Editorial Policy

About MediResource Content Development

MediResource creates health content in order to help patients and their caregivers to better understand and manage disease and to maximize good health. Our commitment is to provide information that meets the needs of consumers in a way that is timely, accurate, relevant, and easy to understand.

The content development process at MediResource is coordinated by a team of committed medical and editorial staff consisting of health care professionals, medical writers, and professional editors. Existing articles are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure they reflect the current knowledge on the topic.

General Policies

Authors and Reviewers

All MediResource authors and reviewers, either in-house or freelance, are qualified and experienced communicators. Authors are selected for their knowledge of the topic to be covered including any professional designations, their writing experience, and their writing style. Articles are always reviewed by a health care professional.

Sources and Referencing

MediResource preserves its reputation as a reliable and unbiased source of current and accurate information by ensuring that all our authors, reviewers, and editors are appropriately knowledgeable about our guidelines for sources and referencing. Staff and freelancers are thoroughly screened and tested and all documents reviewed several times by different people. Policies and procedures regarding document development are strictly adhered to.

All facts and statistics, recommendations, and studies cited in an article must be referenced by the author or reviewer. Reviewers verify all sources to ensure that the source itself conforms to MRI guidelines and that the data has been accurately represented without plagiarizing. Editors may also review sources as and when they deem necessary.

Acceptable reference sources include:

• articles published in peer-reviewed journals
• textbooks
• association and society websites
• government websites
• product monographs

All references are listed at the end of content sections for external projects and at the end of the document for internal documents and for shorter content. Although references are not displayed on the web page, the referenced documents are stored at MRI and are accessible by the clinical team if required at a later date.

Language and Readability

Consumer-oriented healthcare information material needs to be direct, clear, and easy to understand. Acknowledging that the matters we are covering can have serious effects on people's health and that many readers may be seniors or may not have English as a first language, it is commonly recommended that consumer-oriented material be written at a sixth-grade reading level. Though we do not want to oversimplify, it is important to prevent misunderstanding and inadequate understanding as much as possible.

How the information is presented can be just as important as what is presented. Therefore, where this is within our control, we also consider the amount of white space in an article, the length of paragraphs, and the way tables are presented, and we selectively bold phrases and sentences so the reader can easily find information.

Articles are written in the active voice as much as possible and the tone is direct and reader-focused. Necessary technical terms (i.e., terms the reader may need to be familiar with) are defined; technical terms are replaced with plain language as much as is appropriate to enhance the reader's understanding.

Drug article development and maintenance

Identifying new drug entities and updates required

MRI clinical staff members (pharmacists and Doctors of Pharmacy) conduct a monthly review of new products, product monograph changes, and product discontinuations. We also subscribe to the Health Canada product alerts (MedEffect) so that we are informed immediately of any drug safety issues or product recalls.

Drug updates are then assigned a priority based on characteristics of the new drug entity.

Creating new drug articles

Drug articles are created by the clinical staff in accordance with the current drug article author guide. This document guides the clinical staff to ensure that terminology, references and product monograph interpretation are consistent. Each article is then reviewed by a second clinical reviewer.

References used to create drug articles include the current Product Monograph obtained from the manufacturer, e-therapeutics+ or the Health Canada website.

Finished articles are then sent to our medical editorial team, who ensure that the language is consistent and appropriate for patients and adhere to current MRI publishing guidelines. The articles are entered into the database and checked by a second editor who then publishes the content for users to see on the website.

Condition and Tests and Procedure article development and maintenance

The process for creating new condition or test and procedure articles follows a similar process as the drug article process, with one added step. All our condition, tests and procedures articles are reviewed by a physician practicing in the appropriate specialty.

Condition articles are reviewed and updated (if required) on a 2 year cycle. The process involves:

1. article review by clinical staff
2. decision whether an update is required is made
3. article is updated by clinical staff
4. article sent to physician for review
5. article reviewed by clinical staff
6. article edited and proofed by two medical editors before being published live to the site.