Introduction to submissions

The Malleus Clinical Medicine project demands excellent flashcards. This information forms an important part of study for many students and clinicians. If the information is incorrect, incomplete, or otherwise insufficient, it can contribute to poor clinical practice. However, if the cards are excellent, it can lead to high quality practice and deeply knowledgeable clinicians. Furthermore, the quality of cards you contribute will be reflected back in the quality others contribute; others will learn from your contributions and in turn make great contributions of their own.

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We recommend that when you begin submitting cards, you use the:
  1. Card Submission Checklist.

Please refer to the Submission Guidelines for more detail - the Card Submission Checklist will contain links to relevant sections of the Submission Guidelines.

Please consider viewing existing cards in the deck as another way to learn what sort of cards we approve!

❤️ Help Us Review

Please do help us review suggestions by liking/disliking others’ suggestions and leaving comments from the AnkiHub page.

Most maintainers have joined the team as a result of their continuous help by commenting, liking/disliking, and suggesting consistently!

Becoming a Malleus Clinical Medicine Deck Maintainer
  • Maintainers are usually handpicked by the maintainer team due to a variety of factors (% suggestions accepted/rejected, time active on AnkiHub, etc.)
  • Since the # of maintainers have increased, we require a certain criteria to be met before we can consider you to become a maintainer for the Malleus CM deck
  1. 1-2 months of consistent activity on AnkiHub at a minimum (liking, daily commenting, helping out etc.)
  2. Mostly accepted suggestions compared to rejected (>60-70%) relating to content/formatting-related changes (spelling, grammar, new content, formatting, etc.)
  3. Shows initiative to learn/understand/work with formatting/suggestion/rationale guidelines of the Malleus CM deck (this document)
  4. Can contribute approximately minimum 1 hour a week to Malleus_CM-related discussions/maintenance on AnkiHub
  5. Team player, respectful, helpful, and willing to learn, asks for help when needed
📒 Content

Clinical Relevance

Malleus Clinical Medicine is focused on clinical medicine. Although this deck may well be useful for pre-clinical medical students, all submissions must be primarily of clinical relevance.

Detailed cards on the different enzymes and pathway of the Krebs cycle, for example, may well be high yield for preclinical students, but un(fortunately) would not be relevant for this deck and would likely be rejected. Content is therefore targeted at clinical years (so years 3/4 for postgraduate courses and years 4-5/6 for undergraduate courses). If you are unsure, please get in touch.

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That being said, when making cards from a dedicated resource (e.g. Talley & O’Connor’s Clinical Examination), it is acceptable, upon request, to make cards that may well go beyond the scope of the project by tagging with a ‘Beyond_medical_school’ yield tag. Please contact us for clarity on this.

Check Existing Cards

Please ensure to look for existing content by searching through a variety of modalities:

  • Raw key-word search in the Anki browser and scanning existing cards
  • Topic search within the Malleus Anki Helper Add-on ‘search’ feature
  • Checking the Malleus HQ ‘Card Creations’ Project Board for the completion status of a topic (you will need to have a @malleus.org.au email to do this - please register for one for free on our website homepage)

PassMedicine ‘High-Yield’ Database

To adequately set guardrails on the scope of the project, we are currently basing the depth of clinical medicine content loosely on the PassMedicine ‘High-Yield’ database (Medical student finals / UKMLA resource). This ensures that we create cards to a level that would be appropriate and relevant to know for a final year medical student/intern, and gives us a frame of reference so we don’t end up with a deck comprised of excessively niche cards on content that may well draw from college specialty level textbooks. We understand not everyone will have access to this database, as it’s a paid resource.

We have taken the titles of disease pages and topics listed on this database and put it into a Google document linked here.

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Note that the Malleus Maintainer team are currently transitioning the PassMed ‘High Yield’ topics into our existing Notions subjects database.

Concept-Based Learning

Create flashcards that prioritise high-yield clinical concepts over memorisation. Focus on promoting understanding of principles, integrate multiple related concepts, and use clinical scenarios where possible. For complex topics, include references or links to additional resources. Cards should be designed to test conceptual understanding rather than isolated facts, with appropriate cueing for lower-yield information.

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Make use of the Extras Field to:
  • Concisely explain more complex ideas
  • Add extra lower-yield information that does not meet the criteria for separate card creation
  • Provide links to additional resources (e.g. YouTube videos)

Minimum Information & Cue Principles

The minimum information principle suggests that learning with active recall is more effective when information is presented in the smallest, most essential units, avoiding unnecessary complexity or detail that could overload memory.

The minimum cue principle involves creating prompts that provide the smallest amount of information necessary to trigger the correct response. Ideally, this creates the greatest amount of transferability to clinical practice and examination. This technique helps in reinforcing the most relevant and high-yield information.

🧱 Structure

Question and Answer Format

Cards should preferably be written in a question and answer format, with few exceptions. Cards not in this format may be rejected. In-line cloze (i.e. fill in the blank questions) is to be used sparingly and only under specific circumstances.

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Why only Question & Answer cards?

