Website Privacy Policy

The information contained in the Washington University School of Medicine online site (“Site”), and its affiliated Washington University Physicians online site, is solely intended to provide an overview of services offered at Washington University School of Medicine.

The School of Medicine’s privacy policy is an addendum to the university’s main policy on Internet privacy.

Consultation on Specific Diseases or Conditions

Information about diseases and medical conditions on this Site and on its linked resources is for educational and informational purposes only and should in no way be taken to be the practice of medicine or the provision of medical, nursing or professional health care advice or services. The information should not be considered complete and should not be used in place of a visit, call, consultation or advice of your physician or other health care provider. The information obtained from this site and any linked resources is not exhaustive and does not cover all diseases, ailments, physical conditions or their treatments.

Should you have any specific health care-related questions, please contact or visit your physician or other health care provider promptly.

For your protection, we cannot answer any personal questions about your medical condition via this web Site. We would be happy to answer any general questions you may have about our services, our physicians, or our general knowledge of a particular disease or medical condition. However, our response to your telephone calls or e-mails concerning our general services or resources should not be interpreted as a recommendation for treatment.

If you are experiencing an emergency or urgent condition you should contact your local emergency services immediately.

Links to Third-Party Websites

See the policy for links to other Internet websites of non-affiliated external sources.

Privacy

We respect all our patients’ and prospective patients’ privacy. Unless required for law enforcement or by statute, we will not share any information you supply to us via this Site with any other outside unaffiliated entity without your consent. However, we may provide information that does not allow you to be identified or contacted. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of users of the Site and the most frequented resource pages.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right to work with third parties who provide services that may include, but are not necessarily limited to, website hosting, data analysis, hosted e-mail, and other administrative and technical services that assist us in maintaining the Site. In the event that we elect to work with third parties for these purposes, we reserve the right to share information you supply to us with such third parties, but only to the extent necessary for the provision of such services.

Security of Information

We have implemented reasonable technology and security policies, rules and measures to protect the data that resides on our servers; however, because no security system is impenetrable or 100% secure, we cannot guarantee the security of our servers.

While the forms such as Registration On-Line found on the Washington University Physicians online site are encrypted and thus are secure, we cannot guarantee the security of the means by which information is transmitted between your computer and our servers or our service providers’ servers, whether through the Site, by email, or otherwise.

Visitor Tracking

We want each site visitor to find useful medical information and learn about the services of Washington University School of Medicine and Washington University Physicians. In working toward that goal, we count our visitors and keep track of which pages our visitors select throughout the Site. To do this, we must use software called a “cookie.” The “cookie” maintains numbers in aggregate form, and does not obtain personal information about any of our visitors.

This information helps us know which sections of our Sites are visited frequently, so we can enhance those sections and ensure they are timely.