Medical governance
Editorial policy
Health information should be traceable, reviewable, dated, and clearly separated from advertising or commercial influence.
Source hierarchy
- Current U.S. clinical guidelines and government health agencies.
- Specialty-society consensus guidance for procedural details.
- National Cancer Institute patient and professional reference material.
- Peer-reviewed literature when a current guideline does not answer the question.
Update triggers
Content should be reviewed whenever ACS, USPSTF, US Multi-Society Task Force/ACG/AGA/ASGE, CDC, NCI, Medicare, or federal preventive-services coverage guidance materially changes.
Clinical safety rules
- Do not diagnose cancer from symptoms or uploaded text.
- Do not prescribe medication changes for bowel prep.
- Do not automatically calculate surveillance intervals from one pathology term.
- Clearly distinguish screening from diagnostic evaluation and surveillance.
- Provide urgent-care language for severe symptoms without pretending to triage an individual.
Corrections
Every substantive correction should update the review date and, for major medical changes, retain a short change log.
Readability
Core patient content should aim for plain language, short sentences, meaningful headings, and definitions near unfamiliar medical terms. Technical detail can be layered underneath.