Base eligibility
KneeLife first confirms that a hospital, health system, practice, or named clinician currently offers PRP for knee osteoarthritis and provides an official care-contact path. A generic PRP explainer, research paper, third-party directory, or provider-submitted claim without a matching first-party source does not qualify.
The seven verification gates
- Credentials: the treating clinician's identity, active professional license, relevant specialty training, and role in the PRP pathway are documented.
- Diagnosis first: the program describes how knee osteoarthritis and competing pain sources are evaluated before a treatment package is offered.
- Protocol transparency: the preparation system, platelet and white-blood-cell characteristics when available, injection schedule, and image-guidance approach are disclosed.
- Honest claims: public and provider-supplied materials acknowledge uncertainty, do not promise cartilage regrowth or a cure, and discuss reasonable alternatives.
- Total price: the expected patient charge includes the consultation, preparation, injection, imaging, and routine follow-up—or clearly identifies what is excluded.
- Conflict disclosure: ownership, manufacturer, referral, research, and financial relationships relevant to the offered products are stated.
- Nonresponse plan: the program defines follow-up, how benefit is assessed, what happens if PRP does not help, and who reassesses persistent or worsening symptoms.
What can be checked publicly—and what needs attestation
| Public-source review | Provider attestation |
|---|---|
| Active PRP offering and official contact path | Treating clinician identity and current credentials |
| Published knee-OA indication and patient-facing claims | Exact preparation, schedule, and image-guidance rationale |
| Any posted price or coverage statement | Complete episode price and exclusions |
| Visible uncertainty, alternatives, and disclaimers | Conflicts, follow-up, outcomes process, and nonresponse plan |
How statuses will work
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Offering confirmed | A current first-party source says the program offers PRP for knee osteoarthritis. This is not a quality badge. |
| Public-source audit | KneeLife has recorded which verification fields are visible and which remain unknown. |
| Provider attestation pending | The program has not yet completed or refreshed the structured verification questionnaire. |
| KneeLife verified | All seven gates are documented, source-linked, dated, and subject to re-verification. This still is not an endorsement or outcomes guarantee. |
Maintenance and commercial separation
Public sources will be rechecked on a rolling basis, with a target interval of six months. Provider attestations will expire unless refreshed. A listing will lose verified status if supporting evidence disappears, becomes materially inconsistent, or cannot be reconfirmed.
KneeLife standard: Payment will never create or preserve a verified status, hide an unknown field, alter KneeLife's evidence summary, or change organic ordering. Any future sponsorship will be labeled and separated from verification.
Why the pilot remains out of search
The pilot is public so patients and programs can inspect the standard, but it will remain excluded from search indexing until KneeLife has a useful inventory of fully attested profiles. This avoids presenting an incomplete research set as a national provider directory.