How LimbAtlas researches and presents information

Three kinds of content: provider profiles in the directory; method and device pages, which describe techniques and named systems; and guides, which are general educational writing not tied to any provider. Provider profiles are structured facts tied to specific sources. Method, device and guide pages explain concepts and cite the references they rely on.

Profiles are compiled by the LimbAtlas editorial team from publicly available sources, mainly the provider's own official website. Each fact on a profile is tied to the source it came from, and the profile's Sources & review history section lists which source supports which facts.

Profiles are researched from public material only. Unless a profile says otherwise, its information has not been confirmed by the provider directly, and providers do not write or approve their own profiles.

Different questions are answered from different kinds of source:

• Provider facts — what a provider offers, where it works, which languages and services it states — come from its official website, an official hospital website, a government registry, or an official social account linked from its own website.
• Device descriptions come from the manufacturer's own documentation. Where no manufacturer source could be found, the device page names the provider or hospital it relies on and says so.
• General medical statements on method pages and in guides come, in order of preference, from systematic reviews and peer-reviewed literature, government and regulator guidance, academic medical centres, and professional medical bodies.

Third-party directories, review sites, forums and medical tourism aggregators are never used as evidence for a fact, even when they helped LimbAtlas find a provider worth researching.

Techniques, devices, facilities and support services on a profile each carry a status:

• Current — the provider's own current official material presents it as something it offers now, and no newer official source contradicts that.
• Uncertain — current availability cannot be substantiated: the evidence may be old or possibly out of date, indirect (for example a case report, patient story, caption or archived page rather than a statement that something is offered), or contradicted by another official source.
• Historical — the provider's own material describes it as past practice or discontinued, or newer official material has replaced it.

No single date decides the status. Each item is judged in context: whether the provider explicitly says it is offered or discontinued, when the page was published or last updated, whether newer official sources say something different, whether it is still actively presented, and whether the only evidence is an old case report, patient story or archived page. Older or conflicting evidence receives additional scrutiny and may be marked uncertain or historical; recent evidence is not automatically treated as current.

Only current information is shown as what a provider offers today, counted on method and device pages, or matched by directory filters. Uncertain items are named on the profile as not confirmed. Historical items are kept in the records for the review trail. An item is never upgraded to current by inference.

Facts such as rehabilitation, accommodation or whether a provider accepts patients operated on elsewhere are often not mentioned in a provider's public material. Where the reviewed sources do not address a point, the profile shows “Not publicly stated” rather than guessing.

A provider's pages sometimes describe the same thing differently, often because they were written at different times. Where a source shows a publication or update date, that date is recorded and used to judge which description is current. Where the disagreement cannot be resolved from the sources, the item is marked uncertain rather than choosing one version. Where a provider uses one of its own terms in different ways on different pages, each reading is recorded with its source.

Providers name techniques, devices and packages in their own ways. To make providers comparable, LimbAtlas maps that wording onto one shared set of terms: four techniques (fully internal lengthening, external fixation, lengthening over nail and lengthening and then nailing), device types, and named devices. A device is never treated as a technique.

The provider's own wording is kept on its profile, so you can see exactly what the provider says. A provider's package or plan name (for example one combining different techniques in different bones) is shown as the provider's term and mapped to techniques only where its sources explain what is done; it never becomes a LimbAtlas term of its own.

Every source on a profile shows the date it was last checked, and every profile shows the date it was last reviewed as a whole. Treatment and support information records its own review date. Guides show the date their claims were last checked against their sources. These dates reflect actual reviews; none is filled in automatically.

• Appearing in the directory is not an endorsement or a recommendation, and the order of a list is not a ranking — see how provider ordering works.
• Providers are listed on the basis of public information, without being asked to take part, and nobody pays to be listed.
• A listed technique, device or service records what the provider publicly states. It does not guarantee that the provider offers it today, or that it would be available or suitable for any particular patient.
• Providers cannot currently claim, edit or approve their profiles.

Each profile carries a verification status describing how far its information could be substantiated from public sources. The labels, what they do not mean, and how they relate to sponsorship are set out in the verification methodology.

Guides are educational content, written separately from any provider listing. They do not recommend a provider or method, give medical advice, or promise outcomes.

A guide is published only after its factual claims have been checked against the sources listed at the end of it, using the source order above. Where a source did not support a statement, the statement was narrowed or removed; outcome statistics and treatment timelines are left out where they would read as a prediction for an individual. Each guide shows the date it was last reviewed against its sources.

Guides are attributed to the LimbAtlas editorial team and have not been reviewed by a clinician, and they say so. A named reviewer would be shown only after a real review by a qualified clinician.

Profiles are updated when their sources are re-reviewed, and the review dates change to show when that happened. When a source no longer supports a fact, the fact is corrected, marked uncertain or historical, or removed.