About

Clinical Review Process

The exact sequence every page describing a condition, modality, or program passes through before it appears on the site — and how we keep it accurate over time.

Last updated:

Key takeaways

  • Drafts are sourced only from a defined editorial whitelist of authoritative clinical references.
  • A licensed clinician reviews and signs off on every clinical page before it is published.
  • Every published clinical page is re-reviewed at least once every twelve months.
  • Content that no longer reflects current clinical understanding is retired and redirected, not left live.

Step by step

  1. Drafting against the citation whitelist

    A staff writer drafts the page using only sources from our editorial whitelist (SAMHSA, NIDA, NIMH, peer-reviewed PubMed-indexed research, ASAM/APA/AAAP/NAMI/Joint Commission, NICE, USPSTF). Each claim that depends on a source is footnoted before the draft is handed off.

  2. Internal editorial review

    An editor reads the draft for clarity, completeness, balance, and YMYL safety — checking that no clinical claim is presented without a source, no language overpromises outcomes, and crisis disclaimers appear wherever appropriate.

  3. Clinical review by a licensed clinician

    A licensed clinician on our staff (Clinical Director or designee) reads the page for clinical accuracy, current-guideline alignment, and patient-safety considerations. The clinician may request revisions, request that a claim be removed, or sign off. The clinician's name, credentials, and the review date are then attached as the page byline.

  4. Publication

    Once clinical review is signed off, the page's status is moved from "in_review" to "published" in our data layer, which adds it to the sitemap and makes it routable. The visible "Last clinically reviewed" date matches the date the clinician signed off.

  5. Twelve-month re-review

    Every published clinical page is re-reviewed at minimum every twelve months. If the clinician confirms the content remains accurate, the "Last clinically reviewed" date is updated. If it doesn't, the page is updated and re-reviewed, or retired and redirected. We never leave stale clinical content live.

Who can serve as a clinical reviewer

Clinical review at Manifest is performed only by individuals who hold a current, verifiable license issued by a state professional board to practice independently in a behavioral-health discipline relevant to the content being reviewed. Each reviewer's credentials and license number are published on their profile page, where they can be verified against the issuing board's public lookup at any time.

We do not accept clinical review from individuals without a current, verifiable license, regardless of seniority, role, or industry experience.

What we will not do

  • Publish a clinical page without a named, credentialed reviewer.
  • Backdate a "Last clinically reviewed" date.
  • Republish stale content with a new date without an actual re-review.
  • Cite sources outside our editorial whitelist to support a clinical claim.
  • Use AI to generate clinical claims without human clinical verification.