places, like medical recommendations or categories, in a central location. Ensures consistency and ease of updates

Content Item Relationships

There are several types of relationships that can be established between content items:

• Parent-child: This hierarchical relationship exists when one content item is a subset of another. Such as a section within a larger article or a step in a process
• Sibling: Sibling relationships occur between content items that share a common parent or belong to the same category. Such as articles in the same series or related drugs
• Many-to-many: Many-to-many relationships exist when content items are related to other content items. Such as linking articles to multiple authors or associating a recommendation with multiple tags

Example: Linking Clinical Guidelines with Authoring Committees

A healthcare organization publishes clinical guidelines, which are authored by committees of healthcare experts in various fields. These committees are responsible for reviewing the latest research, speaking with stakeholders, and writing evidence-based recommendations for patient care.

In this scenario, you could create two content types: “Clinical Guidelines” and “Committee Profiles.” The “Clinical Guidelines” content type could include input fields such as title, medical condition, target audience, summary, and publication date. The “Committee Profiles” content type could consist of fields like committee name, area of expertise, members (which again could link to items of a “Person” content type), member titles, and contact information.

To establish a relationship between these two content types, add a selector field in “Clinical Guidelines” to reference “Committee Profiles.” This allows users to easily access information about the committee responsible for each guideline. It also provides a seamless experience when navigating between related content items.

Incorporating Components in Content Modeling

When building a robust content model, it's essential to consider the role of components, which are visual building blocks used to create landing pages and templates. Components can range from basic elements, such as text blocks and images, to more advanced features like buttons, banners, or content lists. They play a crucial role in shaping the user experience and visual design of your content.

Understanding Components in Content Modeling

Components can be thought of as reusable pieces of content or design elements that can be combined in various ways to create unique page layouts and templates. Components are often configurable with buttons and switches. This means that you can e.g. add relations to content types, write text in specific fields, decide colors, and so on.

When creating a content model, it's important to identify the sort of components that will be most useful for your organization. You should also establish guidelines for their use, customization, and maintenance.

Examples of Components in Healthcare Content Modeling

• List of guidelines: A component that displays a dynamic or static list of content items of the type “clinical guidelines.” Makes it easy for users to browse and access relevant information
• News article content: A component designed to display the main content of a news article. This includes text, images, author, publish date, and multimedia, in a consistent and engaging format
• Page layout: A component that controls the overall structure and design of a page. This can be column arrangements, background colors, and spacing between elements

Best Practices for Incorporating Components in Your Content Model

• Define a component library: Create a library of reusable components that can be easily accessed and utilized by content creators and editors. This helps to maintain consistency in design and user experience across your website or application
• Establish component guidelines: Develop guidelines for using components. This includes when to use specific components, how to customize them, and any restrictions or limitations that may apply. This ensures that components are used effectively and consistently throughout your content
• Consider content-component relationships: When designing components, consider how they relate to and interact with content types. For example, a “List of guidelines” component might need to pull information from a “clinical guideline” content type, and display it in a specific format
• Plan for component maintenance and updates: Regularly review and update components as needed to ensure they continue to meet the needs of your organization and users. This may involve adding new components, removing outdated ones, or making improvements to existing components based on user feedback and analytics

By incorporating components into your content model and following best practices, you can create a more dynamic, flexible, and visually appealing content experience for your healthcare organization's users.

Tips for Organizing Related Content

Here are some final tips to help users find and navigate related content:

• Taxonomies: Use taxonomies like SNOMED CT to classify content items into categories or groups, such as medical specialties or service lines. This makes it easier for users to browse and discover related content
• Metadata: Add metadata, such as tags or descriptive text, to content items to provide additional context and improve searchability
• Cross-referencing: Use relationship fields to link content items to other related content items. Such as associating a clinical recommendation with validated sources. This can help patients explore related topics, and aid healthcare professionals in finding trustworthy references

Choosing the Right CMS for Your Healthcare Organization

A content management system (CMS) is a crucial tool for implementing your content model. It allows content creators to input, manage, and display content using the structure and relationships you have defined.

When choosing a CMS, consider factors such as:

• Usability: The CMS should be user-friendly and intuitive for content creators with varying levels of technical expertise
• Flexibility: The CMS should support structured content. It should allow you to create and modify content types, input fields, and relationships to fit your organization’s unique needs
• Scalability: Choose a CMS that can grow and adapt to your organization’s evolving content requirements. That is in terms of environments, servers, traffic, integrations, and pricing
• Security and compliance: Ensure that the CMS meets your organization’s security and regulatory requirements. Particularly if you handle sensitive health information
• Integrations: The CMS should integrate seamlessly with other tools and systems used by your organization. Such as SNOMED CT, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, or analytics tools

Configuring Content Types and Input Fields in Your CMS

Once you have chosen a CMS, your developers will need to configure your content types and input fields within the system.

This process will vary depending on the specific CMS, but generally involves:

• Creating content types: Define each content type in your content model. Specify the input fields, relationships, and any default settings or configurations
• Configuring input fields: Set up each input field for each content type. Specify the data type, validation rules, default values, and display options
• Establishing relationships: Configure relationship fields to connect content items with related content types. Such as linking subsidies to legal texts or recommendations to drugs
• Setting up taxonomies and metadata: Define your organization’s taxonomy structure and metadata fields within the CMS. This will help organize and categorize the content

Training Content Creators and Editors

To ensure that your content model is effectively implemented and maintained, it is essential to train content editors. They should learn how to use the CMS and follow best practices for creating and managing content.

