Audit: QRS - Transcranial Electric Stimulation for Health & Longevity
Audit conducted on 10/30/2026 03:31 using AI4L / Opus 5.5
Summary
| Items | Count |
|---|---|
| Total | 97 |
| Passed | 89 |
| Failed | 0 |
| N/A | 8 |
| Pass Rate | 100.00% |
- Total = Passed + Failed + N/A
- Pass Rate = Passed / (Passed + Failed) × 100
- N/A items are excluded from the pass rate calculation
1. General Rules
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Every claim, magnitude, label, recommendation, and statement in the QRS is literally supported by content in the source ER. | 🟢 | Lede, gates, protocol, time to effect, tiers and monitoring all trace to ER passages (Conclusion, Key Interactions & Contraindications, Therapeutic Protocol, Practical Considerations, Monitoring). |
| 1.2 | Where the ER uses cautious phrasing (“not formally studied”, “None documented in human trials to date”, “theoretical concern”, “data are limited”), the QRS uses the same phrasing. | 🟢 | Theoretical interactions keep “could”; lede keeps “looks low-risk when used within tested limits” and “remain … uncertain”; sodium-channel item keeps “are expected to be ineffective”. |
| 1.3 | The QRS never strengthens an ER claim (e.g., “not formally studied” → “not required”) or softens one (e.g., “do not use during pregnancy” → “use with caution during pregnancy”). | 🟢 | No strengthening or softening found; contraindications and interaction effects match ER modality. |
| 1.4 | The QRS does not relabel an ER fact under a different decision category. A “Benefit-Modifying Factor” from ER section is not surfaced as a “Caution”; a “Risk-Modifying Factor” is not surfaced as a “Side Effect”; etc. | 🟢 | Contraindications come from the ER’s ‘Populations who should avoid’ list, interactions from ‘Documented’/’Theoretical’; tiers match ER tiers. |
| 1.5 | PubMed IDs, study citations, expert names, clinical trial identifiers (NCT*), and brand names appear in the QRS only if they appear in the source ER for the same fact. | 🟢 | No PMIDs, citations, expert names, NCT IDs or brand names in the QRS; PHQ-9 appears in the ER for the same marker. |
2. Focus, Tone & Audience
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | The QRS follows the tone of the ER, which is determined by the ER’s own language, phrasing, and framing. | 🟢 | Measured, evidence-weighted tone mirrors the ER. |
| 2.2 | The tone of the QRS is expert, accessible, objective, and data-driven | 🟢 | |
| 2.3 | The QRS reads as a trusted, knowledgeable guide rather than a prescriptive doctor | 🟢 | |
| 2.4 | The QRS avoids language that implies medical or clinical advice | 🟢 | Safety-check wording in Monitoring is carried verbatim from the ER table. |
| 2.5 | The QRS “presents information” instead of “providing guidance”, “recommending”, or “advising” | 🟢 | |
| 2.6 | The QRS never addresses the reader directly — it presents evidence, not guidance | 🟢 | No second-person address in any variable span. |
| 2.7 | The QRS is written in plain language, avoiding unnecessary medical jargon | 🟢 | Technical terms are ER labels carried verbatim (e.g., “NMDA receptor antagonists”, “Cholinesterase inhibitors”) or the protocol’s electrode target. |
| 2.8 | Information is presented in a concise and very compact manner | 🟢 | |
| 2.9 | The target audience is health- and longevity-oriented adults who are risk-aware, proactive, and actively seeking to optimize health or apply the intervention under review. | 🟢 | |
| 2.10 | The target audience is willing to employ lifestyle and behavioral changes as well as follow protocols that may be inconvenient, costly, or require effort. | 🟢 | Multi-week home protocols and monitoring cadence presented for an effort-willing audience. |
| 2.11 | The document is NOT written for the general population, who are unwilling to employ lifestyle and behavioral changes or follow protocols that may be inconvenient, costly, or require effort. | 🟢 | |
| 2.12 | Framing, takeaways, and risk/benefit weighting throughout the document reflect this audience, including where an intervention’s signal for the average person differs from its signal for this audience. | 🟢 | Lede weighs mood/memory with age and long-term brain health for the health-focused audience. |
