Our editorial method: how each page is written, sourced and checked

How a page is written

Every page starts from a question people in the UK actually type, taken from search data and from the questions Google itself shows on the results page. The answer comes first, in the opening two sentences, before any explanation.

Pages say what they cannot conclude. On a health topic, that limit is part of the information, not a disclaimer tacked on at the end.

The pages are written by Team Blood Interpretation, the editorial and medical team of the site, within rules set by the scientific and ethics committee.

How a page is sourced

Every figure on an explanatory page carries a source, listed at the foot of that page with a link, and a DOI for scientific articles. We cite clinical guidelines, consensus statements from professional bodies and systematic reviews in preference to single studies, because on a subject like this a society text outweighs an isolated result.

On the UK pages, British sources come first: the NHS, NICE, UK public health bodies and UK professional societies. International guidelines come next, and sources from other countries only where no British equivalent exists. We do not cite preprints: a manuscript that has not been peer-reviewed may be perfectly sound, but it cannot support a health claim made to a worried reader.

When the evidence does not support a claim we would like to make, the claim goes rather than the source. That has already happened on this site: an earlier version of our fasting page said a cholesterol test needed an overnight fast. European consensus dropped that requirement in 2016, and NICE does not require a fasting sample for a full lipid profile either.

What medical review covers, and what it does not

Explanations are reviewed by the team, and each page shows the date of its last review. Where a page has not yet been reviewed, it says so.

Review covers factual accuracy, the way uncertainty is presented, and the limits stated on each page. It does not turn the site into a medical service: no page here gives personal medical advice, and the full report does not make a diagnosis.

Nobody on the team reads your results. The full report is produced by the interpretation engine; the team reviews the rules that engine applies and the wording of the pages, never an individual result.

When a page changes, and how to report an error

A page is reread whenever its substance changes, and the review date shown on it is updated. Corrections are made openly rather than quietly: a page corrected after review carries a new date, not a silent edit.

If you spot an error, write to the address in the legal notice, naming the page and the sentence. A factual correction on a health page is worth more to us than a polite message, and it will be treated as such.