The Turek Clinic Editorial and Advertising Policy

The Turek Clinic, Inc. aims to provide accurate, impartial, well-balanced health information. This editorial and advertising policy explains how we select and review the editorial content and tools you see on our site, how we handle advertising and sponsored content and distinguish it from editorial content, how financial or other influences from outside our company affect our website, and how you may contact us to ask questions or comment on our websites. See also our Website Disclaimer – Privacy Policy.

Websites Covered

References to “Dr. Paul Turek,” “The Turek Clinic,” “The Turek Clinic,” “The Turek Clinic Los Angeles,” “The Turek Clinic San Francisco,” or “We” means The Turek Clinic, Inc., including any company that we control (for example, a subsidiary that we own). This policy applies TheTurekClinic.com. You should read the separate Privacy Policy at each website that you visit after you leave TheTurekClinic.com. We are not responsible for how other websites handle editorial and advertising once you leave TheTurekClinic.com.

Editorial and Advertising Policy Changes

As our editorial and advertising policy change in significant ways, we will make every effort to notify you of the changes. Minor changes to the policy may occur that will not affect the overall goals this policy is designed to achieve. When the policy changes in a way that significantly affects the way we handle editorial matters, we will clearly draw the attention of our users to the change. We will post policy changes on our websites in a timely manner.

Editorial Policies

The Turek Clinic is committed to providing you with balanced, accurate health information. Although we are a for-profit business supported in-part by advertising and sponsorship, we recognize the importance of maintaining a clear separation between our independent editorial content and any materials that are advertising or any content that may be influenced by our sponsors. We also have organized the operations of our website to provide for appropriate separation of our education and promotion programs from an editorial perspective.

Sources of Our Information

All material on our website that we present as our own is either created by us or is obtained from content providers whose editorial processes we have evaluated and find to be acceptable. Material we create is written either by Dr. Paul Turek or by professionals whom we commission. Our content is evaluated and reviewed for fair balance and whether learning objectives are met by the content. Sources for third party editorial content include government agencies, not-for-profit foundations, medical publishers, and for-profit companies that provide healthcare news and information. In the cases where a complete review is not possible, we rely on spot-checking and our previous evaluation of possible sources of information and of the editorial procedures used by the information provider. In most cases, content we obtain from others has also been reviewed by the provider’s own in-house staff, or subjected to review by independent authorities in the field. In some areas of our website, we make content available that comes from sponsors. We design these areas to make it clear to the user that the content has not gone through our editorial process. The Turek Clinic reviews site content regularly to ensure that it remains relevant. Where necessary, content found to be incorrect or out of date is corrected, updated, or deleted. We always indicate the date that the page content was last updated at the bottom of every page on the website with the prefix, “Last Modified.”

Linking to Other Sites

We provide company logos or links to other websites throughout our website. These logos and links are not intended to imply that we approve of or recommend these entities to consumers. Where we are making a recommendation, we clearly state that fact in connection with the logo or link. We design our website with the goal of making it clear to you when you are leaving our websites for another website, so that you will know that another site’s advertising, editorial policy, privacy policy, and terms of use are in effect.

Financial Information and Outside Influence

Most medical and health information/education sites on the World Wide Web, like their counterparts in print publishing, rely on advertising and sponsorship, including banner advertising, grants, and sponsorship of Continuing Education programs. We discuss advertising later in this policy. With respect to sponsorship or other financial relationships, we observe the following principles:

  1. We will make clear who owns any health website we operate, and to the extent that some content on or areas of our website are sponsored or controlled by others, we will identify those areas and provide the name of the sponsor. Examples might include an area where a partner offers products or services in a co-branded area of our website, or a disease-specific area that includes sponsored content from a company with products in that area. We also clearly disclose funding we might have received to support the development of content or features, even when they are under our editorial control. We will disclose any cases where we have placed health information content on our website because of sponsorship or other support from a third party.
  2. We may obtain revenues from third parties related to advertising and health information content sponsored by others on our website, including advertising revenues, commissions on consumer purchases, fees based on consumer use of links to other websites.
  3. We do not intend any links to other websites, logos, or marks of other companies, or any co-branding to constitute recommendations unless we specifically indicate that we recommend them.
  4. For health information content on our website, we will clearly disclose the author or source of the material and the date of the material or its last update. Where we present health information content as the result of clinical experience or scholarly research, we will clearly disclose the actual author of the health information content and others who have had a substantial role in writing, editing or otherwise preparing the material.

Special Rules for Healthcare Professional Information

At TheTurekClinic.com, we have always clearly separated the editorial content and process from advertising. Advertising spaces such as banners and badges are clearly marked. Likewise, any content provided by an advertising sponsor is clearly marked as such, and is physically separated from editorial content. We are also selective in the advertising we accept. Our advertising policies are as follows:

  1. We will clearly distinguish advertising from health information content, using identifying words, design, or placement. We will design TheTurekClinic.com to avoid confusion between advertising and health information content.
  2. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to comply with the laws and regulations of the United States of America, the country in which the site is based. This includes pharmaceutical advertising to physicians that must be in compliance with FDA guidelines for Direct to Physician (DTP) advertising. In addition, CME programs must be labeled in accordance with the guidelines of the Accrediting Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and any other relevant accrediting bodies. We reserve the right to review all Advertising for compliance with applicable laws and regulations and, if we become aware of any breach or potential breach of any applicable law or regulation or of these guidelines, we may remove the advertising.
  3. We will have sole and absolute discretion with respect to interpretation and enforcement of this policy and all other issues associated with advertising on TheTurekClinic.com. We may change this policy at any time in its sole discretion by posting a revised policy to TheTurekClinic.com.
  4. Under no circumstances will our acceptance of an advertisement be considered an endorsement of the product(s) and/or service(s) advertised or the company that manufactures, distributed, or promotes such product(s) and/or service(s).
  5. We reserve the right to reject, cancel, or remove at any time any advertising from TheTurekClinic.com for any reason and will provide prompt notice to the advertiser upon rejection, cancellation, or removal of any advertising, together with an explanation following the rejection, cancellation, or removal. We will not accept advertising that, in our opinion, makes unsubstantiated claims of therapeutic benefit for particular products or contains false or misleading information. In addition, we will not accept advertising that, in our opinion, is not factually accurate and in good taste.
  6. We will not permit at any time the placement of any advertising for illegal or objectionable products. Advertising must not contain fraudulent, deceptive, or offensive material, including material that misrepresents, ridicules, or attacks an individual or group on the basis of age, color, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or handicap. Advertising must not be related to any of the following: alcohol, firearms, ammunition, fireworks, gambling, pornography, or tobacco.
  7. Advertisers must respect the terms of our privacy policy, and may not attempt to individually identify any users of TheTurekClinic.com or obtain inappropriate access through other technological means to personally identifiable information.
  8. Advertisers will not influence the way any search results for specific information by keyword or topic are displayed on TheTurekClinic.com. We will post all of the variables used to determine relevance ranking and the order of search results presented to TheTurekClinic.com readers. We reserve the right to feature original material or content within search results, and any such hierarchy of search results will be free of any influence from advertisers. However, we will target advertising or sponsored health information content to users based on information about them or their use of TheTurekClinic.com, including searches they conduct. In addition, we provide a separate area on the search results page in which sponsors and advertisers may purchase space to list their content or advertising.
  9. No advertising shall be permitted which may injure the good name or reputation of The Turek Clinic or TheTurekClinic.com.

Feedback

We welcome any comments, questions, or complaints you have about this editorial and advertising policy or our websites. You can contact us here.(