| 2.13 | The document’s own voice frames usage in longevity terms, not “anti-aging” (e.g., “anti-aging clinics”, “anti-aging community”, “anti-aging medicine”). Proper names that contain “anti-aging” (e.g., “American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine”) are quoted verbatim. | 🟢 | No “anti-aging” wording. |
| 2.14 | The document’s own voice uses formal clinical and scientific terminology, not colloquial or consumer-grade language (e.g., “oral medication” not “pill(s)”; “oral” / “administered orally” not “taken by mouth” / “given by mouth”; “injection” not “shot”; “adverse event” not “bad reaction”). This holds on EVERY surface, including the QRS lede — the stricter plain-language bar (see 2.7) does not license lay phrasing for route of administration. Direct quotes from sources are exempt. | 🟢 | No colloquial terms found. |
3. Template Integrity
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | The following labels and headings on the QRS are fixed and not modified: Card and section headings: “Protocol”, “Time to effect”, “Benefits”, “Risk & Side Effects”, “Monitoring”, “Qualitative Assessment” Gate headings: “Contraindications”, “Key Interactions” Tier labels: “High”, “Medium”, “Low”, “Speculative” Table column headers in Monitoring: “Marker”, “Target”, “Why” | 🟢 | All fixed headings, gate headings, tier labels and table headers unchanged (lines 446, 483, 525, 545, 556, 589, 608, 612-614, 672). |
| 3.2 | Every element carrying a data-qrs-var attribute in [qrs_template] is present in the QRS with the same name | 🟢 | All template data-qrs-var names present; marker_# and qualitative_item_# expanded to numbered names per 14.2/15.2. |
| 3.3 | Everything outside the data-qrs-var spans — markup, text, styles, comments — is as in the template; spans that no checklist item addresses are left unchanged as well | 🟢 | Diff against template shows changes only inside data-qrs-var spans and the metadata values (plus pipeline fields duration/git_user/git_issue). |
4. Formatting
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | An empty ER section never produces visible empty-state text in the QRS: the corresponding region is hidden or left empty. Phrases such as “None documented in human trials to date” or “Not formally studied” appear only where the ER uses them for a fact the QRS carries over. | 🟢 | No empty-state text; “No established target” appears in the ER table for the same markers. |
| 4.2 | Where the ER presents a bulleted item as “Label: content”, the QRS uses the ER’s bold label verbatim as the cell or row label. | 🟢 | Contraindication, interaction and protocol labels use the ER bold labels. |
| 4.3 | Labels are not paraphrased, abbreviated, or invented. | 🟢 | Interaction labels only drop ER glosses/acronym expansions inside parentheses; example names kept in the ER’s own words. |
| 4.4 | The QRS DOES NOT use emoji indicators (no 🟩, 🟥, 🟨, etc.). Color and emphasis are conveyed through CSS and bold labels. | 🟢 | |
| 4.5 | The QRS is designed to render on one A4 page. It fails this item only for one of four things: a trailing clause after a dash, an optional gloss, an example list left untrimmed, or a repetition. Nothing else is cut to fit. | 🟢 | No trailing dash clauses, no optional glosses, no repetitions; example drug lists are decision-gate qualifiers kept per section 9. |
5. Metadata
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | The metadata is placed inside a single HTML comment that is the first element after “<!doctype html>” and before any other comment, head, or body content. | 🟢 | Lines 2-14. |
| 5.2 | Inside that HTML comment the YAML block is delimited by a line “—” opening and a line “—” closing. Text before the opening “—” is permitted but is not parsed as YAML. | 🟢 | |
| 5.3 | The metadata is not visible in any rendered view of the QRS and is not surfaced by any other element on the sheet. | 🟢 | |
| 5.4 | All frontmatter values are trimmed: no leading or trailing whitespace, no surrounding quotes unless the value contains a colon, bracket, or leading special character that requires YAML quoting. | 🟢 | Only duration is quoted (contains a colon). |
