Our goal is to make it easy for people to find a set of good options to consider when choosing a product or service to address everyday health needs. For products that are most closely tied to clinical care, we rely on the doctors and clinicians of the health systems we work with to give guidance and feedback on which to include. For products that are less clinical (like weighted blankets as an example), we do the heavy lifting by researching the available information for the products and services in the categories we cover to make the selection process easier for our users.
We do that by leaning on the opinions of credible product review websites, the consumers who use the products, and by doing online research into the policies and performance of the companies that make the products.
Review websites: Most categories of products and services have professionals, publications or organizations that evaluate those products and services and recommend which are best to use. We carefully consider the credibility, authority, and independence of a third party when deciding whether to consider their opinion.
User opinion: Many of the products in the categories we cover are reviewed and rated by consumers on online sites. We collect the ratings from online sources and compare those ratings and reviews from users across products and across sites.
Online research: We dig into the details of the issues that matter to people when they purchase consumer products such as safety certifications, privacy policies, warranties, customer support and other category specific qualities. While we do not conduct physical assessments of the products, we look at policies and performance of the manufacturer on issues that are important to the value and safety of the products purchased.