Editorial and clinical review policy
People use our website to make decisions about their health. This page explains how we write, check and update our content, so you can judge how far to rely on it.
Who writes and reviews our content
Every clinical page on this site is:
- written by Ansu Susan Kuriakose, BPT, a physiotherapist at Maana Spine with 5+ years' experience
- clinically reviewed by Jasmal K, BPT, MPT, a physiotherapist with 5+ years' experience, before it's published
Each clinical page shows the author, the clinical reviewer and the date it was last reviewed.
Maana Spine is physiotherapist-led. Our pages are written and reviewed by physiotherapists, not doctors. They explain conditions and treatment options; they don't replace a diagnosis or advice from a doctor or physiotherapist who has assessed you.
How we use AI tools. We use AI tools to help us research and draft our pages. They help us search the research literature and organise large amounts of evidence. Every claim is checked against its original source, and every clinical page is reviewed by a physiotherapist before it's published. The physiotherapists named on each page are responsible for its content.
Where our information comes from
We base our pages on the strongest available evidence, in this order:
- Clinical guidelines from recognised bodies, such as the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, including Cochrane reviews
- Randomised controlled trials
- Other studies and expert reviews, where better evidence isn't available, and labelled as such
We check every study against its published abstract or full text before we use it. We link to the original source (usually a DOI, PubMed or the publisher's page) so you can read it yourself.
How we present evidence
- We say how strong the evidence is. Where a review rates its certainty, we tell you.
- We include findings that don't favour our treatments. For example, our decompression pages report a trial that found no difference from sham treatment in people with back pain only, and our shockwave therapy page explains that it hasn't been shown to beat other active treatments.
- We separate research from experience. When we describe how we use a treatment based on clinical experience rather than research, we say so.
- We give numbers with their source. Every statistic comes from a named source. Where a figure is approximate, we say so.
- We don't overpromise. We avoid absolute promises about outcomes, and we never claim a treatment carries no risk of side effects.
- We're honest about surgery. We don't claim our treatments are as good as or better than surgery. Non-surgical care is a reasonable first step for most people, surgery stays available, and we tell patients honestly if they should see a surgeon.
Our interests
Maana Spine provides many of the treatments described on this site, including the Maana Spine DTX™ program, spinal decompression, pulsed signal therapy (PST) and shockwave therapy (ESWT). We have a commercial interest in them. That's one reason we report the evidence in full, including its limits.
Our patient figures
We publish three trust figures, with how they're measured:
- 5+ years of clinical experience
- 2,700+ spine patients treated across our clinics since 2021
- 96%+ patient satisfaction, based on 800+ ratings from Maana spine patients on Google reviews and Maana's patient satisfaction forms between 2021 and 2026, where "satisfied" means a rating of 4 or 5 out of 5
Patient stories
We only publish patient stories, testimonials and photos with the patient's written consent. We don't publish testimonials or photos of children or teenagers.
Reviews and updates
Each clinical page is reviewed at least every 12 months, and sooner if important new research or guidance is published. The "last reviewed" date on each page shows when it was last checked.
Corrections
If you think something on our site is wrong or out of date, please tell us at quality@maanahealth.com or call +91 99950 09403. We'll check it, correct confirmed errors promptly and update the review date.
This website isn't for emergencies
Our pages are for general information. For a medical emergency, call 112 or go to a hospital straight away.