Editorial Policy   Top
EmergingMed features noteworthy research developments based on articles and conference presentations selected by our editorial staff with input from our medical advisors and consultants, and presented with patient-friendly summaries that translate difficult medical information into lay terms. Overviews of treatment options are presented as feature articles that detail many of the standard therapies for a particular illness, often in the voices of patients, researchers, physicians and other caregivers. EmergingMed also monitors developments that may be important to anyone interested in clinical trials and reports on those developments in a section called "Clinical Trials News and Features."

In addition to the original content, visitors to the EmergingMed will find disease descriptions and articles on standard treatments for their illness. They will also find answers to frequently asked questions and links to additional information and support in EmergingMed's Resources section.

EmergingMed's pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients are never permitted to create, edit or review any of the editorial content on the EmergingMed website.

Writer Qualifications   Top
EmergingMed staff and freelance medical writers are responsible for generating all of the original articles on the website. Medical writers are hired based on their qualifications and writing ability. EmergingMed does assign stories to medical writers who are permanent employees of a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company assignments. When an investigator is quoted in a story, the medical writer provides the contact information for that investigator for fact-checking.

Editor Qualifications   Top
EmergingMed's Editorial Director is responsible for assigning and editing all of the new content. When questions arise on a particular article, the Editorial Director consults with one or more of EmergingMed's medical advisors.

Medical Advisor Oversight   Top
In addition to helping select topics that should be covered in the editorial section, EmergingMed's world-class medical advisors (see About Us) periodically review the original articles on the EmergingMed website. They are also periodically asked to review stories that are scientifically complex for accuracy and scientific relevance. EmergingMed obtains, verifies, and documents the credentials of each medical advisor. Potential conflicts-of-interest are solicited to avoid any appearance of or actual impropriety in selecting, generating or reviewing content.

The final responsibility for the accuracy and scientific relevance of original articles on EmergingMed's website rests with the Editorial Director. The medical advisors serve in an advisory role only, not as systematic reviewers of content.

Therapies in Development   Top
EmergingMed's advisory boards and medical consultants submit recommendations for journal articles and scientific meeting abstracts that represent important emerging therapies for cancer. Large cancer conferences and the medical literature are additional sources for articles on therapies in development.

The Therapies in Development stories have several common elements: they are all written in patient-friendly prose; they are all roughly 400-500 words long; most contain a comment by an investigator from the study written about; all contain a link to the abstract of the original journal article; and all contain a date of entry onto the EmergingMed website.

Disease Description   Top
The primary source of content for this section is the Physician Data Query (PDQ) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Its intent is to provide a description of the illness, the risk factors and definitions of terms that a patient diagnosed with this type of cancer might hear.

For many indications, advocacy groups help patients successfully navigate the challenges of their illness. Those advocacy groups often provide general descriptions of the disease and its prevention, diagnosis and therapy to their members. EmergingMed evaluates those descriptions when possible, and if it is appropriate, solicits permission to publish that content on the EmergingMed website.

Standard Treatments   Top
The primary source for standard therapies is the public information provided by the Physician Data Query (PDQ) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Another source for standard therapies is the governing board of the particular disease area.

Frequently Asked Questions   Top
The people who answer FAQs are chosen much in the same way that a reporter would choose suitable people to interview for a story. EmergingMed staff seeks out appropriate physicians, other health care professionals, patients and patient advocates to answer the FAQs on the website. Each person that answers an FAQ is selected following a standard review of their credentials to try and ensure that spurious or discredited claims about different therapies do not find their way into this section of the website. The questions are sent out to the appropriate person via e-mail, or in some cases are asked of the expert over the phone and recorded. The answers are then transcribed and edited and sent back to the author for final approval.

Resources   Top
EmergingMed provides links to support services available for patients and their loved ones as well as people at risk for particular diseases. The support services often include advocacy groups, but might also include mailing lists (such as ACOR) and links to discussion boards.

Clinical Trial News and Features   Top
The Clinical Trials News and Features section contains feature articles that are of interest to visitors who would like to know more about the issues related to clinical trials in general. The articles are usually about 600 words long and contain interviews with the leading voices in the field. They are located in the Clinical Trials News and Features section of the EmergingMed website, which is in each individual disease area.

Upgrading/Replacing Existing Content   Top
As new research becomes available and as new therapies are tested, EmergingMed updates its content. For example, when a Phase II trial of a particular therapy is completed and the results published, EmergingMed writes a story around those results. If the Phase II results contradict the results from the prior Phase I study, that contradiction will be noted and, if necessary, the report of the first trial removed from the website.

Disclaimers   Top
On the first page of the Standard Therapies/Therapies in Development/FAQ section, a general disclaimer exists that reminds viewers that the presence on the website does not imply an endorsement (either explicit or implicit) by the staff of EmergingMed.

Content generated by EmergingMed is accompanied by one or more disclaimers/disclosures. If the article is written by a medical advisor or paid consultant for EmergingMed, the fact that the author is compensated for their effort is acknowledged in a disclaimer at the bottom of the article. If the article is based on research presented at a medical meeting, but not yet subjected to rigorous peer-review, that fact is also acknowledged at the bottom of the article.

Removal Process   Top
When an article or answer to an FAQ becomes outdated, then EmergingMed updates it or removes it from the website. Judgment is based on regular discussions with medical advisors and consultants who, as part of their agreement with EmergingMed, regularly monitor the site.