Webmasters seem to be a varied lot.  Indeed it does not take a University to grant the title, anyone can call themselves a webmaster.  At it’s root a webmaster runs a website doing ‘webmaster’ things like a dungeon master might guide his characters to riches.  Instead being a webmaster is based on experience.  The more experience the better.  Nor does it stop at just building out a site.  It’s managing the systems and gaining knowledge across many different disciplines.  A webmaster has to operate in an environment that has no ‘what you see is what you get’ or WYSWG.  Everything is in code and scripts using SQL databases to provide the pages that get served to site visitors.

Medical webmasters are a step above the average webmaster in that they need the skills to provide services to both the medical practice and their patients.  With HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 the practicing medical webmaster needs to establish privacy guidelines and the transfer of electronic medical data across the Internet. Connecting practitioner to patient with the end result of better communication and patient care is the goal of medical webmasters.  In the coming articles we will delve into the in and out of finding and retaining webmasters for healthcare.