A significant issue with Anki is that cards can be written in such a way that correct answers can be “recalled” not based on a true understand, but based on the specific contours of layout or word-usage, or mindless pattern-recognition. Hence, a card can be easily recalled during review, but that same information is unretrievable on the wards, in clinic, or during an exam. This is largely avoided with thoughtfully written cards.

Making multiple variations of similar cards is ideal, as it encourages careful reading and consideration each time, preventing rote memorisation and promoting deeper understanding.

Question and Answer Cards

Example card:

Front

Back

Generally, an inverse of a card should also be included:

Front

Back

Cloze Deletions

In some cases, cloze cards, or fill-in-the-blanks cards, may be present or thought to be the best approach for a card's design.

Here is an example of a cloze card as it would be presented in the editor dialogue:

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{{c1::Anti-CCP::Anti-CCP/RF}} has {{c2::greater specificity}} for rheumatoid arthritis than {{c1::rheumatoid factor::anti-CCP/RF}}

This will be presented as two cards, the first of which is:

Front

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[Anti-CCP/RF] has greater specificity for rheumatoid arthritis than [anti-CCP/RF]

Back

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Anti-CCP has greater specificity for rheumatoid arthritis than rheumatoid factor

The second is:

Front

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Anti-CCP has […] for rheumatoid arthritis than rheumatoid factor

Back

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Anti-CCP has greater specificity for rheumatoid arthritis than rheumatoid factor

Randomisation

Our Malleus Anki Add-on has a unique ‘randomisation’ feature developed by our Vice President Sabiqul that can be used in a select number of cards to help minimise the risk of pattern recognition of the placement of key numbers or words, and minimise card burden. Note the ‘Add Random’ button in the Anki editor as shown below:

Examples of where randomisation may be implemented includes (but is not limited to):

  • Rash identification images (e.g. ‘Name the following rash …’)
    • Rather than have multiple separate cards testing different images of the same rash, the sequence of rashes can be wrapped within the randomisation code so every time the card is studied, it randomly picks one of the images to test
  • Testing application of scoring tools (ie. GCS, Osteoporosis threshold cuttoffs using T-score)

A summary of the main different ‘elements’ within the plugin is listed below:

Random number

INSERT

Random list

INSERT

Score list

INSERT

Scored number

INSERT

Show score

INSERT

Answer by score

INSERT

Please note that there is some academic debate about the best use of randomisation, as there is a theoretical risk of adversely impacting the Anki algorithm as the content tested in each card varies each time you answer it. For those interested, you can read more about this on the Anki forum post here.

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For more specific use-cases and details, please contact @sabicool (sabiqul.hoque@malleus.org.au)
🖌️ Formatting and Style Guide
Acronyms and Abbreviations

Acronyms and abbreviations should be used sparingly. In most cases, unabbreviated names should be used, and acronyms may be added in brackets. Exceptions are listed below.

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Refer to the Accepted Abbrevations table for a guide as to what abbreviations can be used without their full titles listed in the text field of cards.
Full name in <strong>bold</strong> with unbold (abbreviation)
Full name in bold with unbold (abbreviation)

Permitted abbreviations and acronyms

  • All SI units may be abbreviated
  • Terms that are rarely called by their unabbreviated names, e.g.
    • anti-CCP antibodies
    • IgG, IgA etc.
    • Beta-hCG
  • All chemical elements may be abbreviated
    • All ions should have their appropriate charge in superscript
More Accepted Abbreviations and Acronyms
Spelling

Spelling should be based Australian English. Medical terms with variant spelling should primary be based on the Australian Health Thesaurus (Health Direct) https://thesaurus.healthdirect.org.au/aht.html.

If not listed in the above, please refer to the https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198836612.001.0001/acref-9780198836612 as a secondary reference for any gaps.

Please use this reference to check spelling for medical words that have varied spelling in North America and the United Kingdom or in medicine and common parlance e.g. fetus vs foetus, osteopaenia vs osteopenia etc.

Spellchecker add on

For spellcheck functionality in Anki:

  1. Add the addon:143753963 (ankiweb.net/shared/info/143753963)
  2. Open the addon settings and add the dictionary English (UK) (the English (Australia) dictionary is currently a combination of UK and US, and doesn’t work perfectly )
  3. For Australian medical spelling, download the following file,
  4. Add this file to the ‘Personal dictionaries folder’:
  1. Press the ‘Compile your dictionaries’ button
  2. You should now have a functional Australian medical spell-check function in Anki

We extend huge thanks to Health Direct, who compile the Australian Health Thesaurus https://thesaurus.healthdirect.org.au/aht.html, for allowing us to access a copy of their repository for this function. The data is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

N.B. the AHT has been converted into list form to work with this add-on and some errors may be included. Please advise us of any errors.

Style Guide
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Content should be styled as per the Australian Government Style Guide (see Grammar, punctuation and conventions and Medical terms).

