Privacy Policy

7.1 TSA takes your privacy very seriously and are committed to complying with the Australian Federal Privacy Act 1988, the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant State and Territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).

7.2 TSA collects personal information from individuals using fair and lawful means in the course of its business so that it can conduct its business and provide the best possible care to you. This information may be collected by various methods including conversations and written communications with your attending Healthcare Provider including but not limited to; General Practitioner, nurses or other health care professionals.

7.3 Collection of your relevant health details may include photos, videos or voice recordings either by you or your health care representatives, and information relating to health history including family history, ethnicity, travel history or lifestyle. Before every consultation you will be asked to email four clinical photographs of your skin condition to coordinator@teledermatologist.com.au, with your full name in the subject line. These photographs are received by our coordinator team, added to your patient record in our clinical records system, and made available to the Healthcare Provider treating you. Standard email is not an encrypted method of transmission. If you would prefer to provide your photographs by another means, please contact our coordinator team before your appointment and we will make alternative arrangements.

7.4 This information is collected so the Healthcare Provider can treat your condition.

7.5 Patients have the right not to disclose personal information. However, this may hinder or prevent the Healthcare Provider from providing or completing the consultation.

7.6 Notes are taken during and after your consultation; these will also form part of your medical record. A written report of your consultation can be sent to you by secure email on request.

7.7 It is important to keep an accurate record of the consultation. With your consent, TSA makes an audio recording of the consultation, including interactions with our coordinator and the Healthcare Provider; video is not recorded. TSA will seek your consent to the collection and holding of this information before the commencement of the consultation. You may withdraw that consent at any time, though this may affect our ability to provide the consultation. You may not make your own recording of the consultation.

7.8 TSA may also use the personal information of patients for audit activities; risk, legal and claims management; patient satisfaction surveys; and for staff training and education.

7.9 TSA will only disclose the personal information of patients to third parties with the consent of the patient, or as otherwise permitted in limited circumstances by law and are always willing to inform you about how TSA handle your personal and medical information including receiving information provided by another third party, such as your insurance company (if our services are being provided through a policy with them). If information is collected from any other source, TSA will take reasonable steps to inform you. However it is possible TSA may disclose your personal information without your consent in a medical emergency where you are unable to provide your consent or where disclosure is mandatory under the law, such as the notification of certain diseases under the Australian National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

7.10 You may deal with TSA anonymously or under a pseudonym for the purpose of making an inquiry where it is lawful to do so but TSA can not provide services unless TSA can accurately identify the recipient of medical treatment.

7.11 TSA or our subcontractors may use cloud technology to store or process Personal Information, which may result in storage of data outside Australia. It is not practicable for us to specify in advance which country will have jurisdiction over this type of offshore activity. All of our subcontractors, however, are required to comply with the Australian Privacy Act in relation to the transfer or storage of Personal Information overseas. Your health information, including your clinical photographs and consultation records, is held in our Australian-based clinical, booking and forms systems. If you would like to know where a particular part of your information is held, please contact us at coordinator@teledermatologist.com.au.

7.12 Separately from the health information described above, this website collects basic information about how it is used. We use Google Analytics for this purpose. It records things such as the pages you visit, how long you spend on them, whether you tapped our phone number or opened the booking form, the approximate location you are browsing from (usually your city or region), and the type of device and browser you are using. This is done using a small file called a cookie, which is stored by your browser and holds a randomly generated identifier. We do not collect your name, date of birth, Medicare number or any clinical information through this website, and the identifier used by Google Analytics is not linked to your patient record.

7.13 We use this information only to understand how people find and use the website, so that we can make it clearer and easier to use. We do not use it to make any decision about your care. Website usage information is kept for 14 months and is then deleted. Google Analytics uses your IP address to estimate your approximate location and does not store it. We have also enabled Google's redaction setting so that any email address that appears in a web address is removed before the information is sent to Google.

7.14 Google Analytics is provided by Google LLC and the information described in clause 7.12 is held on Google's servers, which are located outside Australia. This is a disclosure of personal information to an overseas recipient for the purposes of the Australian Privacy Principles. This applies only to website usage information. It does not apply to your health information, clinical photographs or consultation records, which are held as described in clause 7.11. Please also note that our online booking system and our referral and enquiry forms are provided by third parties and are embedded in pages of this website; information you enter into those tools is handled under the privacy terms of the provider concerned as well as this policy.

7.15 We do not sell website usage information, and we do not use the health conditions you read about on this website to target advertising to you. If you would prefer not to be included in website analytics at all, you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, use your browser's private or incognito mode, or install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on available from Google. Choosing to do so will not affect your access to this website, your ability to make an appointment, or the care you receive.

8.1 You are entitled to request access to your medical records. TSA request you put your request in writing and TSA will respond to it within a reasonable time.

8.2 There may be a fee for the administrative costs of retrieving and providing you with copies of your medical records.

8.3 TSA may deny access to your medical records in certain circumstances permitted by law, for example, if disclosure may cause a serious threat to your health or safety. TSA will always tell you why access is denied and the options you have to respond to our decision.

8.4 This information may be stored on our computer medical records system and/or in handwritten medical records.

10.1 If you have a complaint about the privacy of your personal information (including complaints about our use of the My Health Record system), TSA requests that you contact us in writing at coordinator@teledermatologist.com.au, or by post to 16-18 Christo Road, Georgetown NSW 2298. Upon receipt of a complaint TSA will acknowledge it promptly, consider the details, and respond within 30 days in accordance with our complaints handling procedures.

10.2 If you are dissatisfied with our handling of a complaint or the outcome you may make an application to the Australian Information Commissioner or the Privacy Commissioner in your State or Territory.

11.1 If you believe the information TSA have about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, TSA ask that you contact us in writing.