Inspire Clinic · Rockhampton, Queensland

Editorial Policy

How the clinical guides on this site are written, sourced and reviewed — who authors them, which evidence they are built on, how often they are checked, and how to tell us if something is wrong.

Effective date: 3 September 2026  ·  Version: 1.5  ·  Next review: June 2027  ·  Supersedes: v1.4

1. Who writes these guides

Every guide is written and reviewed by Dr Sean James Ledger, BSc Physio (Hons) MSc PhD FHEA, Director and Principal Physiotherapist at Inspire Clinic, registered with the Physiotherapy Board of Australia (Ahpra registration PHY0002298174). There is no anonymous or outsourced content on this site. His doctoral programme investigated the longitudinal effects of individually supervised exercise on lung function, exercise capacity and quality of life in children with cystic fibrosis, and included a health economic review of the cost of health care. His doctoral training included evidence synthesis, research methods and statistical analysis, during which he developed the skills to critically evaluate the quality of published research, weigh a guideline against the evidence behind it, and say plainly where the evidence is thin. He is a member of the COPD-X Guideline Development Group, which writes Australia’s national COPD guidelines. Dr Ledger’s full credentials are listed on his profile.

Authorship, the version, the date it was last updated and the date of its next review appear on the guide itself, at the top of the page.

2. Drafting strategy

We are open about how these guides are drafted. Inspire Clinic uses Claude, an advanced reasoning model made by Anthropic, as a drafting tool. Each guide is generated against strict, clinician-written criteria that set the structure, the reading level, the scope and the standard of evidence required. Nothing produced that way is published as drafted. Every guide is then read and scrutinised by Dr Ledger and checked for clinical accuracy, cross-checked against the current published evidence — national and international clinical guidelines, and peer-reviewed research from Q1 and Q2 journals — and corrected, rewritten or rejected where it does not hold up. Clinical authorship, judgement and accountability remain human and remain Dr Ledger’s. A drafting tool does not author a guide, and no guide reaches this site without that review.

3. Where the evidence comes from

Guides are built from published evidence, in this order of preference:

1. Australian national guidelines and position statements — for example the COPD-X guidelines, the Australian Asthma Handbook, and Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand statements.
2. International guidelines from recognised bodies where no Australian equivalent exists.
3. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, including Cochrane reviews.
4. Randomised controlled trials and, where the evidence base is thin, well-conducted observational studies — described as such.

Sources are cited in the text with numbered references in Vancouver style, listed at the foot of each guide. Where the evidence is weak, contested or absent, the guide says so rather than implying more certainty than exists.

4. Two ways to read the same page

Most guides can be read in plain language or with the clinical evidence added. Both are written for anyone to read: the plain-language version is not a simplified summary of the clinical one, and the clinical layer assumes professional training rather than replacing what is above it.

Clinical evidence summaries support clinical reasoning. They are not protocols, and they do not replace current guidelines, local policy or your own judgement.

5. Escalation wording

Every guide that carries warning signs uses the same four levels, in the same words, so that a reader who moves between guides is never left to infer how urgent something is. This is a house standard, not a per-guide judgement: the wording is fixed and only the symptoms change.

How many levels a guide carries is a clinical judgement; the words are not. A guide uses only the levels its own warning signs support. Where every red flag on a page is a same-day matter, that guide carries a single level, and adding a Call 000 now line to complete the set would describe an emergency the guide does not. What is fixed is that any level a guide does use is worded exactly as above.

• Call 000 now — anything that is a cardiac arrest risk, a dangerous rhythm, an acute coronary syndrome, a stroke, an infant with pauses in breathing or blue lips, exertional collapse, or airway obstruction. Nothing softer is used for these, in any guide, at any age.
• Emergency department today — deterioration that needs hospital assessment the same day but is not immediately life-threatening.
• Same-day medical assessment — a GP or specialist appointment today.
• Next routine review — matters to raise, but not urgently.

Phrases such as seek urgent medical care, escalate and urgent review are not used as the top level, because a reader who is told to seek urgent care will reasonably book a GP appointment. Where a symptom warrants an ambulance, the guide says so and names the number. Guides written before this standard was set have been brought into line: as at 3 September 2026 no guide uses a softer phrase as a warning-sign heading.

Two deliberate exceptions, where an ambulance is not the action available. Some guides describe care that takes place in hospital — acute respiratory distress syndrome, flail chest, intensive-care-acquired weakness and atelectasis. There the patient is already under continuous observation, so those guides use Escalate to the treating team in place of the first two levels. The guide to high-altitude cough is the second exception: at altitude the action that saves a life is immediate descent and emergency services may be days away, so its warning signs are headed This may be HAPE — descend and seek help. Those are the only circumstances in which the wording above is not used.

6. How often guides are reviewed

Every guide is reviewed at least every 12 months, and sooner when significant new evidence or a guideline update appears. The next review date is shown on each page. A guide that has passed its review date is still accurate to its last review, but should be read with that in mind.

7. Corrections

If something on this site is wrong, out of date or unclear, we want to know. Email reception@inspireclinic.au with the page name and what you believe is incorrect. Substantive corrections are made promptly, and the guide’s version and last-updated date are changed to reflect it.

8. Independence

These guides are not sponsored. No company pays to appear on this site, and no content is influenced by any commercial relationship. Where a medicine is discussed it is named by its generic name; brand names appear only where a patient needs them to identify their own device.

9. What this site is not

This site is general health information. It is not medical advice, it cannot account for your individual circumstances, and it is not a substitute for assessment by a qualified clinician. The guides describe adult practice. If your breathing or symptoms change suddenly or severely, seek urgent medical care.