The material may have been dictated to a secretary when the author had no time to proofread or edit it.
This practice is common within the medical community, though its appropriateness is still debated.
[1][2] The phrase is used to indicate a need for extra care in reading the document so annotated.
It may be used at the end of an article to warn the reader that the written material has not been personally written by the author, who likely dictated it to a secretary, but they did not have the time to write it themselves.
Very busy people may be expected to sign off their article with such notation.