Terms of Use

Attention: Please read all of these provisions (“Terms”) carefully before using this website. Using this website indicates your agreement and acceptance of these Terms. If you do not accept these Terms, do not use this website or download materials from this site.

Agreement to Terms of Use
This website (Site) is owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED). The information contained on this Site, including documents, audio and video files, and all data is provided for educational and informational purposes only.

By using this Site you agree to the terms and conditions set forth in Terms. You may only use this Site for legal purposes and for non-commercial, personal or educational use. Your rights to use this Site may be further limited by federal law or the laws or regulations in your particular state or locality.

Please feel free to browse the Site; however, your access and use of the Site is subject to these Terms and all applicable laws.

PAMED—in its sole discretion, and at any time—reserves the right to:

  • Modify or discontinue the Site.
  • Limit, terminate or suspend your use of the Site.
  • Revoke any or all access and use authorizations granted to you in regards to this Site.
  • Remove postings or other information uploaded to the Site that the Medical Society deems, in its sole discretion, to be inappropriate.
  • Change these Terms at any time. Such changes are effective immediately upon posting on this Site and you are deemed to receive notice of such revisions at the time of posting, and are bound by any such changes to the Terms.

Forums, Chat Rooms, Bulletin Boards
PAMED offers discussion forums and bulletin boards as a service and convenience to its members. You must be a member of the Medical Society and establish a user account to use these portions of the Site. You should understand the risks involved with using these types of features. Before you utilize these features of the Site it is important that you read, understand and agree to the following terms and conditions and all of the Terms on this Site.
You agree that you will not:

  • Upload any material to this Site that infringes any proprietary right, including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights.
  • Upload any material that is obscene, libelous, defamatory, harassing, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.
  • Impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
  • “Stalk” or otherwise harass another user.
  • Upload protected health information about patients. Such information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as applicable Pennsylvania laws protecting the confidentiality of information pertaining to HIV-related information, mental health information, and drug/alcohol abuse and treatment information. You will be held accountable for posting information that violates a patient’s right to privacy under these laws.
  • Store personal data about others.
  • Post content or engage in discussions that would implicate the antitrust laws in violation of the Medical Society’s Antitrust Policy, as amended from time-to-time. By way of example, but without limiting the foregoing, you agree not to engage in the following activity:
    • Disclose or discuss the competitive terms of any physician or other health care provider, including, but not limited to the following information:
      • Current or future charges
      • Possible increases or decreases in charges
      • What constitutes a “fair” or acceptable profit level
      • Current or future costs for staff, equipment or supplies
      • Methodology for establishing charges
      • Whether the provider will participate in any health plan of any third-party payer
      • Discounts
      • Credit terms
      • Patient volume
      • Market share
    • Discourage or withhold patronage or services from, or encourage exclusive dealing with, any supplier; purchaser; group of suppliers; purchasers of products or services; any actual or potential competitor; group of actual potential competitors; or any private or governmental entity.
    • Allocate or divide geographic or service markets or patients/clients.
    • Restrict, limit, prohibit or sanction advertising or solicitation that is not false, misleading, deceptive or directly competitive with PAMED or its services.
    • Discourage entry into or competition in any segment of the marketplace.
    • Disclose or discuss whether the practices of any member, actual or potential competitor or other person are unethical or anti-competitive.

As a condition of your use, you agree to indemnify the Medical Society for all claims relating to any material or information posted by you on this Site.

PAMED is not responsible for the information or material posted on this Site by another party and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided by any other party. Notwithstanding the foregoing, PAMED reserves the right to remove any posting to the Site that the Medical Society deems inappropriate in its sole discretion. In addition, PAMED may revoke your user account in the event that PAMED determines, in its sole discretion, that you have violated the posting rules set forth herein.

Remember that there are risks in dealing with people you do not know and that PAMED has no control over such risks. You need to exercise care in these transactions. People may provide information that is offensive, false, harmful, or deceptive. Please be cautious when sharing information, especially personal information, with others.

Because we do not control the transactions between you and other users, you hereby acknowledge that PAMED is in no way liable for any claims arising from your transactions with other users via this Site.

Ownership, Copyright and Trademark
You agree and acknowledge that PAMED is the owner of all rights in this Site and the materials that appear on the Site and that you will not challenge those rights or do anything that might impair or damage those rights.

This Site is protected by copyright, trademark and other laws of the United States and other countries. Any unauthorized use of any material on this Site may violate such laws.

The trademarks, logos, and service marks used and displayed on this Site (the “Trademarks”) are registered and unregistered trademarks of PAMED and others. Under no circumstances may you use any of the Trademarks, whether owned or licensed to us. Nothing on this Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademarks without the written permission of the Trademark owner.