For clarity, a few notable stylistic points include:

  • ‘e.g.’ and ‘i.e.’ instead of ‘eg’ and ‘ie’
    • Commas should not follow e.g. or i.e.
  • Leave a space between numbers and units
    • e.g. 10 mmHg, not 10mmHg
    • e.g. > 60%, not >60%
  • Use an en dash for intervals
    • e.g. 9–10 mg, not 9-10 mg
  • Single quotation marks, not double quotation marks should be used by default, e.g. Personality disorder clusters can be remembered by 'weird, wild and wacky'
  • Eponymous names
    • A possessive s should be used if the disease is named for someone who had the disease e.g. Lou Gherig’s disease
    • No possessive s should be used if the disease is named for someone who studied the disease e.g. Alzheimer disease
  • Infectious diseases and other biological terms
    • Names of organisms should be italicised, with the genus capitalised, e.g. Mycobacterium tuberculosis
    • Sp. and spp., following organism names should be written as such, with no italicisation e.g. Vibrio spp.
    • Organisms may be abbreviated, e.g. M. tuberculosis
    • Viruses are not italicised nor capitalised, except in the acronym form, e.g. herpes simplex virus (HSV)
  • Drug brand names should be capitalised, e.g. The drug pregabalin is also called Lyrica
Synced Fields

Synced fields were introduced in late December 2025 to try and optimise the application of content relevant across multiple cards, with ‘shared’ content updating across all cards uniformly when edited. These fields (below) are collapsed by default for the majority of users and do not appear in normal Anki searches, although if you downloaded the deck prior to December 2025, it may appear slightly differently (see ‘Legacy Users’ below).

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For legacy users of the Malleus deck, your appearance of these fields may appear slightly different due to the way AnkiHub’s sync works. To restore to the intended settings for the vast majority of users, delete these fields (by clicking on the ‘Fields’ button) and re-sync with AnkiHub after a full database reupload.

Notion Databases

All synced extra and synced additional resources should be within the Synced Extra and Synced Additional Resources databases respectively.

Content for syncing can be added to either the body of the database entry (e.g. ACS Comparison Table ) or into the content field (e.g. Catatonia Clinical Features). Where both entries contain text, the body of the page takes precedence. Most formatting for the body can be incomperated including lists, numbered lists, formatting, maths blocks and highlighting. You can also use a code block with the html language to insert verbatim html code should it be required. A template for notesync (see below) exists Notesync Template should you decide to use. As general advice, it would be nice to include a level 1 header at the top of each synced content which would assist differentiating it from other content.

Other fields that need filling out are:

  • Subject relation property which links to the topics/disease pages for which the content is related to
  • Subtag dropdown property which identifies for which subtags the content should be included for. Multiple subtags can be added by typing them out manually (e.g. ‘Clinical Features Management’). In the case of general pages use ‘Main Tag’ as the value.

Now for all users when creating new cards or updating any tags through the Malleus addon it will include synced additional resource content automatically and prompt users for the synced extra content that they would like to include.

Note that tags for the synced extra content is handled via the addon.

My general advice would be to use the synced extra content sparingly, as adding it to many cards will add unnecessary prompts for users.

Malleus Anki Addon Integration

When applicable the addon will ask the user if they’d like to include relevant synced extra content through a popup:

  • Note that synced extra content already in the field will be selected by default and removing it will remove that synced extra content

NoteSync (Maintainers Only)

Content in these fields is automatically copied across multiple cards using the ‘NoteSync’ plugin. Content appears seamlessly after the Extra content in the case of ‘Extra (Synced)’ or after any Additional Resources content in the case of ‘Additional Resources (Synced). It is critically important you do not alter these fields unless advised to by a Maintainer.

The way NoteSync works is outlined on the Add-on’s GitHub repository page here: https://github.com/Jirixek/anki-notesync. Essentially, we recommend using bidirectional mode (that is - any edit within synced content applies across all synced content).

To use the bidirectional mode, wrap the content inside a sync element like this. Again, the wrapping has to be done inside the window editing the raw text (HTML editor).

<span class="sync">
   [content to sync]
</span>

A unique sync ID is generated for the sync block when the field is unfocused.

<span class="sync" sid="XXXX">
   [content to sync]
</span>

To reference the content on another note, insert the span block where necessary.

<span class="sync" sid="XXXX"></span>

The sync blocks are synchronized when the field is unfocused. In case of a conflict, either a pop-up is shown requesting a resolution, or the contents of a sync block are uploaded to other sync blocks in a collection. The behavior can be controlled by setting bidir_unfocus_action value in the plugin's config to ask or upload, respectively. We recommend advising Maintainers to set the config to ‘upload’ once familiar with how the add-on works.

We are currently drafting the best way to use NoteSync including the possibility of better integrating the code within our Malleus Anki Add-on and having a separate Synced Content database, but it’s important that:

  • All cards with [X] synced content have the dedicated tag: #Malleus_CM::#Card_Content::NoteSync::[X]
  • ‘X’ should be named based on the content e.g. ‘Catatonia’, ‘ACS’.
  • Any edits to ‘X’ Synced Content are batch submitted for review to AnkiHub by making a change on one card (any card) and selecting all cards (CTRL+A) that have a NoteSync tag and submitting to AnkiHub for approval (autoapprove although create an accompanying discord forum post on the #card-discussion-forum if it’s a controversial change)
  • Any new cards created on an existing topic with pre-existing synced content are assigned the ‘NoteSync ID’ wrapper code of the relevant content when making cards into the relevant ‘Extra (Synced)’ and ‘Additional Resources (Synced)’ fields
    • Note the requirement to ‘unfocus’ (that is - create the card, then unselect and reselect the newly created card in the browser) from the card BEFORE submitting the card to AnkiHub as the synced content will not appear until this is performed
Drug Names, Timings, Routes, Dosages and Formatting

For all commonly used drugs and medications, as a general rule, you may include route of administration if it is clinically relevant, but DO NOT include doses, brand names nor timings in cloze answer fields. Route of administration can be abbreviated according to nationally accepted medical abbreviations guide or if listed in our own Accepted Abbrevaations table.