Training and educational material should cover:

• Navigating the CMS: Teach content editors how to access and navigate the CMS interface. Includes finding, creating, editing, and publishing content items
• Content types and input fields: Explain the purpose and usage of each content type and input field. Emphasize the importance of consistency and accuracy when inputting data
• Content relationships: Demonstrate how to establish and manage relationships between content items. Explain the benefits of linking related content
• Taxonomies and metadata: Teach content editors how to apply taxonomies and metadata to content items. Explain that it is to improve organization, searchability, interoperability, machine readability, and user experience

Maintaining and Updating Your Content Model in the CMS

As your organization’s content requirements evolve, it is important to regularly review and update your content model in the CMS. Do this together with editors, developers, and other key stakeholders.

This maintenance process may involve:

• Adding or modifying content types: Create new content types or update existing ones to reflect changes in your organization’s content requirements
• Updating input fields: Add or modify input fields to capture new data. Or improve the structure and organization of existing content
• Enhancing relationships: Update relationship fields to better connect related content items
• Refining taxonomies and metadata: Review your taxonomy structure and metadata fields to ensure that content remains well-organized and easy to find

The Importance of APIs and Developer Involvement

Leveraging APIs in Content Modeling

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are essential in content modeling. They enable the seamless integration between your CMS and other systems or platforms. This makes sure that your content will always be accessible, up-to-date, and reusable across various channels, such as websites, mobile apps, and third-party applications.

One popular choice for APIs in content modeling is GraphQL. This is a query language for APIs that offers several benefits, including:

• Flexibility: GraphQL allows clients to request the exact data they need. It reduces the over- or under-fetching of information
• Efficiency: By allowing multiple resources to be requested in a single query, GraphQL can reduce the number of requests needed. It can thus improve performance and minimize latency
• Strong typing: GraphQL enforces a strict schema. It makes it easier to validate and catch errors before they reach production

Developer Involvement in Content Modeling

Developers play a critical role in content modeling. They are responsible for actually implementing the content model within the CMS. This includes configuring the APIs and creating custom components, templates, and other technical elements.

Involving the developers in the content modeling process ensures that the content model is technically feasible and optimized for performance, security, and scalability.

Best practices for developer involvement include:

• Collaborate early and often: Engage developers from the beginning of the content modeling process. Make sure that their input is considered to identify potential technical challenges or limitations
• Foster clear communication: Encourage open communication between content strategists, editors, and developers. Ensure that everyone is aligned with the goals, requirements, and constraints of the content model
• Provide ongoing training and support: As content modeling is an ongoing process, make sure that the developers receive the necessary training. Also enable resources for them to stay up-to-date on best practices, industry trends, and emerging technologies

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Best Practices

To reach your target audience, your healthcare content must be easily discoverable through search engines. Implement the following SEO best practices to optimize your content:

• Keyword research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience is likely to use when searching for information. E.g. symptoms, treatments, or laws
• On-page optimization: Insert keywords naturally into your content. This includes titles, headings, meta descriptions, and body text. Don’t force them in where they don’t organically fit!
• Internal linking: Use internal links to connect related content items. This helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website
• URL structure: Create clear and descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords. It should also accurately reflect the content of the page
• Content quality: Focus on creating high quality, informative, and engaging content. It should provide value to your audience and demonstrate your organization’s expertise
• Mobile-friendliness: Ensure that your content is easily accessible and readable on mobile devices. Search engines prioritize mobile friendly websites

Web Accessibility Best Practices

Making your content accessible to users with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, but also a legal requirement in many places. Follow these web accessibility best practices to make sure that all users can access your content:

• Use of headings: Structure your content using appropriate heading levels (H1, h3, H3, etc.). This provides a clear hierarchy and navigation for users with screen readers
• Alt text for images: Provide descriptive alternative texts for all images. Convey their meaning and purpose to users with visual impairments
• Readable fonts and colors: Use legible fonts and sufficient color contrast. Make sure that your content is easy to read for users with visual impairments
• Keyboard navigation: Ensure that all interactive elements on your website can be operated using a keyboard. E.g. links, buttons, and forms
• Descriptive link text: Use descriptive link text that accurately conveys the purpose and destination of the link. Try to avoid generic phrases like “click here” or “learn more”
• Video and audio transcripts: Provide transcripts or captions for video and audio to make it accessible to users with hearing impairments

Integrating SEO and Accessibility Into Your Content Model

To implement these SEO and accessibility best practices, you can integrate them into your content model:

• Include relevant input fields: Add input fields for meta descriptions, alt text, captions, and other SEO and accessibility related data
• Establish guidelines: Develop and communicate guidelines for content editors on how to create SEO and accessibility friendly content. This includes the use of keywords, headings, alt text, and internal links
• Regular monitoring and updates: Regularly monitor your website’s SEO performance and accessibility compliance. Make updates to your content model as needed to address any issues or opportunities for improvement