Medical review board

Last updated: May 2026.

Purpose

The medical review board exists to keep shrinQ educational content accurate, responsible, and consistent with established clinical understanding. Review sits above the writing and editing process, including any work supported by the AI-assisted tools described in our AI use policy.

Members

Shariq Refai, MD. Dr. Refai is a board-certified psychiatrist with dual board certification in psychiatry and in sports and performance psychiatry. He is the founder of shrinQ and provides medical review and editorial oversight for its content. You can read more about his background on our about page and at shariqrefai.com (opens in a new tab).

As shrinQ grows, we expect to add reviewers with relevant clinical and subject-matter expertise. When we do, they will be listed here.

Credentials we rely on

When I review content, I'm drawing on a few categories of credential that I think are worth naming plainly, so you can judge the basis for what you're reading.

• Board certification. Dual certification in psychiatry and in sports and performance psychiatry, which reflects formal examination and ongoing requirements.
• Clinical training and licensure. Medical education, residency training, and an active license to practice medicine.
• Practice experience. Direct work with patients through shrinkMD, which keeps the educational material grounded in how these patterns actually show up.
• Maintained public identifiers. Professional identifiers such as an NPI and a researcher identifier are maintained and kept current rather than reproduced here, so the canonical versions stay authoritative. You'll find them linked from shariqrefai.com (opens in a new tab) and our about page.

How review works

Medical content is reviewed before publication for accuracy and for consistency with the evidence-informed approach described in our evidence methodology. Substantive corrections to medical claims are reviewed again before they are published, as described in our corrections policy.

Who reviews, and how often

Right now, medical review is carried out by Dr. Refai. Every page that makes an educational claim about the mind, behavior, or mental health is read with the same question in front of it: is this accurate, is it proportionate to the evidence, and is it responsible to publish as general education? Beyond the review that happens before a page goes live, we revisit the content on a recurring schedule so that nothing important sits unexamined for long.

We also re-review outside the regular schedule when something changes. A re-review is triggered when guidance or diagnostic standards are updated, when a reader or clinician flags a possible error, when new research meaningfully shifts how an idea is understood, when we substantially rewrite a page, or when an AI-assisted draft has touched material that makes a clinical claim. In each of those cases the content goes back through review before any change is published.

Conflict-of-interest disclosures

I want to be direct about where my interests sit, because shrinQ is a commercial educational product and I'm the person who reviews it. I founded shrinQ, I run a separate clinical practice called shrinkMD, and I've written books. Those are commercial relationships, and they're disclosed in full on our relationships and financial disclosure page. Medical review decisions are made on the basis of accuracy and the evidence, not on what would help sell the program. shrinQ does not accept payment from pharmaceutical companies, device makers, or other outside sponsors to shape, feature, or recommend content.

What review does and does not cover

Review checks that the general educational content is sound. It does not assess your individual situation, and it does not create a doctor-patient relationship. shrinQ is education, not therapy, diagnosis, treatment, crisis care, or medical advice. For anything specific to you, please consult a licensed professional.

How to request a review

If you think a statement on shrinQ is inaccurate, out of date, or unclear, you can ask us to take another look. The fastest way is through our corrections policy, which explains what to include so we can act on your request quickly. It helps if you name the page, quote the specific statement, and, where you can, point us to a source. We read every request, and when a review leads to a substantive change we note it in line with our corrections process.

See also: Evidence methodology, AI use policy, Medical disclaimer.