Introducing iatroX Guidance Summaries

Dr Kola Tytler (MBBS CertHE MBA MRCGP)||6 min read
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UK clinical work has a recurring friction point: the right answer is often available, but not always quickly accessible in the moment you need it.

NICE guidance, CKS topics, SIGN guidance, and aligned specialist pathways are the backbone of everyday decision-making in UK practice. They are evidence-based, carefully curated, and designed for consistency. But in the reality of 10‑minute appointments, interrupted clinics, and on-call cognitive load, even excellent guidance can be hard to operationalise at speed.

That is the gap iatroX Guidance Summaries are designed to close.

Quick links

What are iatroX Guidance Summaries?

iatroX Guidance Summaries are concise, clinician-oriented summaries of current UK guidance on high‑value topics.

They are designed to be:

  • Actionable: thresholds, stepwise pathways, and practical “what to do next” framing.
  • Provenance-led: each summary is explicitly anchored to a named authority and reference (for example, a specific NICE guideline), with a clear “based on” statement.
  • Freshness-aware: each summary includes a visible review timestamp (“last reviewed”) and a clear stance on how updates are handled.
  • Readable: intentionally structured for rapid scanning—headings, steps, callouts, and FAQs.
  • Clinician-validated: written and reviewed with a UK clinician’s workflow in mind, with clarity about limitations and the need to check primary sources when it matters.

This is not a replacement for primary guidance. It is a front door: a fast, reliable starting point that gets you to the right part of the official source, faster—and reduces the likelihood of missing the key step in a time-pressured moment.

Why launch this now?

Over the last 18 months, the way clinicians consume information has shifted.

  • Search engines increasingly surface AI summaries.
  • Colleagues increasingly ask, “What’s the quick pathway for this?” rather than “Where is the guideline?”
  • The risk is that speed wins over accuracy, and generic summarisation wins over guideline-specific decision points.

iatroX Guidance Summaries are a pragmatic response: fast reading, without surrendering provenance.

What you’ll see inside each guidance summary

The editorial aim is simple: if you only have 60–120 seconds, the page should still be worth opening.

A typical Guidance Summary is structured around:

1) An executive overview

A short, clinician-friendly framing of:

  • What the guidance covers (and importantly, what it does not cover)
  • Who it applies to
  • The decision points that commonly matter in primary care

2) Practical steps (the “do this, then this” layer)

Where appropriate, summaries are organised into a stepwise flow:

  • Initial assessment (what you must establish first)
  • Key thresholds (what triggers action)
  • First-line actions (what most clinicians should do first)
  • Escalation (when to step up, refer, or seek urgent care)
  • Safety-netting (what to advise, and what should trigger reassessment)

3) Prescribing and dosing—carefully

Clinicians often search for dosing because it is practical.

Where prescribing information is included, it is presented with clear caveats:

  • Doses may vary by indication, age, comorbidity, formulation, and local policy.
  • Always verify with BNF, the SPC, and local formulary guidance.

The goal is not to “turn iatroX into a drug dictionary”. The goal is to reduce time-to-orientation and lower the risk of missing a core guideline step.

4) FAQs that match real search behaviour

Many clinical searches are phrased as questions:

  • “When should I refer?”
  • “What if the test is normal but symptoms persist?”
  • “What’s the threshold to treat?”

Guidance Summaries include FAQ blocks where this format adds value. This improves readability for humans and makes it easier for machines (including modern search) to understand the page’s intent.

5) Transparent provenance and review metadata

Every summary includes:

  • Based on: the authoritative source and reference.
  • Last reviewed: a visible date.
  • A direct path back to the official source.

This matters. In clinical work, confidence comes from knowing where the claim originates.

Examples of what “based on” means in practice

To make this concrete, here are examples of the sort of anchoring used in iatroX Guidance Summaries:

  • Asthma is anchored to the collaborative BTS/NICE/SIGN guidance (for example, NICE guideline NG245, last reviewed 27 November 2024).
  • Hypertension is anchored to NICE guideline NG136, last reviewed 27 November 2024.

The point is not the topic list—it is the principle: each page tells you what it is based on.

How to use Guidance Summaries (a practical workflow)

If you’re a clinician, the intended flow is:

  1. Start with the Guidance Summaries landing page: https://www.iatrox.com/guidelines
  2. Use the directory to search and filter by the exact term you would normally type into Google: https://www.iatrox.com/guidelines/directory
  3. Open the summary and skim the Executive Overview first.
  4. Jump to the Steps / Pathway section for the “what next” workflow.
  5. Use the FAQ section to sanity-check edge cases.
  6. When anything is borderline, high-risk, or atypical, jump to the official source link on the page and confirm.

A good summary should cut the time it takes to orient yourself. It should not reduce professional vigilance.

Editorial policy and clinical safety

iatroX Guidance Summaries are written to be clinically useful, but they are not clinical advice to patients.

Principles:

  • Education first: this is a clinician-facing reference and learning tool.
  • Provenance is non-negotiable: primary sources are explicitly identified.
  • No false certainty: where guidance is nuanced, the summary should reflect nuance.
  • Scope clarity: the page should be clear about what it covers and what sits outside scope.
  • Local policy still applies: local pathways, formularies, and service thresholds vary.

If you spot anything that feels outdated, ambiguous, or misaligned with a primary source, that feedback loop is part of the product.

Why this format is also “AI-search friendly” (without chasing gimmicks)

The internet is changing. Clinicians now discover information not only via classic search results, but through:

  • AI Overviews and “answer cards”
  • AI chat interfaces
  • Voice queries

Machines generally do better with content that is:

  • Structured with meaningful headings
  • Explicit about entities and relationships (topic → guideline → recommendation)
  • Written in clear, unambiguous language
  • Organised into FAQ‑style question/answer blocks where appropriate

Guidance Summaries are intentionally structured in this way—not to game search engines, but to ensure the right content is discoverable and interpretable when clinicians are looking for it.

What’s coming next

This launch is the beginning of a long runway.

Expect continuous expansion across high-yield primary care themes and guideline-heavy topics, with an emphasis on:

  • Conditions with frequent clinical presentation
  • Topics with high guideline volatility or frequent updates
  • Areas where clinicians repeatedly search for thresholds, steps, or escalation criteria

Longer term, the ambition is a consistent “guideline-first” layer that helps clinicians move from:

question → pathway → official source → confident action, faster.

A quick FAQ

Is this meant to replace NICE/CKS/SIGN?

No. It’s meant to make the first pass easier and faster, while keeping provenance explicit.

Will you include doses?

Sometimes—when it is materially helpful and presented with clear caveats. Verification against BNF/SPC/local policy remains essential.

How often are summaries updated?

Each page is timestamped (“last reviewed”) and explicitly anchored (“based on”). When primary guidance changes, summaries should be reviewed and updated accordingly.

Can I request a topic?

Yes. If there’s a guideline you repeatedly use—or a topic you find hard to operationalise quickly—that is exactly the kind of gap Guidance Summaries are intended to close.

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