| 5.5 | The filename of the source ER is stated as “er_filename: [er_filename]” | 🟢 | |
| 5.6 | Version of the QRS.md file used to create the document is stated as “qrs_prompt_version: [Version of QRS.md]” | 🟢 | 26.10.25 matches QRS.md. |
| 5.7 | Creation date and time of the document is stated as “qrs_creation_date: [YYYY-MMDD-HHMM]” (e.g., 2026-0501-1430) | 🟢 | 2026-1030-0321. |
| 5.8 | The nickname of the AI used to create the document is stated as “qrs_creator_ai_nickname: [qrs_creator_ai_nickname]” | 🟢 | |
| 5.9 | The nickname of the AI is the full name without the version number, with all remaining words joined by hyphens (e.g., Opus, Sonnet, Grok, Gemini-Flash, GPT); when the full name has no version number or is “Unknown”, the nickname equals the full name | 🟢 | Opus. |
| 5.10 | The full name of the AI used to create the document is stated as “qrs_creator_ai_fullname: [qrs_creator_ai_fullname]” | 🟢 | |
| 5.11 | The full name of the AI consists of the model name (the word or words directly before the version number, leaving out the first if there is more than one, e.g., Claude Opus 5.5 → Opus 5.5), the model version number and the variant (if any) as stated in the system prompt or developer instructions of the creating model, with every word capitalized and without product, effort or pricing names (e.g., Opus X.Y, Sonnet X.Y, Grok X.Y, Gemini X.Y Flash, GPT X.Y), the model name alone when the system prompt or developer instructions name a model without a version number (e.g., Grok), or “Unknown” when neither the system prompt nor the developer instructions of the creating model name a model | 🟢 | Opus 5.5. |
| 5.12 | The filename of the document is stated as “qrs_filename: [filename of this document]” | 🟢 |
6. Page Title & Header
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | [page_title] is set to the [canonical_topic] of the ER frontmatter followed by “ - Quick Reference Sheet” (e.g., “Intervention - Quick Reference Sheet”). The [canonical_topic] is HTML-entity-encoded as needed (e.g., & for &) |
🟢 | Line 21. |
| 6.2 | [header_topic] is set to the [canonical_topic] of the ER frontmatter, with HTML entities encoded as needed (e.g., & for &) |
🟢 | Line 423. |
| 6.3 | [header_subline_date] is set to [qrs_creation_date reformatted as MM/DD/YYYY] | 🟢 | 10/30/2026. |
| 6.4 | [header_subline_model] is set to [qrs_creator_ai_fullname] | 🟢 | Opus 5.5. |
| 6.5 | No additional header content appears: no badge, version stamp, AKA / alternate names line, source-AI attribution, audit date, or QRS variant marker. | 🟢 |
7. At-A-Glance Section
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | [at_a_glance] opens by saying what the intervention is — its kind (e.g., dietary supplement, prescription medication, peptide, plant, procedure, practice) — and what it is used for, in plain language, before any verdict on the evidence | 🟢 | Opens with “a family of drug-free techniques that pass a weak current through scalp electrodes … to support mood and memory with age”. |
| 7.2 | [at_a_glance] is dense, execution-oriented summary of the ER Conclusion section |
🟢 | |
| 7.3 | [at_a_glance] is no longer than 70 words | 🟢 | 69 words (script count). |
| 7.4 | Every fact in [at_a_glance] is supported by a distinct passage in the ER. | 🟢 | |
| 7.5 | It DOES NOT use acronyms or technical classifications that require specialist knowledge, uses plain-language terms instead | 🟢 | No acronyms (tDCS/tACS not used in the lede). |
| 7.6 | It DOES NOT cite specific trials (names, years, sample sizes, p-values) | 🟢 | “a large trial” is unnamed. |
| 7.7 | It DOES NOT cite effect sizes, relative risks, or statistical results | 🟢 |
8. Contraindications
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1 | The section is derived from the ER Key Interactions & Contraindications section |
🟢 | |
| 8.2 | [stop_items] represent the Contraindications from the ER | 🟢 | All four ER ‘Populations who should avoid’ items present (lines 548-551). |
| 8.3 | Individual [stop_items] are formatted as <li></li> | 🟢 | |
