Editorial & Medical Review Policy

1. Scope

This policy applies to the health and educational content Affinity Direct publishes on affinitydirect.com — including blog articles, treatment and condition pages, comparison pages, and provider profiles. It does not apply to clinical communications sent to you as a patient, which are governed by our Privacy Policy and HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

Affinity Direct is the online division of Affinity Whole Health LLC, a licensed healthcare organization. Our use of the Services is governed by our Terms of Service.

2. Summary

The short version of everything below:

• Who writes it. Every article is published under the name of a real person or team at Affinity. Most are written by our own marketing and product staff; some are written by clinicians; some were first published by our parent clinic and are republished here.
• Who reviews it. Clinical review is performed by licensed clinicians of the Affinity Whole Health network. The reviewer of record today is Michael Koehler, MD, Affinity's Medical Director.
• How often. Our standard is to re-check every clinical article at least once every 12 months, and immediately when labeling, guidelines, our protocols, our prices or our state availability change.
• How to correct it. Email virtual@affinitywholehealth.com with the URL and what is wrong. If we got it wrong we fix it, and we say what changed when the error was material.

3. Authorship

Every article on this site carries a byline naming the person or team who wrote it. Those names belong to real people who work at Affinity — founders, marketing and product staff, and clinicians. Whatever tools are used in drafting, a named human at Affinity reads, edits and publishes each piece, and is accountable for it.

Not every author is a clinician, and we do not pretend otherwise. Someone from our team can accurately explain how a medication is dosed, what a study found, or what a treatment costs. That is different from clinical judgment, which is why a clinician's name — not a writer's — is what appears on the review line.

Some articles on this blog were first published by Affinity Whole Health, our parent clinic, and are republished here. They are the clinic's work, not new writing dressed up as ours. Where a republished article describes clinic programs, services or prices, those are the clinic's and may differ from what Affinity Direct sells online.

4. What “medically reviewed” means here

When an article carries a “Medically reviewed by” line, a licensed clinician has read that article end to end and confirmed that its clinical statements are accurate, appropriately hedged, and consistent with how we actually practice — what we prescribe, at what doses, and for whom. The reviewer's name is a link to their profile, so you can see their credentials rather than take the word “reviewed” on trust.

The named medical reviewer of record is Michael Koehler, MD, Affinity's Medical Director and a board-certified emergency medicine physician. Reviews may also be performed by other licensed clinicians of the Affinity Whole Health network; whoever did it is the name you will see.

What a review line does mean

• A licensed clinician read the whole article, not a summary of it.
• Doses, indications, contraindications and safety statements were checked.
• The article matches the protocols our providers actually prescribe under.
• The review has a date, shown on the article.

What it does not mean

• It is not a consultation and not advice about your case.
• The reviewer did not necessarily write the article.
• It is not a guarantee that a treatment is right for you.
• It does not replace the intake a provider reviews before prescribing.

If an article has no review line

Then it has not been through clinical review. It is general education, and you should treat it that way — read it, then talk to a provider before you act on it. We are working through the back catalogue rather than back-dating review lines onto articles nobody reviewed. A review line on this site means a clinician actually did the work.

5. Sourcing and evidence

Our original clinical articles carry numbered inline citations resolving to a Sources list at the foot of the page. We prefer primary sources — peer-reviewed literature, FDA labeling, and guidance from government health bodies and specialty societies — over secondary summaries and other companies' marketing pages.

We hedge language that should be hedged. Trial results are reported as averages from named trials, not as promises about you. Where a medication is compounded, prescribed off-label, or not FDA-approved for the use being discussed, the article says so in plain language rather than in a footnote.

We do not publish patient testimonials as clinical evidence, and we do not present a before-and-after as a typical result.

6. How often content is reviewed

Our standard is to re-check every clinical article at least once every 12 months, and immediately when any of the following changes:

• FDA labeling, a safety communication, or a major specialty-society guideline for a medication we discuss.
• Our own clinical protocols — what we prescribe, at what dose, and who we decline.
• Our prices, which we publish openly and which appear in article text.
• Which states a treatment is available in.

Reviewed articles display the date of their most recent review. Competitor and third-party prices quoted anywhere on this site carry the date they were checked; if that date looks old to you, it is old, and you should verify it at the source before relying on it.

7. Corrections

Email virtual@affinitywholehealth.com with the page URL and what you believe is wrong. You do not need to be a patient, and you do not need to prove it — a pointer is enough for us to go and check.

If we got it wrong, we correct it and update the article's review date. When the error was material — a dose, a contraindication, a price, an eligibility rule, or a safety statement — we say what changed rather than editing quietly. If a claim turns out to be unverifiable, we remove it instead of hedging it into something that sounds defensible.

The same rule governs our provider profiles. We publish a credential only when we can verify it; where a degree or license detail is not published, the profile says so on the page rather than leaving an impression we have not earned. You can review them at our providers.

8. Commercial independence

Affinity Direct sells the treatments it writes about. Our articles exist partly to be found in search and partly to bring people into our funnel. You should read them knowing that, and you should compare us against other options — which is why our comparison pages name competitors and quote their prices with the date we checked them, including where a competitor is cheaper than we are.

A clinical decision is never tied to the sale. We charge at checkout and refund in full when a provider declines treatment, so declining is financially neutral for us and the provider is free to say no. Providers decline orders, and we would rather lose the order than fill one that should not be filled.

We run an affiliate program, so some links pointing at this site earn the referrer a commission. That never changes the price you pay, what a provider decides, or what an article says.

9. This site is not a consultation

Nothing on affinitydirect.com — including articles that carry a medical review line — is a substitute for a consultation with a licensed healthcare provider who knows your history. It is general health information. It cannot account for your medications, your conditions, or anything a provider would find by asking.

Do not start, stop or change a prescription because of something you read here. If you are an Affinity Direct patient, message your care team through the patient portal. If you are not, start with how our review works or contact us.

If you think you are having a medical emergency, call 911. Do not use this site, the portal, or email to report one.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our review process changes. Material changes will be reflected in the “Last updated” date above. This policy describes the process in place as of that date.

11. Contact

To report a correction or ask about this policy:
Affinity Direct Editorial
Email: virtual@affinitywholehealth.com
Affinity Whole Health LLC, Columbus, Ohio