How we research

We separate what's interesting from what's established.

Health information is easy to find and hard to weigh. This page explains how Rerouted decides what to say — and what not to.

1. Read the research

Go beyond the headline. A news story about a study is not the study. Before Rerouted writes about a finding, someone reads what was actually measured, in whom, for how long, and compared with what. If we can't get to the source, we say so.

2. Show the limits

Explain what a study does — and does not — tell us. Small groups, short timeframes, results that haven't been repeated, outcomes that were measured in a lab rather than in people's lives: these don't make a finding worthless, but they change what it can support. We'll say which is which.

3. Give you better questions

The goal of every page is a better-informed conversation with your care team — not a decision made on a website. So each explainer ends with the questions worth asking, and each answer page ends with the exact words to use.

How sources are chosen

For rules, rights and deadlines, we go to the source that creates them: the statute, the regulation, the agency (Medicare, CMS, HealthCare.gov, state insurance departments) or the plan document. For health questions, we prefer published studies and reviews over press releases, and primary reports over someone else's summary. When a page relies on a source, it names it.

What we look at in a study

• Study type. A randomised trial, an observational study, a case report and a lab study answer different questions. We say which one we're describing.
• Population. Who was studied — how many people, of what age and health — and whether that resembles the person reading.
• Outcome. What was actually measured. A change in a blood marker is not the same as people living longer or feeling better.
• Size of the effect. Whether the difference was large enough to matter, not only whether it was statistically significant.
• Limitations. What the authors themselves say the study cannot show, and anything else that limits it.
• Funding and conflicts. Who paid for the work and whether the authors have a stake in the result, where that is relevant.

How strong the evidence is

We try to say plainly where a question stands, and we rate the research behind each claim on one scale. Established means consistent results across good studies over time. Mixed means good studies disagree. Early means promising but thin — few studies, small groups, or results not yet repeated. Related only means nobody has studied this exact use; we show research on something similar and say how it differs. Not yet studied means we found no research that tests it. An early result can be worth knowing about; it is not the same as an answer.

Before we rate anything, we narrow the claim to something a study could actually test. Not “red light heals”, but “red light at 630–660 nm on the skin helps wounds heal”.

Fact, evidence, opinion and experience

These are different things and we try to keep them visibly apart. A fact is something checkable, like a deadline in a law. Evidence is what research shows, with its limits. Opinion is a judgment, and we label it as ours. Experience — Amanda's years inside healthcare operations, or a featured person's work — is valuable context, and we present it as experience, not as proof.

When the evidence is unclear

We say so. We would rather write "nobody knows yet" than fill the gap with a confident guess. Where reasonable people disagree, we describe both positions. And we point to the questions that would help you decide with your care team.

What you'll find on a Rerouted page

• The rule behind it. When a page says you have a right or a deadline, it names the law, agency or document that says so.
• Sources you can open. Links go to primary sources where possible, not to someone else's summary.
• A reviewed date. Rules and evidence change. Pages show when they were last checked.
• What we don't know. Where the evidence runs out, the page says so instead of filling the gap.

What Rerouted is not

Rerouted is education and navigation. It is not medical, legal or insurance advice, and it does not recommend treatments. It is independent: paid by readers and clients, never by a hospital, an insurer, or a company whose product is being discussed.