If you make any copies of the Site, or portions of the Site, such copies must include the appropriate copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices. You may not modify, copy, redistribute, republicize, retransmit, sell, display or create derivative works, or use the Site, or any portion of the Site, for a commercial purpose without our prior permission.

No links may be established to any part of this Site and no information on this Site may be framed without our prior written approval.

Any questions concerning the use of the Trademarks or to request approval for linking and/or framing should be referred to stat@pamedsoc.org.

If you believe that any of your work was copied by another, in a way that infringes your copyright or other intellectual property rights, and is posted on this Site, please provide PAMED with the following information:

  1. A description of your work that you believe was infringed
  2. A description of the work believed to be infringing and where it appears on the Site; and
  3. Your contact information (name, address, telephone number and email address).

This information should be accompanied by a statement that you believe, in good faith, that the infringing use is not authorized, and that, under penalty of perjury, all of the information in this notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

This notice should be signed and provided to PAMED’s copyright agent designated below:

Lauren Till
Associate Director, Information Technology
Pennsylvania Medical Society
777 East Park Drive
PO Box 8820
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8820

Medical Disclaimer
Any medical or general health information provided on this Site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or:

  • To replace the services of a trained health professional
  • To be a substitute for medical advice of a physician
  • As a recommendation or endorsement of any particular doctor

Legal Disclaimer
Any legal information provided on this Site is provided for informational purposes only, is not intended as legal advice and is not intended to replace the services of legal counsel.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
YOUR USE AND BROWSING OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE SITE OR ANY OF THE MATERIALS ON THE SITE, OR WITH ANY OF THE TERMS, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE ACCESSING AND USING THE SITE.

THE SITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND PAMED MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED BY LAW, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF:

  • MERCHANTABILITY
  • FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
  • FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES
  • NON-INFRINGEMENT
  • SECURITY
  • COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, APPROPRIATENESS OR ACCURACY

IN NO EVENT SHALL PAMED BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST DATA, PROFITS, SAVINGS, GOODWILL, OR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR ACCESS, USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, INCLUDING ANY VIRUSES WHICH MAY INFECT YOUR EQUIPMENT, EVEN IF THE PAMED HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THESE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY IN CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS.

Third Party Content
You acknowledge that the opinions and recommendations expressed or made available in this Site are those of the respective author(s) and are not necessarily those of PAMED or endorsed by PAMED.

Third Party Sites/Hyperlinks
This Site contains hyperlinks to other sites created and maintained by other organizations, which may or may not be related to PAMED. These links are provided for your convenience and are for reference only.

The Medical Society does not:

  • Sponsor or endorse the owners of such linked sites, or the products, materials, or information appearing on such linked sites.
  • Warrant that the information and materials appearing on such linked sites are maintained, accurate or error-free.
  • Warrant that the functions provided from such linked sites will be uninterrupted.

Access to such linked sites is at your own risk. Furthermore, links do not imply that PAMED is affiliated or associated with, or that any linked site is authorized to use any trademark, trade name, logo or copyright of PAMED unless otherwise stated.

Personally Identifiable Data
Any contact which you may make with PAMED or our employees via this Site must be for a PAMED business-related purpose and all such communications are property of PAMED, and subject to review and monitoring by us.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, personally identifiable data such as your name, postal address, email address and telephone number, which is provided to us through this Site, will be handled in accordance with the PAMED Privacy Policy.

Jurisdiction and Governing Law
PAMED operates and controls this Site (excluding linked sites) from its offices within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States of America.

You agree that the statutes and laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflicts of law principles, will apply to all matters regarding the use of this Site.

You also agree to submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the Common Pleas Court of Dauphin County and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania with respect to such matters.

PAMED makes no representation that the Site or the materials displayed on the Site are appropriate or available for use in any other jurisdictions or countries. If you attempt to access, use, or download the materials from this Site from other jurisdictions, you do so at your own risk, and you are responsible for complying with the laws of other jurisdictions.

International Users
Materials published at this Site may refer to products, programs or services that are not available in your country.

The PAMED makes no representation that this Site or the materials at this Site are appropriate or available for use at locations outside of the United States and access to them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited.

You may not use the Site or export information or materials on this Site in violation of the export or other laws, regulations, executive orders, decrees or other legal enactments or requirements of the United States or any other country.

If you access this Site from a location outside of the United States, you are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws.

By using this Site you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any country on the US Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals or the US Commerce Department’s Table of Deny Orders or Denied Persons List.