Editorial Policy
How our medical content gets written, who checks it, where automation is and isn't allowed near it, and how to tell us when something's wrong.
Key Takeaways
- Every article has a named writer, and medical content is reviewed by a medical editor who is a practicing doctor — names and qualifications are public.
- Automation handles translation, staleness checks, and copyediting support. It never decides what is medically true.
- We are objective: we don't label clinics "good" or "bad," and we say on what basis we call one leading.
- Paid placement is labeled "Ad" and never changes our editorial content or a clinic's organic ranking.
- We work from primary sources first — clinical protocols, then peer-reviewed literature — and say when we don't know or can't verify something.
- If something on our site looks wrong, tell us at care@bookimed.com — we correct it or explain why it stands.
1. Who we are
Bookimed is a platform for finding hospitals and arranging treatment abroad.
Our medical content is written by medical writers and reviewed by medical editors who are practicing doctors. Their names, qualifications, and diplomas are published on our team page — you can check who wrote and reviewed what you are reading.
Patient requests are handled by medically trained coordinators (see who wrote and reviewed anything on our team page).
Our aim is to explain complex medical questions clearly and without spin, on the website and in conversation.
2. Who writes and edits our content
Our articles are written by medical writers with professional experience in medical and healthcare writing. Their qualifications are listed on our team page.
Medical editors — doctors with clinical experience — review the content for medical accuracy before it is published.
Editorial cycle
- Research and drafting — the writer works from primary sources and drafts the article according to this policy.
- Medical review — a medical editor checks that the medical information is accurate and current.
- Editing — an editor checks the text for clarity, readability, and consistency with our other materials.
- Publication — the page goes live with the names of the writer and the medical editor who approved it.
- Layout review — the editor checks how the published page reads and displays.
3. Our content is not a medical consultation
The content on this website is for information only. It is not a guide to action, and should not be treated as a doctor's consultation or a treatment recommendation.
Every medical case is different. Decisions about diagnosis and treatment should be made by your treating physician after examining your specific situation.
The full limits of the information on this website are set out in our Medical Disclaimer.
4. How we use automation
Publishing medical information in more than ten languages means a large amount of routine work — keeping pages current, adapting text between languages, checking that nothing has gone stale. We use automation for that work. We do not use it to decide what is medically true.
- Working across languages. Our articles are written in one language and adapted into the others we publish in. The source version is the one our writers and medical editors work on, and translated pages are checked against it on a sampling basis.
- Keeping content current. We use an automated process to find pages that have fallen behind — changed guidelines, outdated protocols, superseded prices — and prepares updated drafts. An editor reviews and approves an updated page before it is published.
- Editing support. Our editors use software tools to tighten wording, check consistency, and catch errors. The substance is theirs.
- We do not publish articles generated automatically and presented as written by a person.
- We do not let automated tools decide medical content. Statements about diagnoses, treatments, risks, or outcomes are made by people, and medical content is reviewed by a medical editor before publication.
- We do not use automated tools to write patient reviews or reply to them on a clinic's behalf. See our Reviews & Comments Policy.
Who is responsible
Automation does not change who answers for what we publish. Every article has a named author, and medical content is reviewed by our medical editors — the same people listed on our team page — whether a page was written from scratch, updated, or adapted from another language.
5. Core values of our content
Usefulness
Writing for the sake of writing is not what we do. If an article does not answer the reader's question, it is not worth publishing.
Simplicity
We explain medical terms and processes rather than assuming them.
Objectivity
We do not sell clinics. We do not label a clinic "good" or "bad" — we present what is known about it: its specialization, its experience with a procedure, the number of procedures performed, and what patients say. Where we describe a clinic as leading in a field, we say on what basis.
Competence
We work from primary sources — American and European clinical protocols first, then peer-reviewed literature.
Clarity about limits
We say what we do not know and what we cannot verify. Where information comes from a clinic rather than from us, we say so.
Humanity
People come to us with medical questions, often frightening ones. We choose words carefully and do not impose our views.
6. Tone of voice
We take the useful, simple, accessible, objective register of informational writing and make it warmer. There is no place in our texts for:
- overfamiliarity;
- diminutives;
- moralizing;
- aggression or bullying.
7. How we write
- Clearly — so a reader without medical knowledge can follow.
- Specifically — we cut anything that can go without loss of meaning.
- With reasons — we link to sources.
- Consistently — we structure facts rather than pile them up.
- Rhythmically — we mix long and short sentences.
8. Information sources
There is no room for empty rhetoric in healthcare, so we substantiate what we assert. Where we make a claim about a clinic, a treatment, or an outcome, we point to where it comes from — in the text, or in the Resources block at the foot of the page.
Information on the Bookimed website comes from:
- Partner medical centers — provided by them or taken from their official websites. Accreditations, licenses, and specialist qualifications are supplied by the clinics themselves. We are not an accreditation body, and we do not audit clinical standards.
- Independent organizations such as NCCN and ESMO.
- Peer-reviewed publications, including those indexed in PubMed.
- Reputable media, where the subject is not clinical.
- Our own data — what we see across the requests we handle.
This information is checked by medical editors. We look for information in primary sources because the first statement of a fact is more reliable than the ones that follow it.
Copyright. We respect the copyright of other content creators. If you believe something on our website infringes your rights, write to care@bookimed.com.
9. Keeping content current
We follow medical news and update content when something changes:
- clinical guidelines are updated;
- new treatment protocols appear;
- a treatment method, drug, or device is approved or withdrawn.
Pages are also reviewed as part of the automated process described in section 4.
10. If you find something wrong
Automation makes different mistakes than people do, and at a larger scale. That is a reason to be easy to correct, not a reason to be quiet about it.
If you find something on our website that is inaccurate, out of date, unclear, or contradicts something else we have published, tell us at care@bookimed.com. Point us at the page and tell us what looks wrong.
What happens next: our editorial team reviews what you sent, involves a medical editor if the question is clinical, and either corrects the page or explains why it stands. Where a correction changes what a page said, we update the "last updated" date so you can see it changed.
11. Advertising and paid placement
Our editorial content is not for sale. We do not write articles about companies for payment, and we do not publish paid articles from third-party authors.
Paid placement of clinic offers is separate, and it is labeled. Clinics can pay to have their offers promoted in our listings. Those offers are labeled "Ad" in our clinic listings. Paid placement does not affect our editorial content or a clinic's position in our organic ranking — how that ranking works is set out in our Clinic Ranking Policy.
Clinic and doctor profiles contain information supplied by the clinics themselves — descriptions, accreditations, and specialists' qualifications. Before a profile is published, our team checks it against our content guidelines: profiles describe treatment and experience, and are not a place for a clinic's own contact details, social media links, or unrelated material.
What we do not do is verify credentials at the source. We are not an accreditation body, and clinics remain responsible for the accuracy of what they provide. If accreditation matters to your decision, check it with the organization that issued it.
Our own editorial articles are written by our team, as described in section 2.
12. Patient reviews
Only a patient — or the companion who traveled with them — who booked a clinic through Bookimed and attended the appointment can review that clinic. Reviews are moderated before publication.
The full rules, including what we will not publish and what clinics can and cannot do about a review, are in our Reviews & Comments Policy.
13. Using our content
Our writers and editors put work into everything on this website. You may quote Bookimed materials and this policy with an active link to the source.
14. Questions
Suggestions, corrections, and questions about this policy: care@bookimed.com.