GUIDELINES for Editors

Ontology/Structure
The levels of organization are as follows:

Domains On the home page are three major “domains”: Medicine, Engineering and Business & Law.

Sections The “sections” within the three broad domains are areas of expertise or knowledge that would be recognizable and relevant to a student in a project design course. In Medicine, the sections are clinical specialty areas; in the Engineering domain, the sections represent technology areas and fields; in Business and Law, the sections represent a mix of categories dealing with technology translation and commercialization. Sections are the smallest component that will be assigned to an editor. Each Senior Editor will be assigned one section. See Editorial Responsibility for more information.

Topics Each section is divided into topics, which are of the scale of a project area that would be assigned in a BME design class. In the Medicine domain, the topics primarily reflect various disease states or conditions. For example, in Cardiovascular, the topics include Aortic Disease, Arrhythmia, Congestive Heart Failure, etc. Under the Engineering domain topics are subcategories of the section—in the Imaging section, for example, the topics include Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, etc. Senior editors are responsible for determining the topics in their sections. Topics (except in reference areas) should be large enough to include several link group areas.

Links and link groups At the deepest level of the site, the topics are divided into groups of links based on a specific body of work, which is identified by a key word description. For example, Aortic Disease includes: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, Acute Aortic Dissection, Aortic Coarctation, etc. Molecular Imaging includes: Fluorescent Dyes, Ion Indicators, Microspheres, and Optical Bioluminescence.

Columns At the topic level there is a standard three-column format for each domain's topics.

Medicine Columns The three columns for Medicine are Overview, Diagnosis and Treatment. The Overview column includes sites with basic knowledge of the disease state: what it is, how it manifests, etc. Under Diagnosis, links detail how the disease is detected and characterized, including diagnostic technologies. The Treatment column provides links to procedures, devices or other technologies that are used for treating this disease. (Exception: In each specialty, the General page will include columns titled: Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology)

Engineering Columns In the Engineering domain, the link groups are categorized in columns labeled Overview, Technology and Applications. The Overview column contains links to sites that describe the technology at an introductory or review level. Under Technology, sites are listed that describe more specific information about the technology—including detailed science and engineering. The Applications column provides links to sites that describe the use of the technology for diagnosis, treatment or therapy. Applications that exist outside medical use may also be included if seen as relevant to potential use in medicine.

Business and Law This domain includes sections that are specifically geared toward the further development of a device (including Intellectual Property, Regulatory and Reimbursement). The columns are labeled (when appropriate) Overview, Methods and Applications. The Overview column contains information to business/law sites that have introductory materials about the specific topic/link group. Methods links would point to tools or resources that describe methods of exploring, utilizing or developing a particular Topic, for instance, a Patent Search Engine. Applications are more specific methods for specific link groups, such as a Patent Search Engine geared specifically to medical devices.