Editorial Policy

Our goal is to present you with the widest range of objective, trustworthy, and accurate health information on the web. We are committed to providing information on a wide variety of health topics, and rather than filtering certain types of information that may or may not be applicable to any one individual's personal health, we rely on you, our reader, to choose the information that is most appropriate for you. Be aware, however, that information on Healthline or any other web site should not be used as a substitute for professional healthcare. You should always consult your health professional before acting on any information seen on Healthline or any other web site.

Healthline offers content based upon the following criteria:

Relevance -- Issues that could affect how you manage your own health and that of your family's. Topics include coverage of breaking health news; drug and product launches, recalls, and alerts; health advisories; and expert commentary on managing diseases and conditions and staying healthy.

Clinical Significance -- The latest medical findings published in peer-reviewed medical journals, such as The Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Pediatrics, Diabetes Care, Circulation, and many others.

Editorial Integrity -- Healthline's responsibility is to make a clear distinction between news and other information, so that individuals can readily distinguish independent editorial information from paid, promotional information and other non-news content.

Original Article Process

Every original article has been reviewed by our staff of full-time, board-certified physicians. Each completed article has been reviewed by a medical editor for accuracy, appropriateness of medical language, and proper characterization of the findings. The story is next reviewed by a Content Manager who edits it for style, flow, punctuation, and readability. Finally, the story moves from editing to publishing, where it is converted to HTML and published to the site.

Licensed Content

When Healthline licenses health and wellness content from third-parties for publication on our site, the Healthline Content Management team reviews the third-party's editorial policies and procedures for consistency with the Healthline Editorial Policies, including without limitation the conflicts of interest policy. While the Healthline Content Management team may not review each page of the third-party licensed content, the team does review a representative sample of the content to ensure that the third-party implements the editorial policy and procedures reviewed by Healthline and that the content is accurate, timely and relevant. In addition, Healthline contractually requires the third-party to adhere to these standards and have their content medically reviewed at least annually by a credible medical or healthcare reviewer other than Healthline. The content may be updated more frequently if news warrants. If the license does not permit Healthline to make changes to the content, Healthline makes best efforts to remove the content from the site until the licensor updates the material.

Sponsored Content and Advertising

In using our site, you will see that some content, buttons, badges and banners are labeled "Sponsored", "From Our Sponsor" or "Advertisement". This content has not been reviewed by the Healthline Content Management team and is not subject to this Editorial Policy. Content, buttons, badges or banners labeled "Sponsored" or "From Our Sponsor" are subject to the policy governing Our Sponsors. Content, buttons, badges and banners labeled "Advertisement" are subject to our Advertising and Promotions Policy.

Effective: Sept 2005