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    Clinical decision support

    Clinical Methodology & Transparency

    How Medi-Chi reasons, what it draws on, and how we treat your clinical data.

    System version: v2026.7Last updated: 8 July 2026

    1. Our commitment to clinical integrity

    Medi-Chi is built by a registered practitioner for other practitioners and students. In real clinical work, trust comes from accuracy and the ability to verify — not from a black box. This page sets out how our reasoning engine synthesises classical TCM theory with modern diagnostic standards, and what we do (and don't do) with the information you enter.

    2. The logic engine — how we process

    Medi-Chi isn't a general-purpose chatbot. Every case runs through a structured, two-layer analytical pipeline before any output is shown.

    Layer 1 — Classical frameworks

    Presenting patterns are mapped through the primary TCM diagnostic systems: Zàng-Fǔ organ pattern differentiation, the Six Channels of the Shāng Hán Lùn, the Four Levels and Four Aspects of the Wēn Bìng school, Eight Principles, Five Elements, and San Jiao differentiation. The tool also cross-checks pulse, tongue, and constitutional signs against these frameworks.

    Layer 2 — Modern evidence integration

    Where the practitioner supplies Western clinical indicators — pathology results, physical exam findings, imaging notes, medications — Medi-Chi cross-references them against the TCM pattern shortlist, flags relevant red flags, and links out to verified PubMed-indexed citations rather than free-text speculation.

    Logic transparency

    Our engine does not guess. It follows established TCM diagnostic pathways to map patient symptomatology to identified patterns, and each suggestion is accompanied by the reasoning trail and source framework so you can audit it against your own clinical judgement.

    3. Data sovereignty & practitioner privacy

    No training on your data

    We do not use your patient input, clinical notes, or case data to train our underlying models. Your clinical insights remain yours alone. Prompts sent to third-party inference providers are transmitted for the single purpose of returning your result and are not retained for model improvement.

    Compliance alignment

    Medi-Chi aligns with the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (AHPRA) advertising and privacy guidelines, the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988, and HIPAA-style access controls including row-level security, encrypted transport (TLS 1.3), encryption at rest (AES-256), and automatic PHI redaction in audit logs. We are not an electronic medical record and do not present ourselves as one.

    Data minimisation

    The system is designed to operate on the clinical markers you provide. It does not require identifiable personal information — name, date of birth, Medicare number, or address — to produce a diagnostic impression. Practitioners can run cases using pseudonymised patient references.

    For full details, see our Privacy Policy.

    4. Continuous model refinement

    Medi-Chi is actively maintained. The current system version and last updated date are shown at the top of this page and are advanced whenever the reasoning pipeline, pattern library, or citation base changes.

    Diagnostic algorithms and pattern outputs are periodically reviewed by experienced TCM practitioners to ensure AI-generated patterns remain consistent with classical teaching and contemporary clinical practice. Corrections identified through this process are folded back into the pattern library rather than into training data.

    5. Professional scope & the practitioner's role

    Medi-Chi is a decision support tool. It is intended as an adjunct to the qualified practitioner's clinical reasoning — a second set of structured eyes across pattern differentiation, point selection, and herbal considerations. It is not a substitute for a physical examination, pulse and tongue diagnosis performed in person, or the practitioner's own clinical judgement.

    The final diagnostic and treatment decision rests solely with the licensed professional. Medi-Chi does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease, and its output is not medical advice to the general public.

    6. Questions or corrections

    If you spot a pattern mapping, citation, or safety flag that doesn't square with your clinical experience, we want to hear about it. Get in touch via the contact form and flag it as a methodology query — these go straight to the practitioner review queue.

    Medi-Chi · Registered practitioner Derek Doran, AHPRA CMR0002211465 · ABN 26 600 839 506