Editorial guide
How to Prepare a Medical Chronology Without Losing the Source Page
A step-by-step workflow for registering records, handling OCR, drafting events, preserving page locators, and reviewing the final chronology.
By Jake Bauman. Updated August 12, 2026. Under Seal product review; firm procedure and lawyer approval required. No named legal review is claimed unless identified here.
Short answer
Prepare a medical chronology by inventorying the authorized record, preserving immutable originals, assigning page-level coverage states, drafting one source-pinned event at a time, and requiring named human review before export. Never let a summary detach from the page that supports it.
Key takeaways
- Start with a complete file and page inventory, not an empty timeline template.
- Treat unreadable or uncertain OCR as a blocking gap, not a blank page.
- Version edits and retain the reviewer and source record for the exported artifact.
Editorial methods are identified as such. Numbered links beside a paragraph or section point to the authority or framework relevant to that claim; a source does not certify Under Seal or replace current jurisdiction-specific review.
1. Define the authorized record
Basis: editorial method
Record the matter identifier, supervising attorney, primary reviewer, authorized file set, and start time. Hash or otherwise fingerprint the originals and preserve them read-only. The inventory should state the expected and observed page count for every file.
Do not mix unrelated matters or convenience copies into one index. Matter isolation is both a confidentiality control and a retrieval-quality control.
2. Create page-level coverage
Basis: editorial method
Extract native text where it exists and use an approved local OCR path for image-only pages. Assign each page a usable, needs-review, or unreadable state. Stamps, low-contrast faxes, rotations, tables, and handwriting deserve their own test cases because a single average OCR score hides the documents most likely to matter.
3. Draft atomic events
Basis: editorial method
Write one event per material occurrence. Preserve uncertainty in the wording. Attach the document and page before presenting the event as record-supported. If the date is inferred rather than stated, mark it as proposed or unresolved instead of silently turning it into fact.
- Use concise factual wording
- Separate symptoms, assessment, treatment, and later interpretation
- Keep conflicting versions as reviewable conflicts
- Do not use a citation merely because it is adjacent to the event
4. Review beside the source
Basis: editorial method
The reviewer should accept, edit, reject, or mark not found while viewing the source page. An edit creates a new version. Before export, verify that every accepted factual line has usable support and that held pages have not been used as silent evidence.
Sources for this section: [1] Under Seal chronology review method (opens in a new tab)
Authorities and frameworks
Each source is classified below. It may govern a specific legal point, offer professional or government guidance, or provide a voluntary framework. The collection does not validate every editorial method in this guide and does not resolve a firm-specific question.
- [1]Under Seal chronology review method Opens in a new tab. — Under Seal · Editorial method
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