Editorial Policies and Principles

We believe our most important role is as a provider of reliable healthcare information to consumers, referring physicians, and professionals in the field of hyperbaric medicine. Accordingly, our editorial police governs all the information we provide.

Who pays us (and who doesn’t)

We charge some treatment centers and vendors a fee to post more detailed information in premium listings. More detailed listings should not be understood to claim a treatment center or supplier is superior to its competitors but only that they have paid us and put in the extra effort to supply the information. We don’t derive any income from advertising because we don’t devote any space to it.

We do not sell links. All our directory listings include links to treatment centers, physicians, chamber manufacturers, and other organizations without charge.

Some of our pages display sponsored links from the Google Adsense program. We do not control which links appear, nor do we have any relationship with the organizations associated with those links. We are paid by Google for presenting the links and when someone clicks on a link.

Independence and impartiality

HyperbaricLink is not a pay-to-play media outlet. We do not give any customer special treatment or special coverage. No paid content of any kind appears on
O2.0 — the HyperbaricLink blog — where we cover news relating to hyperbaric medicine. If it appears we’re picking favorites or taking sides, then you can bet we’re standing with the one whose claim is based, in our view, on the best clinical evidence.

Silence is not information

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Our coverage of this field of medicine would be incomplete without including clinical trials reporting null findings and information about wildly popular but wholly unproven uses of HBOT. Consumers need to know what options to avoid along with those they’d be safe in choosing.

Diseases and conditions

We cover both FDA-cleared and off-label indications for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We think patients with off-label diseases and conditions should know enough about HBOT to meaningfully discuss their options with a physician. We are careful about what information we provide about off-label or investigational HBOT indications and how we present that information in our listings and on our diseases and conditions pages. Our handling of this content is uniform across free and paid listings. Visitors always see this content alongside fully explanatory notes, clearly showing the FDA clearance status of each disease and condition listed, at-a-glance summaries of the clinical evidence, and direct links to the relevant online medical literature and information about current clinical trials.

Treatment centers

Our policy is to list only FDA-cleared indications for treatment centers based in hospitals, hospital-affiliated outpatient facilities, and independent medical clinics. Some treatment centers that do not follow accepted hyperbaric oxygen treatment protocols are not eligible for our more detailed listings. Mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy” (mHBOT) treatment centers and manufacturers of inflatable chambers are not eligible for premium listing services, nor do we list them as treating any disease or condition for which HBOT has been cleared by the FDA. Mild HBOT equipment cannot replicate the hyperbaric oxygen treatment protocols established in the peer-reviewed medical literature, either for approved or investigational indications.

Applicable laws

We will not publish violative promotions of HBOT products and services. Treating off-label is legal. Marketing off-label is not. Information about HBOT products and services on our website, as on treatment center websites, is regulated by the FDA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act. We will not post any information (text, data, graphics, or video) that, to the best of our understanding, violates the law. We also take pains not to link to treatment center or other websites that contain violative promotions, but some such links are unavoidable if we want to provide basic contact information.

Further Reading

Want the in-depth story on the three legs of HyperbaricLink impartiality, objectivity, and reliablility? We've written white papers on each element, describing our standards and practices and their benefit to healthcare consumers.

Editorial Policies and Principles

If you need an explanation of our editorial policies and principles that's more detailed than the summary presented here, the complete document is available in white paper form.

Editorial Policies and Principles White Paper Cover

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Internet Best Practices

There are many elements of a program of effective participation in the internet. We pulled together recommendations of the most value to hospitals, outpatient facilities, and independent clinics into a white paper.

Internet Best Practices for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Providers White Paper

When you write, kindly let us know where you are from and what piqued your interest.