Our method
Useful information says where it comes from and how solid it is. These are the rules every page follows.
Evidence levels we display
Our scale draws on GRADE principles. It is not an official GRADE rating unless a formal assessment is explicitly stated.
| Level | What it means |
|---|---|
| Guideline or consensus | Published by a professional society or health authority. |
| Evidence synthesis | Systematic review or meta-analysis. |
| Controlled study | Comparative trial, with its own limitations. |
| Observational study | Cohort, case-control, registry: association, not causation. |
| Exploratory finding | Small sample or pilot study; a signal to confirm. |
| Case report | Individual observation or case series. |
| Preprint | Not yet peer reviewed. |
| Expert opinion | Reasoned opinion without new data. |
| Patient experience | Illuminates lived experience; does not prove efficacy or causation. |
The four frames in the text
In each topic, every paragraph is framed according to how solid its claim is:
- Established: definitions, guidelines, consensus statements or concordant evidence syntheses.
- Debated: results of single or observational studies, sources that disagree, data read from an abstract only.
- Hypothesis: a proposed mechanism, plausible but not demonstrated.
- Unknown: a question the available studies do not settle.
Sources
Every important medical statement links to a source we have opened and checked: title, authors, year, journal, DOI or PMID where available, study type and limitations. A reference we cannot confirm never supports a published statement.
Review
Pages are prepared with the help of AI tools. Every reference is then opened and checked against its source, and the editor, Jean Viry-Babel, approves publication. That step is documentary, not clinical. When a health professional reviews a page, their name, qualifications and the approval date appear on it: topics published since November 2026 are reviewed by Dr Françoise Charmoillaux, an anesthesiologist.
High-stakes topics (medicines, dosing, emergencies, paediatrics) are published only after a clinical review. To report an error: contact@healthmechanisms.com. A substantive correction is checked like a new page, and the verification date shown is updated.
Your data
My space (journal, measurements, appointment summary) stores your information only in your browser. Nothing is sent to our servers; the data is not encrypted. No audience measurement is loaded in My space. My data
Who makes this site
Health Mechanisms is published in a personal capacity by Jean Viry-Babel, who is not a health professional. The site has no advertising, sponsors or commercial partnerships, and sells nothing. Topics are reviewed by Dr Françoise Charmoillaux, an anesthesiologist; that review does not replace a specialist in each field, as each page states. Separately, the publisher is developing a personal approach to these conditions under the name Connected Conditions, which is not cited as a source here.