Corrections
If something here is wrong, we want to know, and we would rather hear it from somebody irritated than not hear it at all. Include the page, the passage, and if you have it, the primary source showing the correct position. We correct on the page and note material corrections rather than making them silently.
This applies particularly to regulatory statements. Positions in this field change, and a page written at one moment can be overtaken. If legislation.gov.uk, gov.uk, the MHRA or a regulator says something different from what we say, they are right.
Clinicians and practitioners
If you work in this field and think we have described a mechanism inaccurately, please tell us. We are more interested in being right than in having been right, and a correction from somebody who uses the equipment is worth more than one from anybody else.
We will not, however, remove accurate material because a business finds it commercially inconvenient, and we do not offer a right of reply built into publication timing.
Readers
We read everything. We cannot give personal medical advice and we will not tell you whether to have a treatment or which provider to use, because we have assessed none of them and because that is a decision for you and a clinician who has examined you.
What we can do is point you at the article that covers what you are asking about, and if there is not one, we note the question. A great deal of what is published here started as somebody's email.
Provider listing enquiries
The terms, the rate card and the list of things we refuse to sell at any price are on the provider listings page. Please read it before enquiring, because it answers almost every question and it will save us both a message.
A listing buys a listing. It does not buy coverage, a verdict, a position, a comment or a tone.
Press and researchers
We are happy to explain our method, our verdict vocabulary and our commercial model to anybody writing about the sector, and to point at the primary sources we rely on. We do not provide comment on named businesses, because we do not assess named businesses.
Agencies working for clinics
Agencies are welcome here on exactly the same terms as everybody else, which is worth saying plainly because the usual approach does not apply. If a page of ours describes a mechanism, a regulatory position or a claim inaccurately, send the correction with the primary source and it will be read first, like any other correction, whoever it comes from and whichever business it helps. If a client of yours is named anywhere here, which is unlikely because we do not name businesses, the same applies.
What will not work, and will get the short reply, is a placement, a link, a guest post, an advertorial, a sponsored article, a partnership, a round up inclusion, an award, a badge or a request to soften accurate material because a client finds it inconvenient. None of those exist here at any price, and the full list of what we refuse to sell is published on the provider listings page rather than kept for negotiation. If you are writing copy for a client in this category, the parts of this site most likely to save you a problem are reading the claim and clinically proven, medically approved and FDA cleared in UK advertising, and we would rather you used them than contacted us.
Sending us evidence
If you hold evidence that bears on something we have published, send it. A published study, a systematic review, a regulator’s decision, a manufacturer’s data pack, a technical specification or an unpublished analysis you are willing to have described: all of it is useful, and a document that changes our position is the most useful email we get. Say which page it bears on and, for anything from a manufacturer or a supplier, tell us what it is rather than presenting it as independent, because we will establish that anyway and saying so saves a round of messages.
Two things follow, and neither is negotiable. We treat a document from a commercial party as a claim to be assessed rather than as a source to be repeated, and we will say in print where a figure came from. And sending us evidence buys nothing: not publication, not coverage, not a mention of your business, not a change to a verdict, and not a reply beyond an acknowledgement if the document does not bear on anything we cover. We cannot promise to use what you send, to use it in the way you would prefer, or to tell you in advance if we do. What we can promise is that it will be read, and that if it shows we are wrong we will correct the page and say that we were.
Registering interest in our compliance research
The recurring work of this publication is reading how this sector advertises itself against the rules that govern it. That is what the reading the claim section is, and the method is the same every time: the published advertising code, the rulings that show how it is applied, and the wording actually used in the market. We intend to keep doing it and to publish what it shows.
If you want to be told when a piece of that work is published, say so and we will add you to the notification list for it. Practitioners, agencies, insurers, trainers, regulators and researchers have all asked at one point or another, and the list exists for that and nothing else. It is a notification, not a service: there is no fee, no membership, no accreditation, no certificate, no badge, no early access and no influence over scope or wording. Being on it tells us nothing we would act on and tells you nothing before everybody else. It generates no leads, no introductions and no referrals for anyone, including us, and no business is added to anything, ranked, rated or named because it is on the list. Nothing we publish is for sale, and the list cannot change that. If you are a researcher who wants the method rather than the output, ask and we will set it out; if you want to tell us which question is worth putting next, that is the most useful thing you can send.
What we will not respond to at length
Offers of guest posts, sponsored content, link exchanges, affiliate partnerships or advertising from device manufacturers. Requests to remove accurate material. Requests to add a business to a ranking, which does not exist. Requests to see an article before publication.