Last updated November 1, 2026. This page covers Open Label Media LLC and its projects: Root to Rx, Open Label Learning and the Science Communicator Map.

Who runs this

I’m Justin Yamashita. I’ve worked in clinical research for more than a decade, from the lab bench to coordinating trials to managing them. Today I work full time at a contract research organization (CRO): a company that runs clinical trials on behalf of drug and biotech companies. Open Label Media is my independent project, done on my own time, with my own equipment and money.

Why I don’t name my employer

Many employers in health care, pharma and clinical research have policies that limit how employees name or connect the company to personal projects. Mine is one of them. My job isn’t a secret, and it’s listed on my LinkedIn, but I don’t name the company here. My employer does not sponsor, review, approve or endorse anything I publish, and nothing here speaks for it. I follow its outside-activity rules for this work.

What that means for you: I work on the industry side of clinical research. Read what I write about trials with that in mind, the same way you’d want to know any writer’s background. To keep the two separate:

• I never write about studies, sponsors or products I work on.
• I never use anything I learn at work. Everything here comes from public sources, cited.
• I don’t accept money, gifts, free products or sponsorship from drug, device or supplement companies, or from CROs.

How Open Label Media is funded

• No sponsors. No company pays to appear in Root to Rx, on the map or in our games, and no company reviews our content before it’s published.
• Amazon affiliate links, in four places. On roottorx.com, The Boring Stuff links to everyday health gear and Version History links to books. On openlabelmedia.com, Behind the Label links to the books behind our work, and the Got Skepticism? game links to one book. Each says so next to or before the link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The links cost you nothing extra. Newsletter issues, the map and our other games carry no affiliate links.
• Our own products. The Root to Rx shop (several patient tools there are free) and Open Label Learning coloring books.
• Everything else is free. The newsletters, the map and the games cost nothing to read or use.

Why a science communicator has affiliate links at all

Science communicators aren’t trying to get rich selling miracle cures. That’s the business model we spend our time pushing back on. But fighting misinformation costs real money: hours reading studies, checking claims against the original sources, design tools, website hosting, and time away from family. The people selling unproven treatments are well funded. The people explaining the evidence mostly do it for free, and many burn out and stop. When that happens, the misinformation wins by default.

So here’s the deal. If you were already going to buy something that helps your health the boring way, like a jump rope, a water bottle, blackout curtains or a good book, buying it through one of our links is one small way to keep this work going. It’s never required, and the free version always comes first.

What we will never link: supplements, peptides, “stacks,” or anything that promises more than the evidence supports. Commissions never decide what we write about or what we recommend. We’d rather you buy nothing than buy something you won’t use.

How we handle mistakes

We get things wrong sometimes, and so does everyone who writes about science. Here’s how we handle it:

• We fix factual errors when we learn about them, whether from a reader, a member or new evidence. Corrected posts get a dated note at the bottom saying what changed. Typos and broken links are fixed without a note.
• Newsletter issues are snapshots. Each one is dated and reflects the evidence when it was written. We don’t re-check every past issue. When the evidence on a topic changes in a big way, we say so in a new issue and add an update note to the older issue it affects.
• Reference pages are reviewed at least once a year. Pages people rely on over time, like the Science Communicator Map, the Skeptic’s Toolkit and the trial registry guide, show a “last reviewed” date.
• Spot something wrong? Email justin@openlabelmedia.com. Every report gets read.

About the Science Communicator Map

Members of the Science Communicator Map are reviewed before they’re listed and agree to our standards, but their posts are their own and we don’t fact-check them. Like me, some members work for employers whose policies don’t let them name the company. When that’s the case, we ask them to tell readers the type of organization they work for, such as a hospital system, a pharmacy chain or a drug company, so you know where their perspective comes from.

Nothing on Open Label Media, Root to Rx or the map is medical advice. Talk with your own clinician about your care.