Editorial method: how our pages are written and reviewed
/en/editorial-method/
How a page is written
Every page starts from a question people actually type, taken from search data and from the questions Google itself displays on the relevant results page. The answer comes first, in the first two sentences, before any explanation.
Pages state what they cannot conclude. On a health topic, that limit is part of the information, not a disclaimer bolted 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 DOI link. We cite clinical guidelines, consensus statements from learned societies and systematic reviews in preference to single studies, because on a subject like this one a society text outweighs an isolated result.
We do not cite preprints. A manuscript that has not been peer-reviewed may be perfectly sound, but it cannot support a health claim addressed to a worried reader. Where a French-language version of a source exists, the French pages cite it.
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: the fasting page previously stated that a lipid panel requires an overnight fast, which European consensus abandoned in 2016.
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 is not yet reviewed, it says so.
Review covers factual accuracy, the framing of uncertainty, and the limits stated on each page. It does not make the site a medical service: no page here gives personal medical advice, and the full report does not produce a diagnosis.
Nobody on the team reads your report. 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 re-read whenever it is modified in substance, and the review date shown on it is updated. Corrections are made visibly rather than silently: a page corrected after review carries a new date, not a quiet edit.
If you find an error, write to the address in the legal notice. Point to 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.