  • e.g. write ‘valaciclovir PO’ not ‘valaciclovir PO 1 g mane’

However, there are certain drugs which are frequently charted as an intern/JMO where adding a dose would be relevant and helpful. The broad areas where it may be appropriate to add a dose includes (but is not limited to):

  • commonly prescribed analgesic regimens (i.e. paracetamol 500 mg, ibuprofen 400 mg)
  • commonly prescribed anti-emetics (i.e. ondansetron 4-8 mg PRN)
  • VTE prophylaxis anticoagulant regimens
  • commonly prescribed antihyperglycaemics (i.e. metformin 500 mg BD)
  • commonly prescribed antihypertensives
  • emergency drugs (i.e. aspirin 300 mg in ACS, adrenaline 0.5 mg dosing in anaphylaxis)

If you are unsure, submit as you feel most appropriate, and the Malleus Maintainers will review your card and make a collective judgement on how to best deal with it prior to approval.

Capitalisation

Drug names should only be capitalised if they start a sentence. Brand name drugs e.g. Panadol, Xanax etc. should always be capitalised. Where multiple drug regimens are listed, each regimen should be considered as a new sentence (and hence the first word should be capitalised).

Formatting of drug regimens

The words AND, PLUS, OR, EITHER, or BOTH should be used to make the combination of different drugs clear. These words should be in capital letters, underlined and italicised.

The formatting of drug regimens should make the card as legible as possible. See below for the formatting of drug regimens as card answers:

Type of card answerAcceptable formattingNot acceptable formatting
Multiple regimens, each with one drug[Drug X] OR [Drug Y] OR [Drug Z][Drug X] OR [Drug Y] OR [Drug Z]
[Drug X] OR [Drug Y] OR [Drug Z]
One regimen, with multiple drugs[Drug X] AND [drug Y] AND [drug Z][Drug X] AND [drug Y] AND [drug Z]
[Drug X] AND [Drug Y] AND [Drug Z]

Complex regimens

In complex regimens, ad hoc formatting may be required to unsure clarity. When making cards on complex regimens, it is generally recommended that each line represents a different part of a given regimen i.e. a three drug regimen should typically have three lines, such as in the below card. A numbered list may also be helpful to ensure clarity of the number of agents used. For example:

Typographical Emphasis

Consistent usage of bolding and underlining can improve readability of cards and reduces misreading of questions.

General Formatting Template

Generally, use bold for the topic/disease and use underline for most important parts of a given question. See below for more specific usage.

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Good use of typographical emphasis
Good use of typographical emphasis

Bolding

Bolding should be used to draw attention to key parts of the question. Generally, these key parts are:

  • Topic words or key words
  • Augmenting words, especially when cards of near-identical layout exist
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In this example, the topic words are ‘unconditional private licence’, which are bolded here. The word ‘vertical’ is an augmenting word, and a similar card for degrees of horizontal vision is also in the deck
In this example, the topic words are ‘unconditional private licence’, which are bolded here. The word ‘vertical’ is an augmenting word, and a similar card for degrees of horizontal vision is also in the deck

Underlining

Underlining should be used sparingly. It can be used:

  • To indicate the specific thing that the question is asking. See examples below.
  • Augmenting words, that are already bolded.
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In this example, the question will be an imaging modality and this part of the question is appropriately underlined
In this example, the question will be an imaging modality and this part of the question is appropriately underlined
In this example, the specific item to recall is the LDH concentration
In this example, the specific item to recall is the LDH concentration
In this example, ‘empirical antibiotic therapy’ is the item to recall. Both ‘first-line’ and ‘moderate’ are augmenting words that would already be bolded and are therefore also underlined
In this example, ‘empirical antibiotic therapy’ is the item to recall. Both ‘first-line’ and ‘moderate’ are augmenting words that would already be bolded and are therefore also underlined

Italics

Italics is ineffective for emphasis. It should generally only be used for naming of genus and species e.g. Staphylococcus aureus.

Punctuation

Capitalisation

Please maintain consistent capitalisation. Capitals are only for names and the start of sentences.

In the extra field, please capitalise the first letter of each sentence in the extra section.

Period Formatting

Do not use full stops/periods for single sentences or bullet points, except for paragraphs with more than one sentence.

This is an example of correct formatting:

Formatting in the Extra Section

Whenever there are TWO or more sentences or paragraphs in the extra section, please use an unordered list (using the bullet point button or ctrl+[ shortcut on Windows).

