Why do I need a reviewer at all?
Sound familiar?
"Why does a health page need a reviewer?" "Can't the author just check their own work?" "Is it worth having a reviewer on every page?" One answer covers all of these.
What's happening
A clinical reviewer is a second qualified clinician who checks a health page before it goes out. The page then carries two names: the clinician who wrote it and the clinician who reviewed it. Each one is shown with their role and their registration.
Why it matters
When someone reads a health page, the first thing they want to know is whether they can trust it. The same goes for Google, and for AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity when they look for a page to show or quote in answer to a health question. They all look for the same signs: who wrote this, who checked it, and are those people qualified.
A named, qualified reviewer is one of the strongest of those signs a clinical page can carry.
- For patients, it says a second registered clinician has checked what they are reading. A page checked by nobody can't say that.
- For Google and AI tools, the reviewer's name and registration can sit in the page's code as well as on the page itself. That is the part search engines and AI tools read, so the page tells them, in their own terms, that a registered clinician checked it.
- For your clinic, it puts your pages alongside the trusted health sites. Pages that show they have been clinically reviewed are the standard for health information, and the more trusted health sites name the clinician who reviewed them.
It is also plain clinical best practice: a second qualified pair of eyes on anything published under your clinic's name.
What to do now
Give every clinical page a reviewer, not just some of them. Pick a different clinician from the author, someone qualified in the area the page covers, and make sure their name, role and registration are shown with the page.
The question behind the question
"Is this just a box to tick?" No. Patients, search engines and AI tools all look for who stands behind health content. A named reviewer is one of the clearest answers a page can give, and it is something a page with no clinicians behind it can't copy.
If you use the Clinical Content System
This part is for Clinical Content System subscribers. If your clinic isn't subscribed yet, you can see what the Clinical Content System includes.
The reviewer is built into how the Clinical Content System works. Your content plan unlocks when one clinician's profile reaches 60% (your author) and a different clinician's profile reaches 50% (your reviewer). The 50% is there because a reviewer only means something if a reader can see who they are: halfway complete means the essentials are in place, including their registration and what they treat.
- Why can't I generate content yet?
- Is there a faster way to fill in clinician profiles?
- Why isn't my reviewer's name showing?
The next question is usually...
- Why does my clinician's profile matter so much?
- How are profile scores worked out, and how do I raise mine?
Still stuck? This usually means...
- You only have one clinician. Tell us in the chat and we'll look at it with you.
- Your second clinician hasn't got round to their profile. "Is there a faster way to fill in clinician profiles?" covers the worksheet, the recorded interview and the CV and LinkedIn imports, so they don't have to sit at a screen.