| 8.4 | Items are as concise as possible. No trailing explanations, no elaborations, no mechanistic rationale, no attributions, no citations, no study details. No content after an em-dash, en-dash, or hyphen-dash (e.g., “— dose reduction required”, “— reduced efficacy”) — these trailing clauses are stripped. Just the key fact. | 🟢 | |
| 8.5 | Parenthetical qualifiers from the ER bullet — time windows, severity classes, threshold values, clinical staging — ARE preserved as part of the item, kept as concise as possible (shortened or trimmed where needed to fit the one-page budget, but never dropped entirely). | 🟢 | ER contraindication bullets carry no parenthetical qualifiers in their labels. |
| 8.6 | When the ER uses ranking notation inside parens (e.g., “>” for severity ordering) that depends on an explanatory phrase to interpret, normalize the items to a plain comma-separated list rather than carrying through the bare symbol. | 🟢 | No ranking notation in the ER bullets. |
| 8.7 | The section is left empty ONLY IF the ER’s Key Interactions & Contraindications section identifies no population, condition, or scenario for which the intervention should be avoided, deferred, or used only under specialist supervision. |
🟢 | Section is populated. |
| 8.8 | If the section is left empty, an HTML comment inside the [stop_items] span records the ER basis for the absence, naming or quoting the ER text relied on. E.g. <!– empty: ER names no population that should avoid the intervention –> | N/A | Section is not empty. |
9. Key Interactions
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | The section is derived from the ER Key Interactions & Contraindications section |
🟢 | |
| 9.2 | [caution_items] represent the ER’s documented interactions — the items under its “Documented interactions:” label — excluding any that are already listed as Contraindications and any entry phrased as no interaction found | 🟢 | Eight documented interactions present; the no-added-benefit psychotherapy/cognitive-training entry excluded. |
| 9.3 | [caution_theoretical_items] represent the ER’s theoretical interactions — the items under its “Theoretical interactions (inferred from mechanism, not studied in humans):” label | 🟢 | All three theoretical items present (lines 576-578). |
| 9.4 | The ER placeholder “None identified” is never an item: it means that group is empty | 🟢 | |
| 9.5 | Individual [caution_items] and [caution_theoretical_items] are formatted as <li></li>. The template’s bold “Theoretical (inferred from mechanism)” sub-heading is the only marker of the second list’s status: no item carries “(theoretical)”, “inferred from” or a mechanism clause | 🟢 | No “(theoretical)”, “inferred from” or mechanism clause on theoretical items. |
| 9.6 | Items are as concise as possible. No trailing explanations, no elaborations, no mechanistic rationale, no attributions, no citations, no study details. No content after an em-dash, en-dash, or hyphen-dash (e.g., “— dose reduction required”, “— reduced efficacy”) — these trailing clauses are stripped. Just the key fact. | 🟢 | |
| 9.7 | Parenthetical qualifiers from the ER bullet — example drug lists, time windows, severity classes, threshold values, clinical staging — ARE preserved as part of the item, kept as concise as possible (shortened or trimmed where needed to fit the one-page budget, but never dropped entirely). | 🟢 | Example drug lists preserved for every item. |
| 9.8 | When the ER uses ranking notation inside parens (e.g., “>” for severity ordering) that depends on an explanatory phrase to interpret, normalize the items to a plain comma-separated list rather than carrying through the bare symbol. | 🟢 | |
| 9.9 | If the ER’s theoretical group is empty, the whole Theoretical block — the caution_theoretical span with its sub-heading and list — is hidden with style="display:none", not removed: its spans stay in place, empty. |
N/A | ER theoretical group is not empty. |
| 9.10 | The section is left empty ONLY IF the ER’s Key Interactions & Contraindications section identifies no interaction, additive effect, or exposure that changes how the intervention is used. |