CORRECT formatting
INCORRECT formatting
Other Minor Formatting

Cloze deletions

For suggestions relating to an increase or decrease (e.g. ‘diabetes {{c1::increases}} glucose’) the preference would be for a cloze hint of ‘increases/decreases’, in that order, like so: ‘diabetes {{c1::increases::increases/decreases}} glucose}}’. This is unless the potential answers are obvious.

Disease Name Formatting

When listing the full name of the disease and the abbreviation in parenthesis, bold the actual disease name and unbold the (abbreviation) as shown below.

Card with multiple answers

Generally, if a card/question has multiple answers, the cloze should have a number indicating the number of answers to the question.

Exceptions to this can be made on an ad hoc basis, including where,

  • Cards where there is a small number of answers, or the card is too easy if the number of answers is provided
  • Cards where it is important to remember the number of answers e.g. in the following example, where remembering the number of grades is important
  • In some cases it may be more practical to use multiple clozes, each with the same cloze number (i.e. do not use different clozes for multiple answers to the same question)

One-By-One Card Guidelines

The general rules for one-by-one are as follows:

  • The cards need to be able to be recalled in order - this means that there needs to be a mnemonic or a sequence of treatment
  • The 5 P’s of pheochromocytoma can NOT be one-by-one because they all start with P and it will be impossible to do “ordered recall”
  • One by one notes should not be done for cards that have 2-3 clozes, unless they are mnemonics

Mnemonic Formatting

Mnemonics should be formatted like this, and the card should be make into a ‘one-by-one’ card, by typing any text into the ‘One-by-one’ textbox while editing the card.

Table formatting

Tables can be added via copy and paste, or made manually. Please use this addon to add or edit tables: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/295889520

How to make tables with the addon
  1. Download the addon: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/295889520
  2. When editing or adding a card, with the cursor in the correct field, press this icon
  3. Press the table icon in the popup window to add or edit a table
  4. Close the window when you have finished editing
  5. Save the changes to the card, or add the card

When adding multiple images to tables, strongly consider resizing the images inside, such that they are the same height or width, as this will affect the distribution of the table.

Please follow any addition of tables with the addition of the following tag:

🏷️
#Malleus_CM::#Card_Feature::Table
Using AI to make your tables

Please avoid the use of AI when making tables unless absolutely necessary, as it can format slightly differently from the above method, unless parameters are tinkered, which is suboptimal.

Algorithms

Algorithms/flowcharts are sometimes used to explain decision making protocols or processes. Algorithms may be useful for multiple cards and can be copied from existing cards when creating new content.

Algorithms Table Method
  1. Download this addon https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/805891399 12
  2. Find algorithm to replace. Ctrl+Shift+X to get html of the algorithm → copy it
  3. Search the html → flag all these notes (you’ll need this later to bulk suggest the changes)
    1. If you are shrinking images, best to shrink all of them so the html is the same. You can use this add-on: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1633333766 1
  4. Create new table
    1. Click the T5 button in the editor
    2. Insert a table.
      1. You will want enough rows and columns to split cells for when the algorithm branches
      2. For example, if the algorithm splits into three sections you would need three columns, one for each split.
    3. Type contents in. Do NOT duplicate the table word for word (copyright issues)
    4. Go to table properties and set to these:

      ![Class one is important. ]

      image17944×704 63 KB

      Class one is important.

image18960×716 23.2 KB


5. Highlight the entire table → right click → cell → cell properties

    Change Horizontal alight to “center” and Vertical Align to “middle”

image19962×946 38.8 KB


    Change border style to hidden

image20960×942 26.9 KB

  • FORMAT:
    • note table width can be made ~60-80% based on algorithm contents
    • Left align things as needed
    • Bold things as needed
  1. Change all algorithm images to tables
    1. Copy text of image html. Also copy (or have handy) the text of the table html
    2. Notes → Find and Replace
    3. Replace all images with table
  2. !IMPORTANT! - tag all of these cards with the name of relevant algorithm (either management or investigation).
  3. Submit to AnkiHub as bulk suggestion (sync right before doing this)
  4. Example:

image211586×1414 130 KB

Algorithm table before hiding borders

image221902×564 19.7 KB

Algorithm table after hiding borders

image231904×544 19 KB

Algorithm Builder (Website)
  • You can visit https://app.diagrams.net and create amazing algorithms. You just have to get familiar with the different tools, but it takes less than 5 min to create any type of algorithm.
  • One example was about tetanus prophylaxis based on the AMBOSS table:

image241828×1140 131 KB

image251818×362 67.7 KB

  • Basically, all you need once you’re on the website is the “General” section
  • You can choose shapes, text, etc. and the arrows are created by dragging the sites of the shape

💡 After you have created your desired algorithm it is best to take a *screenshot* of the final result. You can save it as .png as well, however, for me the quality was kind of bad as .png

🌐 Referencing
💡
All cards require a valid source, or they will not be accepted

All references require inclusion of a valid access date.

Please do not copy/paste verbatim into the text/extra sections. Verbatim copying is highly discouraged and will result in automatic rejection with the possibility of no explanation.

