Editorial Standards
How we write, source, date and correct the educational pages on this site.
Last updated
Built on published sources
Our guides and explainers list the registries, agencies, guidelines and research they draw on.
Dated
Condition pages, diagnosis guides and explainers show the date we last checked them against their sources.
Corrected in the open
Tell us about a mistake and we fix it. Corrections to news articles carry a dated note.
Paid for by donations
No advertising or sponsored content on these pages, and no one pays to shape them.
Who Writes Our Pages
The Jada Bascom Foundation writes and source-checks its own educational pages: the disease library, the transplant explainers, our stories about why matching is hard and our guides for donors and families.
We are a small charity, not a hospital, and we are not doctors. We write from published sources, and we show you those sources so you can read them yourself. Our pages explain conditions and treatments in general. They cannot diagnose anyone or recommend a treatment, and they are not medical advice. Your care team can tell you how the evidence applies to you. Our Medical Disclaimer says more.
The Sources We Use
These are the kinds of sources we rely on:
- Official donor registries and their research partners, such as NMDP and CIBMTR in the United States, the World Marrow Donor Association and national registries around the world
- Government health agencies, such as the National Cancer Institute (including its SEER statistics), the NIH and its National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, MedlinePlus, HRSA and the CDC, and drug regulators such as the FDA and the European Medicines Agency
- Professional guidelines and classifications, such as the EBMT practice recommendations and the EBMT Handbook, guidance from transplant and hematology societies such as the British Society for Haematology, and the WHO classification of blood cancers
- Peer-reviewed research, found through PubMed and PubMed Central, and GeneReviews for inherited conditions
- Patient organizations, cancer charities and hospital patient guides, mainly for plain-language descriptions and for where to find support
We don't base a claim on blogs, forums, social media posts or pages selling a treatment. Our condition pages, diagnosis guides and explainers list their sources at the bottom, each with a link, and every glossary term links its source. When we quote a source, we quote it word for word. When good sources disagree, the page says so rather than picking one quietly.
How We Handle Numbers
Where we give a figure, we say which group of people, which place and which years it describes, as far as the source does. Each one comes from a source listed on that page. A figure measured among people who had a transplant in one country is not the same as a worldwide figure, and we say which one it is.
Figures describe groups, not a person. A survival rate or a match rate tells you what happened across many people. It cannot tell you what will happen to you or to someone you love.
Keeping Pages Current
Our condition pages, diagnosis guides and transplant explainers show the date we last checked them against their sources. When a source changes in a way that matters, such as a new treatment approval, a revised guideline or a registry changing who can join, we update the pages that rely on it and the date. We will also re-check every page against its sources at least once a year, even when nothing seems to have changed.
Corrections
If you think something on our site is wrong or out of date, please tell us. Use our contact form or email contact@jadabascomfoundation.org. Tell us the page's title and what looks wrong. The form doesn't accept web addresses, so the title is enough.
When we find a mistake, we fix it. If a correction changes what a news article says, we add a dated editor's note to the article explaining what we changed. On library pages and explainers, we correct the text and update the date the page was checked against its sources.
Independence and Funding
The Jada Bascom Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Deer Park, Washington, and our work is paid for by donations. You can see our tax-exempt status and how donations are handled.
We don't sell advertising, sponsorships or paid placements on our educational pages, and no advertiser or sponsor has a say in what we write. We do use Google's free search advertising for nonprofits to help people find these pages.
What We Do, and What We Don't
We explain blood stem cell and bone marrow donation and point people to the official donor registry for their country. We don't run a registry or add anyone to one, and we don't test tissue types, send swab kits or treat anyone. The registries do that work. When one of our pages says "join the registry," the link takes you to an official registry, and it decides who can join.
Your Privacy on Health Pages
Reading about a condition can say something about your health or a loved one's. On our health pages, including the disease library and the transplant explainers, the Meta (Facebook) Pixel does not run, and Google Analytics is not told which condition a page is about. Our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy explains exactly what we collect and why.
Questions
If you have a question about how we research or write our pages, we'd like to hear it.
