Medical Review Process
Every health page here goes through the same five steps before you see it.
Last updated 7 September 2026
1. Sourcing
Guides are built from clinical guidelines and major reviews first: WHO, CDC, NIH, NICE, AHA, ADA, Cochrane, and equivalents. Single small studies and press releases do not set recommendations here.
2. Writing
Drafts are written to a fixed editorial standard: plain words, short sentences, both unit systems, no drug doses, and a clear “see a doctor now” section on every guide.
3. Medical review
A licensed physician reads every line before publication. Our Medical Director, Dr. Jannat Ilyas, MBBS, is accountable for the review standard across the site.
A guide is occasionally published before that read, when the topic is one people are searching for now and the draft already meets the standard above. Those guides say so on their own byline, carry no reviewed date, and claim no review in their page data until one has happened. If a guide shows a reviewed date, a physician has read it.
4. Dating
Every guide shows when it was last reviewed. Topics where guidance moves, like screening ages and thresholds, are re-checked at least yearly.
The record, as it stands today
Every number below is counted from the pages themselves when this site is built, including the guides still waiting for a physician read. Nothing here is typed in by hand.
- Guides published
- 222, of which 218 have been read by a physician
- Reviews dated
- August 17, 2026 to October 7, 2026
- Answers published
- 257, of which 257 name the source behind them
- Citations across the site
- 1,303 to 106 different organisations
- References per guide
- 3 at fewest, 8 at most, 4 in the middle
Who we cite most
Guidelines bodies and national health services first, which is what step one says and what the count shows. The concentration is deliberate and it is also a limitation worth naming: a single national service accounts for a large share of it, and its guidance is written for one country’s practice.
- NHS398
- MedlinePlus, US National Library of Medicine99
- World Health Organization98
- CDC96
- Mayo Clinic78
- NIDDK, National Institutes of Health50
- NICE50
- American Heart Association36
- PubMed27
- nimh.nih.gov23
- NHLBI, National Institutes of Health21
- American Diabetes Association19
Waiting for a physician read
These 4 guides are published and unreviewed, exactly as described above: no reviewed date, no review claimed in the page data, and said plainly on the page itself. They are listed here rather than left to be discovered.
- Erectile Dysfunction: Why It Is a Heart Question First
- Hair Loss in Men: What Is Normal and What Is Worth Checking
- Male Fertility: What a Sperm Test Measures and What Changes It
- Testicular Lumps: What to Check For, and What They Usually Are
5. Corrections
Errors reported to hello@askdoc.life are checked against sources and corrected visibly, not silently. Clinicians who write in with a reference get a fast reply.
Related: Editorial policy · Medical disclaimer