Editorial Policy

About > Editorial Policy

Last Updated: April 17, 2010

It is the mission of AmericanEHR Partners to provide the most comprehensive, trustworthy and accurate information available to assist U.S. medical practices with the selection, implementation, use and optimization of Electronic Health Records systems (EHRs) and other forms of health IT. AmericanEHR Partners has been developed as an aggregation resource for information from a wide variety of sources. The purpose of this editorial policy is to explain how content will be generated, managed and used on the AmericanEHR Partners website. In order to maintain a high level of credibility, content will be managed according to rules and policies jointly developed by Cientis Technologies and the American College of Physicians. No content will be allowed on the AmericanEHR Partners website that could injure the good name or reputation of AmericanEHR Partners, Cientis Technologies, and the American College of Physicians or other professional societies.

The following sections describe our editorial policies:

A. Content Not Suitable for Publication

Content that is offensive or derogatory to any individual or organization or contains expressions of hate, obscenity or any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable law or regulations.
Content that conveys ethnic, religious, gender, or age bias or prejudice.
Content that promotes or encourages the use of tobacco products.
Exaggerated or extravagantly worded content.
Advertising content that is expressed or packaged in a way that conceals its intent.
Content from entities or parties with which Cientis or ACP have a significant ongoing controversy or conflict.

B. Editorial Content Policies

Third Party Content

From time-to-time, requests may be received from third party organizations to publish content on AmericanEHR Partners.
Third party content may include news items such as policy statements (e.g. relating to national funding programs), educational events, and conferences.
Policy papers will not generally be considered for publication on AmericanEHR Partners outside of being announced as news items.
Third party content will not be considered if there is any commercial nature to the information. The content shall not promote any vendor product or service.
Third party content will not be accepted if it violates any of the principles articulated in Section B.
Each request for publication of third party content will be evaluated on an individual basis.
Third party content will not be published without the approval of the executive editorial board.

Blog Content

Blogs to be featured (on the homepage or elsewhere on the website) shall be approved by the executive editorial board.
AmericanEHR Partners will have a number of blogs that will each be provided with the ability to publish content to the website in a designated blog section.
Blog authors will be managed in accordance with the Blog Author policy.

Podcasts & Webinars

Podcasts and webinars to be featured (on the home page or elsewhere on the Website) shall be approved by the executive editorial board.
AmericanEHR Partners will publish regular podcasts and webinars on topical issues related to EHR adoption and use.
These topics will be selected by the AmericanEHR editorial staff based upon their relevance to issues in healthcare IT.
Topics will range from operational issues related to the use of EHRs to national roundtable discussions.
Podcasts/webinars will be non-promotional and will not endorse any individual service or product.
Authors of podcasts/webinars will be required to declare conflicts of interest according to the standard AmericanEHR Partners conflict of interest policy.
Podcasts/webinars may be sponsored. Sponsorship support will be clearly documented on the web page through which the podcast will be accessed and through an introductory announcement incorporated in the podcast/webinar. Sponsors will not have any influence over the development of the content and questions for the podcasts/webinars.
At times speakers from industry may be asked to participate in a podcast/webinar if they have specific expertise in an area of interest. In these circumstances, the associations of these speakers shall be clearly identified. Industry representatives shall not promote their product or make derogatory comments about other products or services.

User Generated Content

Includes feedback or comments by readers/contributors to the Blog(s).
User-created content will be encouraged through AmericanEHR Partners.
In order to promote transparency, users of the site will have the ability to respond and provide comments and feedback in the interactive sections of the site.
Vendors of products and services will not be entitled to respond or contribute to blog postings unless specifically invited to provide commentary and feedback by the blog author to a specific posting.
Vendor responses shall be clearly identified as such.
Vendor responses will be reviewed by the executive editorial board prior to posting to ensure that all principles of this editorial policy are met.
Under certain circumstances, an author of a specific posting may request direct input and feedback from the vendor community. In these circumstances, vendors are entitled to post comments. All such comments shall be reviewed and approved by the blog author before they are reviewed by the executive editorial board.
All comments and feedback will be moderated by the executive editorial board prior to being published.
Comments must be accompanied by a first and last name and an email address.

Opinion Pieces

From time-to-time, AmericanEHR Partners may invite authors to submit opinion pieces on specific topics.
Selection of authors will be approved by the executive editorial board.
In some cases, these may be controversial issues for which reader opinion is sought.
Authors of opinion pieces will be required to declare conflicts of interest according to the standard AmericanEHR Partners conflict of interest policy.
A description of the author as well as any declared conflicts of interest or an absence of conflicts of interest will be published in the introduction to the opinion piece.

Peer Reviewed Content

The “Peer Reviewed” designation will only be assigned to an individual article.
Peer reviewed articles or editorials will be identified with a “Peer Reviewed” notation or graphic identifier.
Peer-reviewers must also declare potential conflicts of interest.

C. Content Ownership or Assignment of Ownership of Content

AmericanEHR Partners will permit users to view or download a single copy of some material on the AmericanEHR Partners website solely for non-commercial personal use.
If material is downloaded, users will be required to include the following copyright notice: “Copyright ©2010, AmericanEHR Partners. All rights reserved.”
Content submitted by third parties that is owned by them will remain in their ownership. Use of that content will be assigned to AmericanEHR Partners.
If third parties wish their content to be removed/updated they must request such changes from AmericanEHR Partners after approval by the executive editorial board.

D. Process for User Reported Content

From time-to-time, content on AmericanEHR Partners may be identified that the executive editorial board deems inappropriate or that contravenes the editorial and terms of use policy.
This content may take the form of articles, opinion pieces, editorials, and user submitted comments.
AmericanEHR Partners will provide users with a mechanism to report inappropriate content on each page of the site.
Users can also email AmericanEHR Partners directly by sending an email to report@americanehr.com. This option will be provided on every page of the site.

E. Process for Removal of Content

If any content on AmericanEHR Partners is felt by a user to be inappropriate, a formal reporting and review process shall be initiated:

All requests will be responded to within five working days.
Requests to remove content will be reviewed by the executive editorial board and a decision will be made regarding modification, archiving, or removal.

F. Embargoed Content

From time-to-time, embargoed news, articles, or otherwise submitted content may be received by AmericanEHR Partners for consideration.
In these circumstances, content will be treated in accordance with the policy of the submitting individual or organization regarding the embargo restrictions and dates of publication.

G. Copyright

AmericanEHR Partners is protected under United States and international copyright laws and conventions. Except as otherwise provided by United States copyright law, materials from AmericanEHR Partners may only be viewed, stored, or reproduced for private, noncommercial purposes.

H. Policy for Display of Outgoing Links

AmericanEHR Partners may display links to other World Wide Web sites or resources through content published on the AmericanEHR Partners website.
Outgoing links will be reviewed by the executive editorial board to ensure that they are directed to appropriate resources and third party content.
Outgoing links to content that is deemed by the executive editorial board to be inappropriate will not be published or will be removed upon notification.
Articles containing inappropriate outgoing links may also be removed from the AmericanEHR Partners website.
Inappropriate links include content of a libelous or slanderous nature, obscenity or content containing inappropriate language.

I. Requests for Re-Use of Content

The executive editorial board will consider requests for re-use of content on an individual basis and in consideration of the intellectual property rights of the originating authors or organizations.