Evidence Tier
human_case_series
Last updated
Rung 3 on this site's ladder. One or more human cases documented by a clinician and published, with case-level detail on dose, route and duration, and no control group. It is the lowest rung that involves people rather than models. The full criteria are at /evidence/rubric.
Flagged for specialist review
This entry describes something contested, or asserts a detail we have not been able to confirm against a settled source. It is published rather than withheld, with the flag visible, because an entry you can weigh beats a gap you cannot see.
Why it matters here
For compounds that never reached a trial this is usually the ceiling of the human record, so the count of rung 3 claims on a page tells you how much of it is people and how much is models.
What it is not
A case series has no denominator, so no frequency, rate or percentage can be computed from it, and a percentage attached to a rung 3 claim anywhere on this site is a bug. It is also not the same as anecdote: testimonials, influencer accounts, vendor-published results and forum threads are not clinical documentation and never enter the ladder.
Also called
- case series
- case report
- anecdotal clinical
- uncontrolled series
Anecdotal clinical is used loosely for this rung, but the anecdote alone is not what qualifies; the clinician documentation and publication are.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.