A look behind the scenes
Behind AMBOSS content is a team of over 80 physicians who are passionate about optimizing the process by which healthcare professionals acquire medical knowledge. We hire the best US-trained physicians, many of whom recently finished residency and continue to work clinically, who know exactly what it means to practice medicine today. Our physician authors read through thousands of pages from textbooks, primary literature, and societal guidelines, and distill this knowledge down to what physicians and physicians-in-training need to know to provide exceptional and efficient patient care.
Timeliness
Our team of physicians work closely together to improve and expand AMBOSS content on a daily basis. Our editorial process ensures that the information on our platform is continuously updated to reflect the current research on best medical practice. Content development is further supported by verified user feedback.
Quality
To ensure the quality of the information on our platform, all content is subject to what we call the “8-eyes principle.”
- Physician # 1: Writes the content of an article
- Physician # 2: Reviews the text for accuracy, applicability, and actionability. The questions used to determine these characteristics are, respectively: “Are we 100% certain this is correct?” “Is this something a physician must know to provide excellent patient care?” and “Is this something that a busy physician can quickly read and immediately act upon?”
- Medical Copy Editor: Verifies the linguistic quality, logic, and comprehensibility of the content
- Physician # 3: Conducts a final review of the content and ensures that each medical entity has its own “home” on the platform, thereby reducing redundancy and optimizing platform functionality.
In Accordance with Exam & Licensing Requirements
We build our content in accordance with the requirements for National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) sponsored examinations - United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), Steps 1, 2, and 3, and NBME Subject Examinations (e.g., shelf exams) - and competencies required for medical specialty licensure (e.g., American Board of Internal Medicine). Any policy changes or additions enacted by such governing organizations are reflected in our content.
Editorial Independence
AMBOSS has processes in place to ensure that all the content we provide is free of bias from any commercial interests. These processes are in compliance with and directly follow the ACCME’s Standards for Commercial Support. We do not feature advertising on our platform nor do we accept sponsorship (e.g., from the pharmaceutical industry) of any of our content.
Sources & References
We place great emphasis on the quality of our sources. Sources are listed throughout the platform (hover over the reference number as per screenshot below for details), and a comprehensive list of all references used for a particular article can be found at the end of each article. DOI (Digital Object Identifier) numbers are included for all sources, as are link-outs for immediate access.
Our physician authors critically appraise the available medical literature and only include the highest-grade evidence so that physicians using AMBOSS can make the best evidence-based decisions. We prioritize high-quality systematic reviews, meta-analyses (e.g., Cochrane Reviews), and highly-graded guideline recommendations, as is in line with current best practices in medical literature appraisal. We do not rely on expert opinions in our content. Some of the sources that we draw from are as follows (this list is not exhaustive):
- American Heart Association (AHA)
- American College of Cardiology (ACC)
- American Academy of Dermatology Association (AAD)
- American College of Gastroenterology (ACG)
- American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
- American Society of Hematology (ASH)
- American Cancer Society (ACS)
- American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE)
- Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)
- American Thoracic Society (ATS)
- American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST)
- Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM)
- American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM)
- American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)
- American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS)
- American Society of Colon & Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS)
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- American Academy of Neurology (AAN)
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
- American Psychiatric Association (APA)
- United States Preventive Services (USPSTF)
- American College of Radiology (ACR)
- American Urological Association (AUA)
[Note: This list is not exhaustive. See references at the end of each article for a comprehensive list.]
** Guidelines in their original, full-text form, are also imported into our platform and searchable, as demonstrated in the screenshot below.
Illustrations & Videos
The medical illustrations in AMBOSS are created by a team of medical illustrators who operate in close cooperation with our physician authors.
The videos on the platform are either produced in-house by our own AMBOSS media team (e.g., our POCUS video) or they are outsourced from public archives of videos that have creative commons copyright permissions.