HELP! Where to begin with online physician directory application

I am hoping to find a little direction or bits of advice from the experts here.

Background: I am a web designer trying to <strike>cross</strike> step onto the bridge towards web developer.

Project: A portable, extendable web application to serve as a searchable directory of physicians from multiple hospitals. The search needs to handle data including address and phone, as well as location on a map, and specialties. I also need to be able to take some of the data and function to various other websites. Are we talking "API"?

Pie-in-the-sky: Kayak.com-style power search interface with sliders, checkboxes, Ajaxy results, autocomplete, etc.

I imagine this is a project that could easily be done in stages, based on expertise, but can anybody recommend what STAGE 1 might be?!

If it were me doing this project,
I would start out by looking at pre-made
PHP/MySQL scripts that would handle a
phone directory database type thing.

http://www.hotscripts.com/

Look at the various features, and what types
of scripts are available. Some may be free, others not.

I would then look at the possibilities of maybe
using Drupal or Joomla instead of a pre-made script.

My First Step therefore, is to get the PHP/MySQL
backend put into place. You need a database for
storing all of the information ... that is priority #1.

Once you have a database, any PHP script can access
it and render your pages, based off of templates or whatever.

It would be cool to focus some of your energy on small scale
rendering for mobile devices (search Google for that).
A Physician database via cell phone might be a good selling tool.

Sorry for the delayed response, but thanks very much for your reply, mlseim. Very good information. I think you are right on with finding and/or modifying existing options. Integrating with a CMS is going to end up being a requirement as well.

Didn't want you to think it wasn't appreciated ;-)

Thanks again!

well try to search in some online site that are related in your problem... site like this physician...


_________________
define (http://www.chacha.com/language-lookup/definitions/)

If you find a similar site, don't be afraid to email the site owner or webmaster and
ask about their CMS/System. Most are friendly and will give you good information
about how they did it.