Tufts MC True Blue Recipient: Allison Hurley, Manager of Public Affairs and Communications, Public Affairs and Communications Department
Nomination from Shawn Gross, then Director of Web Strategy in Public Affairs:
“Redesigning an academic medical center’s website is a complex task. It’s even more of a challenge when you are redesigning two at the same time. In November of 2011, the Public Affairs marketing team and a small group of consultants began the process of redesigning websites for both Tufts Medical Center. Large AMC and hospital websites are hardly just made up of graphic design and technical features. At their core – and the key to their differentiation – is their content. And this is where Allison Hurley, [then] Web & Communications Specialist on a small team of five internal marketers has shined for the last 18 months.
Allison has participated in the redesign initiative since its inception. She gave briefings to Department of Medicine and Surgery leadership, and outlined the process that these important departments and dozens of divisions would take in the coming months. She led and conducted primary research studies. She participated in creating a new online design system for both hospitals and tested those designs with focus study groups. She played the role of a technical architect, redesigning key technology functionalities and innovations such as the Find a Doctor and Clinical Trials applications. And while these activities would be enough to keep a single employee busy for the year, Allison was just getting started.
Her key leadership contributions have been the redevelopment and oversight of drafting more than 2000+ new content pages that communicate to the outside world the breadth and depth of clinical care, training & education and research excellence that occur every day throughout both hospitals. Allison’s central charge during the redesign has been to develop new content (both text and imagery) that helps position and market the hospitals’ centers, departments and divisions. And she’s been more than successful; she’s been remarkable. Allison has conducted dozens of subject matter expert interviews with clinical leaders and written hundreds of departmental overviews, clinical program descriptions, residency and fellowship descriptions, and research lab and research program descriptions. This job takes a diverse range of online editorial, digital marketing, design and technical skills.
And if that wasn’t enough of a True Blue performance, Allison rolls up her sleeves to construct new web pages in the content management system and Find a Doctor database, all while keeping the current hospital websites up-to-date, working with the numerous content publishers throughout the hospital. To put it all into perspective, if it wasn’t for the tremendous amount of talent and dedication that Allison Hurley has given to the website redesign initiatives, there would be no new tuftsmedicalcenter.org and floatinghospital.org. We simply couldn’t have done it without her.”
