Methodology — how CompoundedGuide builds and verifies records

How records are built

Every record is keyed by the full canonical identity: substance, exact form, route, dosage form, and intended use, within a jurisdiction and regulatory pathway. Brand, salt, ester, route, form, and intended use stay distinct, and they are connected only when a cited source supports it. Our source hierarchy puts government regulators first, then trial registries and peer-reviewed publications, professional organizations, company self-publications identified as such, and secondary reporting for context only. Status language reports separate dimensions: approved-product status, compounding pathway, facility registration, shortage relevance, and evidence maturity. We do not compress those dimensions into labels such as legal, banned, safe, or approved. Missing evidence never becomes a positive finding. FDA registration of a compounding facility is not FDA approval of that facility or its products.

Human review

Records are editorially verified and source-attributed. They are not medically or legally reviewed by a named professional. The verification record carries a policy version, verification time, basis, and claim references. It deliberately carries no reviewer name, credential, license, or professional sign-off. Automated collection assists research but never authorizes high-impact claims. Ambiguous matches fail closed and are not published.

Dates and freshness

Four dates stay distinct and are never substituted for one another: when a source was published or effective, when CompoundedGuide captured it, when editorial verification happened, and a commercial review date, if ever. A freshness date is not proof of human review.

Corrections and challenges

We welcome useful challenges from regulators, facilities, clinicians, researchers, companies, and readers. A useful request identifies the affected record and specific statement or field, explains why it is inaccurate, incomplete, stale, or misassigned, supplies a primary source, and gives the requester relationship when relevant. The official channel is /corrections; that page shows whether intake is currently open. When intake is open, a submission is untrusted intake reviewed by a human. It never directly rewrites a canonical record. Public output changes only through the reviewed packet/source/editorial workflow, and a submitter whose submission is accepted receives an opaque ID. A correction request does not guarantee requested wording. When intake is open, high-impact safety, identity, licensing, or recall concerns get priority. The intended policy is for a published material correction to show what changed, when, and why; that change-history behavior is not implemented yet.

Independence and the commercial firewall

Payment never changes factual status, evidence inclusion or ordering, review standards, correction outcomes, or warning/recall/inspection visibility. Every record permanently carries commercial_policy='none' and commercial_exit_disabled=true. These invariants apply in every record state, including published. No commercial exits exist today. Commercial eligibility defaults to false and stays false until a separately governed decision exists. If sponsorship is ever introduced, it will be clearly labeled immediately beside the content. Sponsors may request review of factual errors about themselves only. Sponsors cannot alter findings, ordering, status, or negative history.

Reviewer accountability

No named medical reviewer exists today and none is claimed. The intended rule is flat, fixed compensation, never click-, conversion-, or partner-revenue-based compensation. Reviewer and founder conflicts will be disclosed publicly. No reviewer compensation system exists yet; that statement describes intent, not a current fact.

Organic ordering

Evidence ordering currently follows a fixed, noncommercial source-type order. Authority tier, source type, and capture recency are the intended public criteria; executable ordering by tier or recency is not implemented yet. No commercial input path exists, so commercial inputs cannot modify ordering.