Privacy

Privacy for patients

Typically SimulConsult does not receive the details of a patient's illness because the diagnostic software runs on the computer that the doctor is using, not on SimulConsult's computers.  Although doctors may choose to save individual cases on their own computers, no identifying information is saved and the patient information is not sent to SimulConsult.   

If the doctor chooses to export a case as an Educational Case or Unknown Case, any identifying information about the doctor is removed automatically before the case is added to the Web.  The name of the clinician is not attached to an individual case but doctors are thanked for their role in aggregated collections of cases.  If the doctor uses the Printable Page feature to display a patient summary as a Web page for the purposes of documentation, any identifying information about the patient or doctor is removed before the information for the page is sent to SimulConsult and the information is deleted as soon the page is displayed.  

Privacy for medical professionals

SimulConsult records information about medical professionals in the registration process.  This information is used to verify that the individual is indeed a medical professional.  

No contact information is disclosed except in cases in which a medical professional contributes or edits information to the database.  The information in the database is then referenced to the contributor or editor.  Typically the name and postal address are displayed; in addition the phone number may be displayed and there may be opportunity for an e-mail to be sent, depending on the preferences chosen during registration.  The contact information is not released to third parties.  

Email addresses are used several times a year to send out notices about important changes in the software.