Medical Review – a quick guide

This guidance provides support to help health information producers overcome the challenges of finding, recruiting and working with medical reviewers. It includes strategies, tips and advice on streamlining the medical review process. 

Why this matters

Medical reviewers ensure health content is accurate, relevant, and evidence-based. Reviewers can bring different viewpoints, feedback on contentious issues and offer insight into what is happening in healthcare settings. Their role may also include fact-checking and signing off an information resource. 

Who should I include?

Depending on the nature of your health information, you may need to recruit medical reviewers from various groups of health professionals, such as dieticians, doctors, midwives, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and other allied health professionals. 

Making your medical review process more effective

• Create a database for keeping track of reviewers
• Consider diversity to ensure representative feedback
• Appoint a health content lead or chief medical editor
• Establish an internal core review board
• Use the right review methods for your project and reviewers

Top tips for working with medical reviewers

• State your higher purpose
• Make it easy for reviewers
• Be pragmatic
• Over recruit
• Give your health content team more authority

This guide supports the following PIF TICK criteria:

4.2  Appropriate experts or health professionals are involved in the information production process.