American Society of Hirudotherapy

API Terms & Safety

Governance for the ASH public research API \u2014 audience filtering, rate limits, disclaimers, citation integrity, acceptable use, deprecation, and attribution.

Last Updated: June 2, 2026Reviewed by: Andrei Dokukin, MD
Infrastructure & data governanceFor education & research only

The ASH research API is educational and research infrastructure. It publishes the same PMID-verified registries documented on our Open Data page so that researchers, dashboards, and knowledge-graph integrations can read our data programmatically. These terms describe how the API governs what it returns and how you may use it.

The ASH is a nonprofit medical-education society. The API is not a clinical decision-support system, a treatment recommender, or a patient self-care tool. It exists to make a body of peer-reviewed literature and historical reference material transparent and machine-readable.

The "audience" parameter

Most endpoints accept an optional audience query parameter that controls how much detail a response exposes and how it is framed. The default is the most conservative tier. The parameter governs framing and field verbosity only — it never unlocks treatment instructions, dosing, or individualized guidance at any tier.

audience=patientpatient (default)

The protocol-safe default. When no audience parameter is supplied, responses are filtered to this tier.

  • Tier B/C (investigational) framing is explicit and prominent on every record.
  • No dosing, protocol, or procedural fields are exposed.
  • Regulatory-boundary language ('off-label', 'investigational', 'not a treatment recommendation') is never suppressed.
  • Designed so that a record can be surfaced to a layperson without implying a clinical recommendation.
audience=clinicianclinician

Exposes additional context intended for licensed professionals exercising independent clinical judgment.

  • Adds GRADE certainty detail, study-design fields, and richer evidence-tier metadata.
  • Still returns the standard disclaimer; the API never substitutes for professional judgment.
  • Intended for integration into professional reference tools, not for direct patient-facing display.
audience=researcherresearcher

The most permissive tier, intended for bibliometric, reproducibility, and knowledge-graph work.

  • Exposes the fullest metadata set: raw tier flags, audit timestamps, PMID-verification state, and cross-registry links.
  • Intended for aggregate analysis and citation auditing, not for generating individualized guidance.

If the parameter is omitted or set to an unrecognized value, the API falls back to audience=patient. Choosing a higher tier is an assertion by the integrator that the consuming context is appropriate (a professional reference tool or a research workflow). It does not change the legal status of any content, and the standard disclaimer is returned regardless of tier.

Rate limits

The API is free and requires no key. Because responses are CDN-cached for one hour, a well-behaved client rarely approaches the limits below. Limits exist to keep the service available for everyone.

Anonymous (no key)60 requests / minute / IP

Sufficient for browser fetches, dashboards, and casual scripting. Responses are CDN-cached, so most reads never reach origin.

Burst allowanceShort bursts above the steady-state limit are tolerated

A token-bucket allowance smooths brief spikes (e.g. a dashboard refreshing several endpoints at once).

Over-limit responseHTTP 429 Too Many Requests

Includes a Retry-After header. Back off and retry after the indicated interval. Do not hammer a 429 in a tight loop.

Prefer the CDN cache: honor Cache-Control headers and avoid re-fetching unchanged data. For large bibliometric pulls, page through results with limit and offset rather than issuing many concurrent requests.

The standard disclaimer

Every endpoint includes a disclaimer field in its response envelope. The text is stable across all endpoints and all audience tiers, and you must preserve it when re-displaying ASH data to end users:

{
  "disclaimer": "This data is published by the American Society of Hirudotherapy for educational and research purposes only. It is not medical advice, is not a clinical decision-support tool, and must not be used to direct patient care or self-treatment. Regulatory status varies by jurisdiction; the sole FDA clearance (K040187, 2004) covers venous congestion in microsurgical reconstruction. All other uses are off-label or investigational. Consult a qualified clinician for medical decisions.",
  "asOf": "2026-06-02T12:00:00.000Z"
}

The disclaimer is part of the data contract. Stripping it, truncating it, or presenting ASH data without an equivalent notice is a violation of these terms (see Acceptable use, below).

Citation-integrity labeling

Records that carry a PubMed Identifier expose a citation_status field so that integrators can tell a verified source from a provisional one. Never present an unverified_pending citation as confirmed.

verified_pubmed

The PubMed Identifier has been resolved against PubMed E-utilities and matches the cited title and authors. This is the only label that should be treated as a confirmed citation.

unverified_pending

The citation is recorded but its PMID has not yet passed verification, or is pending re-check in the current audit cycle. Treat as provisional and do not present as a confirmed source.

Verification state is maintained through the ongoing PMID Integrity Sprint. See PMID audit status for cycle-by-cycle results.

Acceptable use

Permitted

  • Educational tools, course material, and reference applications.
  • Research: bibliometrics, systematic-review screening, reproducibility audits.
  • Knowledge-graph and dashboard integrations tracking registry growth.
  • Re-display of ASH data alongside the standard disclaimer and attribution.

Prohibited

  • Clinical decision-making — the API must not drive diagnosis, treatment selection, or dosing.
  • Patient self-treatment or any individualized medical guidance.
  • Presenting ASH data as a clinical decision-support system or a cure/treatment claim.
  • Removing the disclaimer, citation labels, or required attribution.
  • Misrepresenting investigational (Tier B/C) uses as established or FDA-cleared.

To restate the core boundary plainly: this API is for education and research, not for clinical decisions. It is infrastructure and reference material, never a treatment recommender or clinical decision-support product.

Deprecation policy

Endpoints under /api/* are versionless and stable. We commit to the following process for any breaking change:

1

Announcement

Breaking changes are announced in /api/changelog (mirrored on the human-readable /changelog page) with category correction.

2

30-day deprecation window

A deprecated field or endpoint continues to function for at least 30 days after announcement, during which a Deprecation header and a Sunset date are returned.

3

Additive-first

New fields are added without removing existing ones wherever possible. Clients should ignore unknown fields rather than fail on them, so additive changes are never breaking.

Attribution requirements

When you re-display or redistribute ASH data, you must credit the source and link back. A minimal attribution looks like:

Data: American Society of Hirudotherapy research API
(https://www.hirudotherapysociety.org/open-data) — educational/research use only.
  • Preserve the standard disclaimer (or an equivalent notice) alongside the data.
  • Keep citation_status labels intact so verified and provisional sources remain distinguishable.
  • Do not imply ASH endorsement of your product or of any clinical use.
  • Link back to the canonical ASH page for each record where a link is provided.

Related

Open Data (endpoint reference)|Disclaimers|Editorial policy|PMID audit status

This website provides educational information and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. Medicinal leech therapy carries clinically meaningful risks and should be performed only by qualified clinicians under institutionally approved protocols. FDA 510(k) clearance for medicinal leeches is limited to specific indications; investigational and off-label discussions are labeled accordingly. For patient-specific guidance, consult a qualified healthcare provider.