What the Business Does
Clinical Indications is an information site, developed by retired GP Dr Nigel Masters, that encourages prescribers to add a few plain words to every prescription saying what the medicine is for. The website explains the idea, offers a searchable directory of example phrases and answers questions through an AI chat assistant. We designed, host and manage it.
Clinical Indications promotes a simple idea: adding three or four words to a prescription, such as atenolol ‘to prevent migraine’, so that patients, carers, pharmacists and care staff all know why each medicine has been prescribed. It is especially useful for people taking many different medicines.
The approach was developed by Dr Nigel Masters, a retired GP formerly of Highfield Surgery in Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire. He first described it in 2003 and wrote about it in the BJGP and the BMJ, and the work won the overall GP Enterprise Award in 2004 and was commended by NHS Innovations South East in 2006.
The General Medical Council’s current guidance on prescribing medicines asks clinicians to consider including clinical indications on their prescriptions, and its footnote links to this website.
Visit the website: www.clinicalindications.co.uk
What the Website Offers
- Learn what a clinical indication is, with pages written for prescribers, pharmacists and patients.
- Search a directory of 568 example phrases for common medicines, browse it by area, and download it as a spreadsheet (CSV) to reuse with credit to Dr Masters.
- Try a demo of how indications might look from a prescriber’s point of view.
- Read the evidence: practice audits, a statin compliance study, a patient focus group and summaries of published research.
- Read how indications can work in GP repeat prescribing, in hospital, in care homes and in community pharmacy.
- Read answers to frequently asked questions prepared by Dr Masters.
- Ask the AI chat assistant, for example, what wording to use for a particular medicine.
- Get in touch through the contact form.
The Tools It Uses
Customised AI chat assistant. A chat bar on every page, trained on the website’s own content, including the directory and FAQs. It answers questions from prescribers and patients, such as suggested wording for a particular medicine or how a practice can start using indications.
Searchable directory with download. The directory of example phrases can be searched, browsed by area and downloaded as a CSV file that carries its review date and the credit to Dr Masters, ready to load into a practice’s own formulary.
New design that kept every link. We rebuilt the site in October 2026 with a modern, mobile-friendly design, keeping every page address so long-standing links to the site, including the GMC’s, still work.
Pages written for AI search. Every key page opens with a short answer-first summary and closes with FAQs, and an llms.txt file lists the main pages for AI search tools.
AI Website Health Check and monthly AI website management. We ran an AI Website Health Check, carried out its recommendations with Dr Masters’ answers to our questions, and now re-check the site each month and review its Google rankings.
Security monitoring and Fleet Updater. Our Fleet Updater applies WordPress and plugin updates every week, checks the site every night and watches for errors every ten minutes.
How We Help
We designed and host the website and gave it a full redesign in October 2026, after carrying out the recommendations of its AI Website Health Check. Clinical Indications is on our monthly AI website management: each month we re-check the site, review its Google rankings, update the AI chat assistant’s knowledge and apply WordPress and plugin updates through our Fleet Updater.
Read more about our AI Website Health Check, ongoing AI website management and the customised AI chat assistant.
Next step: your own website
Want the same for your own website? Ask for your AI Website Health Check and we will show you what your website needs, or see more of the websites we look after.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a clinical indication?
Three or four plain words added to a prescription to say what the medicine is for, such as allopurinol ‘to prevent gout’ or metformin ‘to control diabetes’. The words travel with the medicine, so patients, carers and pharmacists all know why it was prescribed.
Can practices reuse the Clinical Indications directory?
Yes. The directory is an example, compiled from a working surgery’s repeat prescriptions, and some entries may have dated, so each phrase should be checked before use. Practices and medicines teams may reuse it, for example in their own formulary, with credit to Dr Nigel Masters and the website.
Does professional guidance support clinical indications?
Yes. The General Medical Council’s guidance on prescribing medicines says clinicians should consider including clinical indications on their prescriptions, and links to this website as a reference.
Who looks after the Clinical Indications website?
Independent Web Marketing designed, redesigned and hosts the site and manages it every month: a fresh AI Website Health Check, rankings review, WordPress and plugin updates through our Fleet Updater, and updates to the AI chat assistant’s knowledge.
Key Takeaways
- An information site can do practical work: the directory gives prescribers ready wording they can search and download.
- Answer-first summaries and FAQs make each page easy for readers and AI search tools to quote.
- Keeping every page address through a redesign protected long-standing links, including the GMC’s.
- The AI chat assistant lets busy clinicians ask a question rather than search the site.
- Monthly health checks keep the site accurate, secure and up to date.