Terms of Use

Malawi Clinical Guidelines — offline clinical reference for the Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines

Version 1.0 · Effective 10 July 2026 Publisher: CFSystem (Christopher Francis), Malawi Contact: christophertrays@gmail.com

1. Agreement

By installing or using Malawi Clinical Guidelines ("the app"), you agree to these terms and to the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the app.

You must accept these terms once, on first launch, before the app will open.

2. What the app is

The app reproduces the Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines, 6th Edition (2023), incorporating the Malawi Essential Medicines List, published by the Ministry of Health, Malawi. It adds search, cross-references, calculators, diagrams and an index of referral criteria, all derived from that text.

It is a reference tool. It is a book you can search.

3. What the app is not

The app is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, prescribe, or make treatment decisions. It performs no automated clinical decision-making within the meaning of s.39 of the Data Protection Act, 2024.

The app does not replace clinical judgement. Where the guideline and your judgement conflict, your judgement governs. Where the guideline and your supervising clinician conflict, your supervisor governs.

The app does not replace the printed MSTG. It is a convenience, and it can be wrong. If a dose in this app matters, check it against the printed guidelines or the manufacturer's information before you give it.

The app is not a patient record. It has no clinical governance, no audit trail, and no encryption at rest. Do not store patient information in it.

4. Verify every dose

The clinical content was extracted from a PDF by software. That process is imperfect and known to have introduced errors, some of which have been found and fixed and some of which have not.

You must independently verify every dose, route, frequency and duration before prescribing or administering. This obligation is not waived by the app appearing to be accurate, by the app having been accurate previously, or by another clinician having relied on it.

The calculators — paediatric dosing, Parkland, drip rate, creatinine clearance, BMI, MUAC, weight estimation — produce arithmetic results from the numbers you enter. They do not check that those numbers are clinically appropriate. A correct calculation from a wrong input is a wrong answer.

The weight-estimation tool produces an estimate. Do not use an estimated weight to dose a drug with a narrow therapeutic index.

The diagrams and algorithms quote doses from the guidelines, but the sequence of decisions in them is an editorial reconstruction, not a reproduction. They have not been reviewed by a clinician. Treat them as a study aid, not a protocol.

5. Who may use it

The app is intended for qualified health workers, and students of the health professions under supervision, practising in Malawi.

It is not intended for use by patients or members of the public to self-diagnose or self-treat. If you are not a health worker, consult one.

Use of the app does not create a clinician–patient relationship between you and the publisher, and does not create a professional relationship of any kind.

6. Your responsibilities

You agree to:

• exercise independent clinical judgement in every case;
• work within your scope of practice, your licence, and your institution's protocols;
• verify doses as set out in section 4;
• not enter patient-identifiable information into the notes feature;
• not present the app's output to a patient as a diagnosis or prescription;
• report errors you find in the content to christophertrays@gmail.com, so that others do not encounter them.

7. Intellectual property

The Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines and the Malawi Essential Medicines List are the property of the Ministry of Health, Malawi. They are reproduced here under permission granted by the Secretary for Health, and on the condition that no commercial gain is involved. That permission does not transfer to you.

You may use the app for your own clinical practice, teaching and study. You may not resell it, redistribute the extracted content as a dataset, or incorporate it into a commercial product.

The software, its design, and the derived diagrams and indexes are the property of CFSystem (Christopher Francis).

The Ministry of Health does not publish, endorse, warrant or maintain this app unless it has separately and expressly said so in writing.

8. No charge, no payments

The app is free. It carries no advertising, no in-app purchases, and accepts no payments or donations through the app.

This is a condition of publication, not a business decision. The Ministry of Health's permission to reproduce the Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines is granted on the basis that no commercial gain is involved. Any monetisation of this app would breach that permission.

The Partner & Support screen invites contributions of clinician review, translation, institutional adoption and introductions. It solicits no money and processes no transactions.

9. Availability and updates

The app is provided as-is. We do not promise to maintain it, to update it when a 7th edition is published, or to fix any particular defect.

An out-of-date guideline is a clinical hazard. Check the edition and version shown in Settings against what your institution currently uses. If they differ, your institution governs.

10. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by the laws of Malawi:

The app is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, injury, death, or damage — direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or otherwise — arising from use of or reliance on the app, its content, its calculators, or its diagrams.

This clause does not, and is not intended to, limit or exclude:

• liability for death or personal injury caused by the publisher's negligence, where such exclusion is void under Malawian law;
• liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Nothing in these terms diminishes your own professional and legal responsibility for the care you provide. Relying on this app is not a defence.

11. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify the publisher against claims arising from your use of the app in breach of these terms, in breach of your professional obligations, or outside your scope of practice.

12. Termination

You may stop using the app at any time by uninstalling it.

We may withdraw the app from distribution at any time, including if the Ministry of Health withdraws permission to reproduce the guidelines. Copies already installed will continue to work offline.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Malawi, and the courts of Malawi have exclusive jurisdiction.

If any clause is held unenforceable, the remainder stands.

14. Changes to these terms

Material changes will be presented to you in the app, and you will be asked to accept them before continuing.

15. Contact

christophertrays@gmail.com Blantyre, Malawi