If you can’t find a source, please contact us via email - president@malleus.org.au

Citing Sources

All submissions require the following minimum requirements:

  • Provide at least one acceptable source in the source field with a URL.
  • Provide a last updated and date accessed statement in the source field.

An example of accepted source:

💡
Myocardial Infarction - AMBOSS - Last Updated August 20, 2025. Accessed September 18, 2025 https://next.amboss.com/us/article/wS0hbf.

Or:

Myocardial Infarction - AMBOSS - Last Updated August 20, 2025. Accessed September 18, 2025

Create hyperlinks either by:

If a source is from a book or other published resource and does not have a URL, please provide the DOI link. If a DOI is not available please cite with the following format (no access statement is required for a published work):

💡
Chapter 13 - Talley, O’Connor (2017) Clinical Examination: A Systematic Guide to Physical Diagnosis, Elsevier.
Multiple sources
  • Where multiple sources are used, one source should be listed as the primary/principle source
  • Other sources should be clearly identified as secondary by preceding the citation with ‘Also see: ‘ or similar
  • If multiple sources are used, these should be formatted as an unordered list
Acceptable sources (see ‘Recommended Resources’ for more detail)
  • AMBOSS* with specific article links (please provide the article URL)
  • PassMedicine* questions (See also: tagging PassMedicine)
  • StatPearls
  • Therapeutic Guidelines (See also: eTG Complete Tags)
    • Please cite TG pages as in the following example:
      • Hepatitis B [published 2020 Dec; amended 2021 Mar]. In: Therapeutic Guidelines. Melbourne: Therapeutic Guidelines Limited; accessed 2025 Jan. Link to page.
  • Selected specialised resources:
  • Selected textbooks (See also: Key Textbook Tags)
    • Oxford Handbooks
    • Llewellyn-Jones Fundamental of Obstetrics
    • Talley & O’Connor’s Clinical Examination 8th ed. (Clinical features/examination findings)
    • Ellis and Calne's Lecture Notes in General Surgery 14th ed.
    • First Aid 2024 (EXCEPT FOR MANAGEMENT)
  • Society guidelines
    • RANZCOG, RACGP; website links must be provided

*AMBOSS and PassMed cards related to investigation/management of diseases must be independently checked against local Australian guidelines guidelines.

Unacceptable sources
  • First Aid 2023 or older
  • Pathoma
  • Boards & Beyond
  • Sketchy
  • Random articles
  • Wikipedia
  • Textbooks (unless otherwise approved)
  • Osmosis
  • School lectures
  • UpToDate (requires verification from local guidelines)
Citing and Formatting of Images

Images found online are subject to various copyrights and licenses. To avoid breaking copyright law please follow the following guidelines. If you are unsure, please contact us.

Permitted Licenses

Please only use an image with an accepted creative commons license or that is in the public domain.

Formatting Image Credits

  1. Follow this format:
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Author name (hyperlinked to website), Creative Commons/Public Domain (hyperlink to CC site), via website/journal name
Example of an accepted image credit
Example of an accepted image credit

Credits must be italicised and be font size 10pt

Option 1: Semi-Automatic with wrapper meta add-on (Recommended)

Use the Wrapper meta add-on (Code: 396502676). It will add a new set of buttons. Highlight the sentence, then click the “quote” button and it will add the styling.

Option 2: Manually with extended editor for field add-on

Use the Extended editor for field add-on, manually change to font size 10 and italics.

Option 3: Manually with HTML editor

Open the HTML editor by clicking < > above the field. Copy the code into the field and fill in the details.

<img src="..." style="max-height: 70vh;"><br>
	<!-- Insert caption below-->
		[Optional caption]<br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">
	Image credit: 
		<a href="Source link">
			Photo by [Author Name]
		</a>, 
	<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...">
		CC [Licence]</a>, 
	via [Source]
</span>

Guidelines Images

  • Therapeutic Guidelines images
    • Cards that refer to Therapeutic Guidelines as a source should include the relevant subsection of the page in the ‘eTG Complete’ field
    • Only images from Therapeutic Guidelines should be placed in this field. Other images should be placed in the ‘Additional Resources’ field
    • Therapeutic Guidelines have provided generous permission to use content so long as screenshots of TG content are restricted to the content necessary to directly and safely answer the question
    • As a rule of thumb, information from Therapeutic Guidelines should not exceed the amount seen in this card:
  • If a guideline images is included, a citation to the guideline must be included somewhere on the card. If it is the same source as used in the ‘Source’ field, then it does not need to accompany the image directly. Otherwise a citation must be placed with the image.
  • All images submitted to Ankihub are automatically converted to WebP format. The largest size for a WebP image is 16,383 x 16,383 pixels. If the image is larger than this, it will need to be split up into multiple screenshots, or the image will not be visible. In these cases, the images should be formatted in the Anki field such that the width is the same for all images. This can be achieved with add-ons such as https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1593969147 or manually in Anki.
🏷️ Tagging
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For cards using specific resources (e.g. eTG) there are further tagging requirements. See Specific Resources below.