🟢 | Section is populated. |
| 9.11 | If the section is left empty, an HTML comment inside the [caution_items] span records the ER basis for the absence, naming or quoting the ER text relied on, and the Theoretical block is hidden per 9.9. E.g. <!– empty: ER names no interaction that changes how the intervention is used –> | N/A | Section is not empty. |
10. Protocol
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | The section is derived from the ER Therapeutic Protocol section |
🟢 | |
| 10.2 | The three sets of [action] items cover the three most important actionable implementation aspects from that section | 🟢 | Home depression tDCS, memory tACS in older adults, long-term prevention tDCS plus cognitive remediation. |
| 10.3 | If fewer than three distinct actionable implementation aspects are mentioned in the ER, the unused sets are left empty and hidden with style="display:none", not filled with placeholder text or empty-state phrasing. |
N/A | ER gives more than three actionable aspects. |
| 10.4 | All used [action_#label], [action#value], [action#_sub] items are filled with meaningful content derived from that section. | 🟢 |
11. Time to Effect
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.1 | The three sets of [time] items cover the three most important time-to-effect aspects from the ER | 🟢 | Mood, memory (tACS), pain from ER Practical Considerations ‘Time to effect’. |
| 11.2 | The sets are picked and ordered by the magnitude of the related benefit | 🟢 | Mood (High benefit) first, then memory and pain (Medium). |
| 11.3 | If fewer than three distinct time-to-effect aspects are mentioned in the ER, the unused sets are left empty and hidden with style="display:none", not filled with placeholder text or empty-state phrasing. |
N/A | ER gives three time-to-effect aspects. |
| 11.4 | All used [time_#label], [time#value], [time#_sub] items are filled with meaningful content derived from the ER. | 🟢 | |
| 11.5 | If the ER provides no information on time to effect at all, the whole Time to effect block (its subhead and all three sets) is hidden with style="display:none", not removed: its spans stay in place, empty. |
N/A | ER provides time-to-effect information. |
12. Benefits
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12.1 | The section is derived from the ER Expected Benefits section |
🟢 | |
| 12.2 | Key variables are [benefits_high], [benefits_medium], [benefits_low], [benefits_speculative] | 🟢 | |
| 12.3 | Items are as concise as possible. No explanations, no elaborations, no effect sizes, no qualifiers, no attributions, no citations, no study details, no mechanistic explanations, etc. Just the key fact. | 🟢 | Items are the ER benefit headings. |
| 12.4 | Parenthetical content — including effect sizes, sample notes, mechanistic hints, and example studies — is stripped, NOT preserved. | 🟢 | |
| 12.5 | If a tier (high, medium, low, speculative) has no items, its span is hidden with style="display:none", not filled with “None documented in human trials to date” or similar empty-state phrasing. |
🟢 | All four tiers have items. |
13. Risks
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | The section is derived from the ER Potential Risks & Side Effects section |
🟢 | |
| 13.2 | Key variables are [risks_high], [risks_medium], [risks_low], [risks_speculative] | 🟢 | |
| 13.3 | Items are as concise as possible. No explanations, no elaborations, no effect sizes, no qualifiers, no attributions, no citations, no study details, no mechanistic explanations, etc. Just the key fact. | 🟢 | Items are the ER risk headings. |
| 13.4 | Parenthetical content — including frequencies, severity grades, sample notes, mechanistic hints, and example studies — is stripped, NOT preserved. | 🟢 | |
| 13.5 | If a tier (high, medium, low, speculative) has no items, its span is hidden with style="display:none", not filled with “None documented in human trials to date” or similar empty-state phrasing. |
🟢 | All four tiers have items. |
14. Monitoring
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.1 | The section is derived from the ER Monitoring Protocol & Defining Success section |
