Editorial Policy
PillsCard provides drug, interaction, and health information used by patients, caregivers, pharmacists, and physicians worldwide. Because mistakes can cause real harm, we hold our content to a standard higher than most consumer health sites. This document explains exactly how that happens.
1. Source hierarchy
Every factual claim on PillsCard is traceable to a primary regulatory or peer-reviewed source. We rank sources by authority:
Tier 1 — Regulators: EMA (European Medicines Agency), openFDA (US Food & Drug Administration), URPL (Poland), BfArM (Germany), AEMPS (Spain), AIFA (Italy), ANSM (France), Infarmed (Portugal), SÚKL (Czech Republic), NCZI (Slovakia), ANMDM (Romania), MOH Ukraine (GRLZ), Roszdravnadzor (Russia). Primary label text, dosing, warnings, and interactions come from these registries and are stored verbatim.
Tier 2 — Guidelines: NICE (UK), ACOG (obstetrics), AAP (pediatrics), AASLD (hepatology), IDSA (infectious disease), BNF (British National Formulary), Cochrane reviews. Used for treatment recommendations and clinical context.
Tier 3 — Peer-reviewed literature: PubMed-indexed journals, systematic reviews, RCTs. Cited when regulator-level information is insufficient.
Tier 4 — WHO, CDC, reputable medical associations. Used for epidemiology, public health, and vaccines.
Anonymous sources, commercial drug marketing pages, and patient forums are never used as primary evidence.
2. Writing & review process
Every article follows a four-step process: (1) Research — a clinical pharmacist or medical writer gathers Tier 1–3 sources and drafts content. (2) Fact-check — claims are verified against original regulator labels and linked explicitly in the article. (3) Clinical review — a physician or PharmD reviews for accuracy, safety, and appropriateness. (4) Editorial review — a medical editor checks tone, clarity, and readability.
Drug and interaction data imported from regulatory APIs (EMA, openFDA) is reproduced verbatim without editorial modification — the source URL and fetch date are preserved for traceability.
AI tools are used only for translation and reformatting, never for generating original medical claims. All human-written content is attributed.
3. Reviewer qualifications
Medical content is reviewed by clinicians holding PharmD, MD, PhD, MSc Pharmacology, or equivalent credentials. Our editorial team, their specialties, and professional backgrounds are listed on the /medical-reviewers page.
Veterinary pharmacology content is reviewed by licensed veterinarians with DVM credentials.
Authors sign off on each article; their name and credentials appear on the byline.
4. Update cycles
Drug registry data (name, dosing, warnings, interactions): refreshed automatically every 7 days from source APIs. Each record carries a 'last fetched' timestamp.
Clinical articles: reviewed every 12 months, or sooner when significant regulatory changes occur (new boxed warnings, withdrawal, new approvals). The 'Last reviewed' date is visible on every article.
Interaction severity classifications: re-validated against ONCHigh, SemMedDB, DDInter, and openFDA labels quarterly.
5. Corrections policy
Errors in content are corrected publicly and promptly. When a factual correction is made, we preserve the original and the correction is flagged at the bottom of the affected article with the date and nature of the change.
Readers can report errors at editorial@pillscard.com. We respond within 72 hours and correct confirmed errors within 7 days.
Critical safety errors (wrong dose, missing contraindication) are triaged immediately regardless of business hours.
6. Conflicts of interest
PillsCard is independently operated. We do not accept payment from pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug marketing firms, or any party with a financial interest in specific products.
Revenue comes from: (a) contextual display advertising via Google AdSense, and (b) affiliate commissions from pharmacy price comparison, disclosed on individual drug pages. Editorial decisions are walled off from advertising and affiliate activities.
Authors declare relevant clinical consulting or speaker relationships in their bios. No advertiser has editorial veto.
7. What we do NOT provide
PillsCard is reference material. It is not a diagnosis, prescription, or substitute for professional medical care. We do not operate a telemedicine service and do not answer individual clinical questions.
Emergency advice: if you suspect poisoning or adverse reaction, call your local emergency number (112 in EU, 911 in US) or poison control center immediately — do not rely on our website.
Contact
Editorial feedback, corrections, partnership: editorial@pillscard.com
Privacy / data: privacy@pillscard.com
Press: press@pillscard.com