All cards must, at minimum, be tagged with at least one Subject Tag, one Rotation Tag, and a single Yield Tag. A card may fit multiple subject and rotation tags; it is fine to add these. Often this is done for you (e.g. Acute Otitis Media is tagged by the rotation tags: Cardiology & Paediatrics).

Pharmacology, OSCEs, Clinical Guidelines, eTG guidelines and other categories have their own Additional Special Tags, which can be found as a separate tab in the Tags Database.

We have tried to make the tagging process as straightforward as possible, and have recorded a video outlining the process, as well as a written explanation underneath.

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Note that the video demonstrates creating a card from an eTG guideline. Note that our main Subject Tags database does not have all of our diseases linked to eTG, and therefore you may need to manually search for both the eTG guideline (if using as resource) as well as the associated disease page for the condition (and likely copy over the 10_Management terminal tag(s) from that page).

How to Tag

There are three ways to go about doing this:

1) Malleus Anki Helper Method (RECOMMENDED)
  1. Install the Malleus Anki Helper Add-on linked here: Malleus Anki Helper Addon - AnkiWeb, as shown in the video below.
  1. Watch the video series below for details on how to use the plugin.
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Note that some pages may be missing (especially when searching the eTG database) - if this is the case, please contact us and we will look at adding the page manually so it shows up in the add-on’s search window.
2) Search Method
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Watch the video below for a demonstration; otherwise we have a written guide underneath. Please note this while this method still works, in most cases we would encourage users to use the first method listed above when creating cards, by installing and using the Malleus Anki Helper Add-on due its ease of use. It also integrates directly within Anki saving the need to use a web browser.
  1. Simply click the search button at the very top right of the website and search for the disease you’re after (e.g. Acute Otitis Media)
    📢
    Please note that when searching on Notion you can identify the relevant origin of the pages by the different icons.

    Most pages arise from the Subject Tags database, signified by the white stethoscope icon in the search (ie. Acute Otitis Media). If you are searching for a topic, rather than a specific disease (ie. Antenatal Care), you may come across a slightly different topic page, signified by the white info icon.

    The main difference between subject “disease” and “topic” pages is topic pages do not have terminal sub-pages (ie. 01_Epidemiology) like the disease pages, and usually (but not always) sit under *General tags. They are used to create cards on broad topics that do not fit neatly within individual single diseases (ie. Antenatal Care, Approach to the Seriously Unwell Child).

    Note that other pages from other databases (ie. eTG Complete Tags, Pharmacology) will also appear here… they each have their respective icon as well.

    As a general rule of thumb, if there is no icon on the page, it’s not a page you should be copying tags from (it is likely a parent page)!

  2. Open the page and find the particular subtag that best describes the card you are adding (e.g. aetiology).
    💡
    Note the “multiple parents” means this disease page appears in multiple different subject areas (i.e. Cardiology and Paediatrics). Other details are available on this page for your reference, including status and last updated date.
  3. Click the copy to clipboard icon that appears when hovering over the tag
    💡
    Please note that this will also copy over whatever other cards are relevant (e.g. the resources by rotation cardiology tag). This is to make it easier for you to add cards with all the correct tags. Other tags that might be included are Question Banks tags for questions relevant to the topic.
3) Database Lookup Method
  1. Open the Tags Database and go to the subject tags section
  2. Unfold the topics until you find the disease you are looking for by clicking the triangular arrow head next to each topic
  3. Click on the title of the disease (or topic) you are after to open it in the middle
    📢
    Note that most pages arise from the Subject Tags database, signified by the white stethoscope icon in the search (i.e. Acute Otitis Media). If you are searching for a topic, rather than a specific disease (ie. Antenatal Care), you may come across a slightly different topic page, signified by the white info icon.

    The main difference between subject “disease” and “topic” pages is topic pages do not have terminal sub-pages (ie. 01_Epidemiology) like the disease pages, and usually (but not always) sit under *General tags. They are used to create cards on broad topics that do not fit neatly within individual single diseases (ie. Antenatal Care, Approach to the Seriously Unwell Child).

    As a general rule of thumb, if there is no icon on the page, it’s not a page you should be copying tags from (it is likely a parent page)!

  4. Find the particular subtag (for disease pages) that best describes the card you are adding (e.g. aetiology). Click the copy to clipboard icon that appears when hovering over the tag.
    💡
    Please note that this will also copy over whatever other cards are relevant (e.g. the resources by rotation cardiology tag). This is to make it easier for you to add cards with all the correct tags. Other tags that might be included are Question Banks tags for questions relevant to the topic.
Specific Resources (Additional Special Tags*)
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*Some cards may require additional tags beyond a Subject and Rotation tag. The following tags are examples of other scenarios whereby specific additional tags may be added.

In addition to the default Subject and Resources by Rotation databses and tags when creating new cards, please click on the following links for the appropriate tagging structures for:

Yield Tags
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Did you know that you can easily add yield tags using the Malleus Anki Helper Add-on? It can be downloaded here.

High-Yield

Essential knowledge to pass medical school and function safely as a junior doctor. This includes core exam content, universally applicable clinical facts, and foundational concepts that scaffold broader understanding.

