Privacy Policy

These terms and conditions cover use of the site you are currently accessing (“this site”). By accessing any page of this site, you understand and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

We collect Personally Identifiable Information that you provide to us when you register as a member of this site and/or when you update your member profile. We use the Personally Identifiable Information that you provide to respond to your questions, provide you the specific services you select, send you emails about Web site maintenance and updates, and inform you of significant changes to this Privacy Policy.

A. Newsletters & Emails to You
At registration and at various times as you use this site, you will be given the option of receiving recurring informational/promotional newsletters via email from this site and/or directly from third parties. These emails will not contain Personal Health Information. At the time you sign up for our email newsletters or any time thereafter, you can choose to Opt-in to receiving additional promotional emails from this site.

In order to subscribe to such newsletters via email, we need your contact information, such as name and email address. You can unsubscribe from the newsletters by simply clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email newsletter. An email to our automated unsubscribe service will be created on your computer. Click the “send” button. You will then be unsubscribed from that newsletter within two to three business days. You may also unsubscribe or change any of your email preferences by clicking on the applicable links in your email newsletter or by changing your profile within the this site. If you are experiencing difficulties with our automated unsubscribe service, please write to us at this site and we will unsubscribe you from that newsletter in two to three business days.

In some cases, when you click on a link or an advertisement in an e-mail or newsletter, your browser may be momentarily directed to the website of a third party which, acting on behalf of this site, notes or “counts” your response to the e-mail or newsletter before re-directing your browser to your selected destination; this re-direction process will not be apparent to you.

When you use this site to “Email a Friend”, this site emails the article or other content you designate to your friend’s email address and identifies your email address as the sender. This site uses the friend’s email address to send your friend the particular email you requested.

B. Emails You Send to this site
This Privacy Policy does not apply to content, medical information, ideas, concepts or any private information that you send to this site by email. If you want to keep content private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to this site. We try to answer every email within 48 business hours, but are not always able to do so.

C. Message Boards and other Public Forums
As a service to our users, this site features message boards, chat rooms and other public forums where users with similar interests or medical conditions can share information and support one another or where users can post questions for experts to answer. We also offer online discussions moderated by medical or healthcare experts.

Any information shared (including Personally Identifiable and Personal Health Information) that you reveal in a chat room, message board, eMail or online discussion is by design open to the public and is not a private, secure service. You should think carefully before disclosing any Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information in any public forum. What you have written may be seen, disclosed to or collected by third parties and may be used by others in ways we are unable to control or predict, including to contact you for unauthorized purposes.

D. Website Registration and Interactive Tools on this site
After you have registered as a member of this site you may choose to use certain this site interactive content, tools and services that may ask you to voluntarily provide other types of information about yourself including Personal Health Information. Some of the tools do not retain your Personal Health Information, while others store your Personal Health Information in accordance with the authorization you provide at the time you use the tool.

E. Subscription Services
From time to time, this site offers users the opportunity to register for paid subscription services. Each subscription service has its own Service Agreement that governs your use of the service and the information we collect to provide the service, including your credit card information. The Service Agreement will be disclosed to you at the time of registration for that subscription service.

F. Children
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. Neither this site nor any of its services are designed or intended to attract children under the age of 13. We do not collect Personally Identifiable Information from any person we actually know is under the age of 13. A parent or guardian, however, may use this site to establish a this site registration for a minor. The parent or guardian is solely responsible for providing supervision of the minor’s use of this site. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the registration information is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate. The parent or guardian also assumes full responsibility for the interpretation and use of any information or suggestions provided through this site for the minor.

G. Market Research
From time to time the this sitemarket research department, or its operations contractors acting on its behalf, conducts online research surveys in order to gather feedback about our site, our sponsors and opinions on important healthcare issues, through email invitations, pop-up surveys and online focus groups.

In addition to collecting survey responses from our members, Cookies may be used to authenticate respondents or to help you pick up where you left off in a survey. If you have Cookies disabled you may not be able to participate in some studies. Cookies may be used to connect survey data with this site usage characteristics. You will be notified when we would like to use Cookies in this way and your consent will be requested for these Cookies.