Our Editorial Process

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At Healthline, we’re committed to providing you with trustworthy, accessible, and accurate information so you’re equipped to care for your health and wellness. We use an established Editorial Process to ensure we’re giving you the best possible information.

Our Editorial Process was developed by the Healthline team. It’s the backbone of everything we do. But what is this process? How do we ensure that everything we publish meets our standards?

Our team creates and edits every piece of content based on the 4 pillars of our editorial process. These pillars — (1) earning and maintaining trust; (2) keeping high journalistic standards; (3) prioritizing accuracy, empathy, and inclusion; and (4) continual monitoring and updating of content — ensure that you can always find the timely, evidence-based information you need.

1. Earning and maintaining trust

Health information is easy to find but it can be confusing, overwhelming, inaccurate, irrelevant, or inaccessible. We’re here to change that.

We provide content that is trustworthy, accurate, evidence-based, clear, understandable, accessible, empathetic, and actionable.

Throughout our content, we address total well-being and help you make the important connection between health and lifestyle. We call it “whole person health.” In support of that, we openly and objectively cover a range of topics and viewpoints.

We’re aware the journey is different for everyone, so we stand for inclusivity and empathy. We’re here — free of judgment — for everyone seeking better health.

2. Keeping high journalistic standards

You come to Healthline to get accurate information about your health, so it’s our responsibility to set high journalistic standards. Our news and educational content is unbiased, balanced, timely, actionable, research-backed, honest, and comprehensive. Our feature content brings forward individual perspectives with empathy, candor, and respect.

Here’s how we ensure we meet these standards:

• We carefully select contributors and regularly train them. Our in-house editorial team carefully selects expert writers and contributors. We vet our content creators for subject matter expertise and relevant life experience. We train them on research and sourcing best practices, and we provide regular feedback and ongoing coaching.
• Our health information is reviewed for medical accuracy by medical experts. Healthline Media’s Medical Network is composed of healthcare professionals from research institutions, professional organizations, and private practice with varied and extensive expertise in their respective fields. Along with their knowledge in a variety of medical specialties, our medical reviewers bring an added perspective thanks to their experience in clinical practice, research, and patient advocacy.
• We thoroughly vet all the brands we partner with and mention in our content. Our Brand and Content Integrity team researches the business practices of partner brands and evaluate their medical and health claims against the current body of scientific evidence.
• Consumer drug information content is created by skilled medical editors. Our consumer drug information content is created by a team of skilled medical editors working with PharmD writers and Medical Reviewers. These experts are focused on answering your questions and know how to present complicated pharmaceutical information clearly.
• Our News team stays abreast of new information. Our news content is created by experienced writers and reviewed by professional fact-checkers. Every day, the News team takes a deep dive into the latest medical research, so you are kept up to date on what’s happening in the world of health.
• All content is triple-checked to meet our standards. Our in-house Copy Edit team touches every piece of content before it is published, double- and triple-checking to ensure it meets our rigorous editorial standards of clarity, accuracy, quality sourcing, and inclusive and empathetic language.

3. Prioritizing accuracy, empathy, and inclusivity

We want to make sure that everything we publish is accessible and understandable to our readers. As such, we rely on a proprietary style guide based on the Associated Press Stylebook. This ensures our writers and editors are focusing on readability, clarity, empathy, inclusivity, real-life application, quality sourcing, and clear citations. 

You’ll notice that our voice is warm and approachable — yet brave and progressive. Beyond being approachable and transparent, we use conscious, respectful language that promotes inclusivity and compassion. We use empathetic language to tell judgment-free stories, and we make intentional choices to remove stigma, stereotypes, and to avoid injecting bias.

Here at Healthline, conscious language is an ongoing commitment. We regularly engage with community advocates and research language trends within health communities. We choose our words carefully, seeking to combat stigmas and empower our readers.

As language evolves, we evolve with it. We also understand health touches each of us differently, so we respect people’s choice of words when sharing their personal stories. Ultimately, we can’t be a true ally unless we put you at the center of everything we do. Our use of language reflects this view. 

4. Continual monitoring and updating of content

Health information is constantly changing. New research emerges, old ideas are disproven, and terminology becomes out of date.

At Healthline, we continually monitor and update our content to make sure we’re sharing the most up-to-date and accurate information possible. To make this a reality, we have entire teams of editors and experts focused on identifying and updating inaccurate or unclear information.

Our Medical Integrity team keeps tabs on changes in standards of care, new clinical guidelines, drug approvals or recalls, and major practice recommendations. The team brings these insights to our editors and partners so that content can be updated to reflect the latest, most accurate, and most useful information.

You may see a few dates on our content. Each of these refers to a different step in our editorial process.

• Each piece of content is given a “written on” date when it is originally written and published on our site.
• Every time a piece of content is reviewed by an expert member of our Medical Network, it receives a new “medical review” date.
• Every time a piece of content is verified by one of our professional fact-checkers, it receives a new “fact-checked” date.
• Whenever a piece of content is modified, it receives a new “updated on” date. The modifications may include corrections of minor inaccuracies, addition of new information, replacement of images and sources, or any other change made to improve the value of the content for you, the reader.

We undertake content updating and re-review as a result of several ongoing processes:

• Regular audits. We perform regular audits of content to address changes in language and medical terminology and trends in health communities.
• Annual brand vetting. We re-evaluate vetted brands on a yearly basis and update any content referencing those brands to reflect any changes in the brand’s performance against our vetting criteria.
• Timely updates every day. Our news team monitors changes in developing stories and publishes timely updates about the most important health news of the day.
• Immediate action from feedback. We invite reader feedback on our content and take immediate action to address any potential issues. When a reader alerts us about a potential issue with our content — such as inaccurate, outdated, unclear, or contradictory information — we take immediate action. Our editorial and medical teams research the feedback, determine what revisions are needed, and republish the updated content.

Our Editorial Process, Created for You

At Healthline, you are our top priority. We strive to be an ally in your journey to health and wellness. Our Editorial Process ensures that we can provide you with the most accurate, relevant, and accessible content possible. 

We’re working hard to continually improve, so we want to hear from you if we could be doing better. If you have any questions or comments about the accuracy or usability of our content or feel an article is out of date, you can easily let us know by visiting this page.