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Examples

First-line antibiotics for common conditions

Common presentations of foundational conditions

Recognition of red flag presentations

  • Patient safety pushes content high
  • Foundational/scaffolding concepts are always high
  • Even if the content is difficult to memorise but critical it is high-yield

Medium-Yield

Important knowledge that strengthens clinical practice or exam performance but is not strictly essential. Covers secondary facts, less common drug alternatives, cut-offs, or detail-level understanding that adds depth, but is not required for safe functioning.

💡
Examples

Investigation pathways for less common conditions

  • Good to know, but not essential
  • May help you stand out as a strong student
  • Patient safety relevance low-to-moderate

Low-Yield

Supplementary detail that a top student might know, but which is rarely tested and adds little to day-to-day safety or competence. Includes fine precision (e.g., exact numerical targets), obscure guidelines, or edge-case scenarios where memorisation cost outweighs clinical payoff.

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Examples

Rare organism gram stains

Scenario-based practice questions, e.g. split second GCS or APGAR scores

Perhaps difficult-to-memorise facts with limited utility

  • Retained mainly for completeness and to support mastery-level learning

Beyond Medical School

Content included for completeness or advanced learners, but beyond what medical students or interns are reasonably expected to know or memorise.

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Examples

Specialist-level management algorithms

Subspecialty guidelines

Detailed receptor pharmacology

Rare pathology variants

Yield as a Step-Wise Learning Tool

The yield system can be used as a progressive pathway through the deck. A student can start with the high-yield material to build the minimum safe and examinable foundation, and then expand into medium and low yield for deeper knowledge.

High-Yield as an entry point

A student would begin here to learn the bare-minimum and foundational concepts of a particular subject, which should allow them to pass an exam and stay safe.

Medium-Yield to increase depth

Once the above is complete, medium-yield cards can be introduced to further expand understanding and build on the previous content, adding detail and nuance. This should improve confidence in a topic.

Low-Yield for mastery

Finally, unsuspending the low-yield cards extends the content, which may be by increased precision or obscure detail, or by scenario-based application (e.g. Glasgow-Imrie Scale). This completes the topic and should allow the student to have the understanding of a top student.

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“Beyond medical school” content is not necessarily a part of the step-wise knowledge, and exists mostly for completeness and specific interest.
Critical Note Update Tags

Some tags are reserved for changes that alter the core fact or correct answer of a card. These are treated differently from routine updates. Use a Critical Note Update tag only when an edit changes the meaning or correct answer of a card, such that a user who learned the previous version would now be memorising incorrect or outdated information.

When to use this tag

  • Fixing a content error
  • Applying updated clinical guidelines
  • Any change that reverses or materially alters the fact being tested

When not to use this tag

  • Formatting or cloze changes
  • Rewording for clarity without changing meaning
  • Tag restructuring
  • Spelling or grammar fixes

Tag format

#Malleus_CM::!CRITICAL_NOTE_UPDATES!::Content_Error/Updated_Guidelines::YYYY::Month

Example

#Malleus_CM::!CRITICAL_NOTE_UPDATES!::Content_Error/Updated_Guidelines::2026::January

Rationale

Because users may have long review intervals, these tags allow critical changes to be surfaced early and re-reviewed, rather than discovered weeks or months later.

Rule of thumb

If a learner studied this card before the update and would now be wrong, this tag should be applied.

Card Creation Resources

📄 Recommended Resources

Last Updated: 2025-10-03

General Advice

Please note the following links marked with an asterisk are resources which are available as PDFs on our Google Drive (linked below) to download, both in PDF form as well as exported in .PNG per the relevant pages. We are strictly sharing this under the fair use provisions for education under Australian Copyright law.

It is also worth noting these are general principles, and when making cards, please always ensure you:

  1. Refer to the ‘Primary Resource’ listed on the relevant topic/disease page on Notion you are creating cards on (if present) as any listed resource there trumps these general rules.
📢
Access our Google Drive for dedicated PDFs and .PNG exports of various resources cited below here. Please contact us if you would like us to upload a resource that is missing.
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If ‘caution' (⚠️) is noted, it means the resource is likely an overseas resource and must be cross-checked with other local resources if being used.

Miscellaneous Topics:

🗄️ Abbreviations & Acronyms

ClassificationFull text
PathologyAcute coronary syndrome
Prescribingbis in die, two times daily
DiagnosticBlood pressure
PathologyCongestive cardiac failure
AnatomyCranial nerve
DiagnosticC-Reactive protein
PhysiologyCerebrospinal fluid
DiagnosticElectrocardiogram
DiagnosticElectroencephalogram
DiagnosticErythrocyte sedimentation rate
PathologyHeart failure with preserved ejection fraction
PathologyHeart failure with reduced ejection fraction
PhysiologyImmunoglobulin variants
PrescribingIntramuscular
PrescribingIntravascular
PathologyNon ST-elevation myocardial infaction
Prescribingper os, orally
Prescribingpro re nata, as needed
Prescribingquater in die, four times daily
PhysiologyRed blood cell
PathologyST-elevation myocardial infarction
PrescribingSubcutaneous
Prescribingter die sumendum, three times daily
PhysiologyWhite blood cell