🟢 | |
| 14.2 | All measurable/quantifiable biomarkers from that section are listed, one table row per marker; the template’s # row is the pattern, repeated with # replaced by 1, 2, 3 … in the data-qrs-var names |
🟢 | All four ER table markers present as rows 1-4. |
| 14.3 | [marker_#name] is the marker, [marker#target] its target value or range as given in the ER, [marker#_why] its purpose in a few words; a target the ER does not give is written “Not specified in the ER” | 🟢 | Targets and purposes carried from the ER table. |
| 14.4 | [monitoring_cadence] is populated with the monitoring cadence/frequency derived from that section. It is not left with placeholder text or empty. | 🟢 | Line 666 matches the ER cadence paragraph. |
| 14.5 | If the ER names no measurable biomarker, the table is hidden with style="display:none" and the single # row is left as in the template |
N/A | ER names measurable markers. |
15. Qualitative Assessment
| # | Description | Result | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1 | The section is derived from the ER Monitoring Protocol & Defining Success section |
🟢 | |
| 15.2 | All subjective/qualitative markers from that section are listed, one <li> per marker; the template’s # item is the pattern, repeated with # replaced by 1, 2, 3 … |
🟢 | All five ER qualitative markers listed (lines 675-687). |
| 15.3 | If the ER names no qualitative marker, the card’s list is hidden with style="display:none" and the single # item is left as in the template |
N/A | ER names qualitative markers. |
Issues 10/30/2026 03:31
Pass rate 100.00%. No issues found.
Issues 10/30/2026 03:25
- 2.7 — Unexplained “sham” jargon: The time_1_sub at line 495 reads “Separated from sham”, using the research term the ER glosses as placebo stimulation.
- 9.6 — Mechanistic caffeine clause: The Stimulants item at line 566 ends with “caffeine raised motor-cortex excitability”, a physiological finding instead of the ER’s key fact that caffeine “can distort stimulation results”.
- 14.3 — PHQ-9 purpose truncated: marker_1_why at line 626 reads “Worsening is a safety signal”, dropping the ER’s primary purpose “Expected to change”.
Fixes 10/30/2026 03:25
- 2.7 — Replaced “sham” jargon: Changed time_1_sub from “Separated from sham” to “Separated from placebo stimulation”.
- 9.6 — Caffeine key fact restored: Replaced “caffeine raised motor-cortex excitability” with the ER’s key fact “caffeine can distort stimulation results” in the Stimulants item.
- 14.3 — PHQ-9 purpose completed: Changed marker_1_why from “Worsening is a safety signal” to the ER’s “Expected to change; worsening is a safety signal”.
Issues 10/30/2026 03:23
- 1.3 — Dropped memory hedge: At a Glance (line 439) says “Memory gains in older adults are modest and time-limited”, omitting the ER Conclusion’s qualifier “with some approaches” (ER line 450) and so generalizing a protocol-specific finding.
- 2.7 — Jargon in interactions: Key Interactions descriptors at lines 559, 561, 565 and 566 use “anodal tDCS”, “anodal after-effects” and “facilitatory tDCS plasticity”; Protocol action_2_sub (line 467) uses “montage” instead of the ER’s plain “electrode arrangement”.
- 4.5 — Repetition in Time to effect: time_1_sub (line 495) repeats “by week 4” from time_1_value, and time_3_sub (line 517) repeats “short-term” from time_3_value.
Fixes 10/30/2026 03:23
- 1.3 — Restored memory hedge: Rewrote the At a Glance memory sentence from “Memory gains in older adults are modest and time-limited” to “Some approaches give older adults modest, time-limited memory gains” (69 words total).
- 2.7 — Plain-language interaction descriptors: Replaced “anodal” and “facilitatory tDCS plasticity” wording in the sodium/calcium channel blocker, SSRI, nicotine and stimulant items with ER-supported “excitatory” phrasing, and changed “High-definition montage” to “High-definition electrode arrangement”.
- 4.5 — Removed Time-to-effect repetition: time_1_sub now reads “Separated from sham, then grew through week 10 of repeated sessions”; time_3_sub now reads “tDCS in chronic pain; cranial electrotherapy showed no effect”.