Open standard / Version 1.0
The Verifiable Wellness Standard
Every health app promises your data is safe, that it is not medical advice, and that you can cancel any time. Almost none of those promises can be checked by the person they are made to. This standard is 13 criteria that can be, and one requirement no marketing page can fake: each promise has to be enforced by an automated check that blocks a release when it breaks, and the list of those checks has to be public.
How to use it
If you build a health product, score it against each criterion as meets, partly meets or does not meet. To say a criterion is verified, publish the automated checks that enforce it, the way MDRN does on its checks page. If you use one, the "how to check it" line under each criterion is something you can do yourself in a few minutes.
Claims
VW-01
Every public promise is enforced, not intended
Requires. Each promise made to users is backed by an automated check that blocks a release when it fails, and the full list of those checks is published and generated from the checks themselves.
How to check it. The public list exists, names each check, and its count matches the product's own test suite.
How MDRN meets it: 1 enforced check
- the public checks page matches the suite exactly
The body
VW-02
No number about a body is estimated
Requires. No weight, body fat, BMI, posture score or grade is inferred from a photo, a video, a form or a wearable. Any number about the person is one they enter themselves.
How to check it. No screen, document or email shows an estimated body metric or a score about the person.
How MDRN meets it: 2 enforced checks
- the live readout never prints a body number
- the one number about a body is a blank the reader fills in
Safety
VW-03
Screen before prescribing, and stop when it matters
Requires. A safety screen runs before any plan. Named conditions and medications, recognised by brand name as well as generic name, stop the plan and hand the person something to take to a clinician.
How to check it. Answering with a stop condition or a brand-name medication produces no plan, only a clinician handoff.
How MDRN meets it: 4 enforced checks
- a stop-level answer still produces stop
- a stop never yields a plan-shaped payload
- the medication screen reads what is printed on the box, not only the generic
- the clinician sheet is one page for every screen the guardrail can produce
VW-04
Wellness never impersonates medicine
Requires. No diagnosis, no disease claims, no clinical targets, and no advice on dose, titration or stopping a medication.
How to check it. Product copy, guides and plans contain no disease claim, target value or medication instruction.
How MDRN meets it: 4 enforced checks
- no disease-claim verb in member-facing product copy
- never states a clinical target
- the plan never advises on dose, titration or stopping a medication
- no guide makes a disease claim
Commerce
VW-05
Health answers never decide what is sold
Requires. Safety answers, medications, scans and clinical inputs change the plan and nothing else. They never trigger a product recommendation.
How to check it. Two people who differ only in a health answer are shown the same products.
How MDRN meets it: 3 enforced checks
- a clinical input cannot change what the SHOP recommends
- a safety answer never sells anything
- a hard week never changes what is sold
Data
VW-06
Consent comes before storage, and names who holds the data
Requires. Nothing a person answers is stored before they consent. Consent text says which third parties process the data and for how long, and the version agreed to is recorded.
How to check it. Abandoning before consent leaves no stored answers, and the consent names every processor.
How MDRN meets it: 4 enforced checks
- nothing from the intake is stored before consent
- the consent text cannot change without its version changing
- no photograph can leave without a processor agreement in place
- the consent box is never pre-ticked
VW-07
Deletion is deletion, including on the device
Requires. Deleting an account removes the person's data and identifiers from servers and purges anything cached on their device.
How to check it. After deletion, no page of the account opens, online or offline.
How MDRN meets it: 1 enforced check
- deleting an account purges the pages cached on the device
VW-08
Every retention promise has code behind it
Requires. Any retention period stated in a policy is enforced automatically, with the stated period and the enforced period kept equal.
How to check it. The policy's stated period matches what the product deletes, on schedule.
How MDRN meets it: 1 enforced check
- every retention ceiling the policy states has code behind it
Money
VW-09
Leaving takes one click, even when a payment fails
Requires. Cancellation completes before any question is asked, with no retention offer, and stays available when a card has failed.
How to check it. Cancel from any billing state, including a failed payment, in one action.
How MDRN meets it: 3 enforced checks
- the cancel goes through before anything is asked
- there is no save offer at the cancel door
- a failed card never takes the cancel button with it
VW-10
Prices and trials are honest before a card is asked for
Requires. The price and charge terms appear before the card form. A free period is spent only when a subscription actually starts, never by viewing a checkout.
How to check it. Open and abandon a checkout, then return: the free period is still offered.
How MDRN meets it: 3 enforced checks
- the price and the charge terms are on the page before the card form
- the free period is spent when it is paid for, not when it is opened
- no public page claims nothing charges anybody while a checkout is open
Persuasion
VW-11
No manufactured urgency, no invented proof
Requires. No countdowns, false scarcity or fake reviews. Any proof shown is real and attributable.
How to check it. Emails and offers contain no deadline that is not real and no testimonial that cannot be traced.
How MDRN meets it: 2 enforced checks
- the month one sequence never manufactures urgency
- the offer never invents proof we do not have
Progress
VW-12
Progress without a scoreboard
Requires. No streaks, points, rankings or badges. Missing a day or a week leaves no mark.
How to check it. Skipping a week changes nothing that counts against the person.
How MDRN meets it: 1 enforced check
- no week is scored, ranked or counted
Access
VW-13
The safety screen works by keyboard, and you can see where you are
Requires. Every control on the intake and safety screen is operable by keyboard with visible focus.
How to check it. Tab through the safety screen and see where you are on every option.
How MDRN meets it: 1 enforced check
- keyboard focus is visible on every intake option
MDRN's scorecard
Meets all 13, assessed 2026-09-14. The evidence is 30 named checks among the 166 that block every release, each listed under its criterion above. If one of them stops being true, MDRN cannot ship.
Use it, adapt it, cite it
Published under CC BY 4.0: anybody may use, adapt and publish it, including commercially, with attribution to "The Verifiable Wellness Standard, MDRN". If you assess a product against it, or want a criterion added, write to hello@mdrnvitality.com. Journalists are welcome to the same address.