DocPasser

How DocPasser verifies what it tells you

These exams decide whether a doctor is allowed to practise. A wrong explanation is not a lost mark on a mock — it is something a doctor learned and carried onto a ward. So every claim on this site is traceable to a named document, from a body entitled to make that claim, with the date someone last read it.

What counts as a source here

DocPasser works to a published evidence hierarchy. A question's explanation is settled by the highest tier that addresses the point, and the tier is recorded against the item.

  1. Tier 0 — the body that sets the exam. Blueprints, content maps, regulations and examiner reports from the GMC, MRCP(UK), RCGP, NBME, AMC, RCPI and the Medical Council of Ireland. These are the only acceptable authority for what is examined, how the paper is structured, and what the pass standard is.
  2. Tier 1 — statutory regulators and national guidance. NICE, SIGN, UKHSA, MHRA, the ICO, HSE and NCEC in Ireland, the USPSTF and AHRQ in the United States, AHPRA and the Australian Department of Health.
  3. Tier 2 — specialty societies and colleges. Resuscitation Council UK, BTS, BSG, BSR, BSH, RCOG, RCPCH, ESC, EASL, KDIGO, ACC/AHA, IDSA/ATS, RANZCOG, RHD Australia and the rest of the register below.
  4. Tier 3 — national formularies. The BNF, the Australian Immunisation Handbook, Therapeutic Guidelines, TOXBASE.
  5. Tier 4 — peer-reviewed literature, cited only where no higher tier addresses the point.

What is never a source

Another question bank. A revision course's notes. An unattributed web page, blog, forum post or Wikipedia article. Lecture slides with no primary reference. Any machine-generated text used as its own authority. These are excluded by policy and rejected automatically — a citation that does not resolve to an organisation on the register below fails the build and the item cannot be published.

The right guideline for the right country

An exam marks you against the practice of its own jurisdiction, so DocPasser cites accordingly. NICE does not settle an AMC question and Therapeutic Guidelines does not settle a PLAB question. Where a jurisdiction genuinely works from another's guidance — Irish hospitals routinely use UK and European guidelines — the citation is permitted but logged as editorial debt, so it gets replaced with a local source as one becomes available. US and Australian content accepts nothing from outside its own jurisdiction, because those exams test local pathways, local formularies and local law.

Verification expires

Exam formats move. Pass marks are reset. Guidelines are superseded. So a check is not permanent: every verified fact carries the date it was read, who read it, the exact document, and the line they read — and it expires after 6 months, at which point the page reverts to saying it needs re-checking. A two-year-old verification is not a verification, and a site that never revisits its numbers is just a site that stopped looking.

What we withhold

Where a figure has not been checked, DocPasser does not print it as fact. The page says it is unverified, or withholds the number entirely and tells you where to look. This is deliberately worse-looking than what competitors do, and it is the entire point: a number with no provenance is a guess wearing a suit.

Where verification stands today

Published live from the same data the app runs on, so it cannot drift from reality.

Items in the banks9334
Items citing an approved source9334 of 9334
Citations from a regulator or national body (tier 0–1)3545
Citations from a specialty society or college (tier 2)3065
Citations from a national formulary (tier 3)2724
Cross-jurisdiction citations awaiting a local replacement17
Exam facts with a live verification48 of 48
Exam facts never checked0
Verifications expired and queued for re-check0

Last generated 2026-09-13.

Clinical review

Separately from sourcing, every item goes to a credentialed physician reviewer before it is published to subscribers. Review status is enforced in the database, not in the interface: an item that has not been signed off cannot be read by the app at all. Reviewer credentials shown to subscribers are independently verifiable registration numbers — and until reviewers are appointed, no reviewer name appears anywhere on this site, because a badge nobody earned is worse than no badge.

When we get it wrong

Every question has a report control. If you spot an error, one tap sends it to us and we correct anything that turns out to be wrong. We're not going to promise a large review team or a fixed turnaround we can't guarantee. What we will say is this: the most repeated complaint about the incumbent products is that reported errors sit untouched for years, and that is the thing we are determined not to do. A real mistake gets fixed, and the correction reaches everyone.

The approved publisher register

77 organisations. Adding one is an editorial decision, not a convenience: it says this body is entitled to settle a clinical question for candidates in that jurisdiction.

TierPublisherJurisdictions
0 Australian Medical Council AU
0 General Medical Council UK
0 JRCPTB UK
0 Medical Council of Ireland IE
0 MRCP(UK) Federation UK
0 NBME / FSMB (USMLE programme) US
0 Royal College of General Practitioners UK
0 Royal College of Physicians of Ireland IE
1 AHPRA and National Boards AU
1 AHRQ US
1 Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care AU
1 Australian Department of Health and Aged Care AU
1 Department for Work and Pensions UK
1 DVLA UK
1 Health Protection Surveillance Centre (Ireland) IE
1 Health Service Executive (Ireland) IE
1 Information Commissioner's Office UK
1 MHRA UK
1 National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (Ireland) IE
1 NICE UK
1 SIGN UK
1 UK Health Security Agency UK
1 US Preventive Services Task Force US
2 ACOG US
2 American College of Cardiology / AHA US
2 American College of Surgeons (ATLS) US, UK, IE, AU
2 American Epilepsy Society US
2 American Heart Association US
2 American Medical Association US
2 American Psychiatric Association US
2 American Thyroid Association US
2 ASCO US
2 Association of Anaesthetists UK, IE
2 Association of British Neurologists UK
2 British Association of Dermatologists UK
2 British Association of Urological Surgeons UK
2 British Burn Association UK
2 British HIV Association UK
2 British Society for Haematology UK
2 British Society for Rheumatology UK
2 British Society of Gastroenterology UK
2 British Thoracic Society UK
2 British Thyroid Association UK
2 Cancer Council Australia AU
2 EASL UK, IE, EU
2 Endocrine Society US, UK, IE
2 ERA (European Renal Association) UK, IE, EU
2 ESMO UK, IE, EU
2 EULAR UK, IE, EU
2 European Society of Cardiology UK, IE, EU
2 European Thyroid Association UK, IE, EU
2 IAP / APA (pancreatology) UK, IE, EU
2 IDSA / American Thoracic Society US
2 Joint British Diabetes Societies for Inpatient Care UK
2 KDIGO UK, IE, US, AU
2 National Emergency Laparotomy Audit UK
2 National Heart Foundation of Australia / CSANZ AU
2 Otitis Media Guidelines (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) AU
2 RANZCOG AU
2 RANZCP AU
2 RCOG UK
2 RCPCH UK
2 Resuscitation Council UK UK
2 RHD Australia AU
2 Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne AU
2 Royal College of Ophthalmologists UK
2 Royal College of Surgeons of England UK
2 Society for Endocrinology UK
2 Society of Critical Care Medicine (Surviving Sepsis) UK, IE, US, AU
2 SOMANZ AU
2 Tokyo Guidelines (hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery) UK, IE, US, AU
2 UK Kidney Association UK
2 World Society of Emergency Surgery UK, IE, EU
3 Australian Immunisation Handbook AU
3 British National Formulary UK, IE
3 Therapeutic Guidelines (Australia) AU
3 TOXBASE (National Poisons Information Service) UK, IE
DocPasser is exam preparation material, not clinical guidance. Nothing here should be used to make a decision about a real patient. Always work from your own local guidelines and seniors.