Surgery TV Privacy Policy

Your rights in relation to privacy

Surgery TV Pty Ltd ACN 647 824 388 (“Surgery TV”, “we”, “us”, “our”) understands the importance of protecting and respecting the privacy of an individual’s personal information. 

This policy (together with our Terms and any other documents referred to in it) sets out how Surgery TV aims to protect the privacy of your personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information managed by Surgery TV and the way Surgery TV collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information.

In handling your personal information, Surgery TV complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), the 13 Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act and all other relevant Australian privacy and health records laws.

This policy applies to all individuals about whom Surgery TV collects personal information including patients, surgeons, referring doctors, other health professionals, potential employees, contractors, suppliers, service providers engaged by us and other individuals engaged by or providing services to Surgery TV.

This policy may be updated from time to time.

What kinds of personal information does Surgery TV collect?

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual.   Health information is a subset of personal information and includes information or an opinion about:

  • the health or disability of an individual; or
  • an individual’s expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to them; or
  • a health service provided or to be provided to an individual.

Surgery TV may collect your personal information during the provision of its products and/or services.  The products and/or services provided by Surgery TV include the recording, editing, storage and display of video footage of surgical procedures and photo stills of surgical procedures taken from video and medical imaging devices, and storage of PDF document reports of surgical procedures.

It is intended that only video footage and photos of parts of the body which do not identify the individual will be used.  Identifying images (such as a person’s face) will only be used with that individual’s prior written consent.

Generally, the kinds of personal information Surgery TV collects are:

  1. contact and identification information such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth, or other types of verification details;
  2. if you are a medical practitioner, your medical registration details;
  3. health information where you are a patient including:
    • where you consent to the collection of such information and if relevant to the provision of our products and/or services;
    • information about your health history, family history, ethnic background and current lifestyle;
    • health records, including digital surgical records and digital consultation records;
    • notes about your diagnosis;
    • your treating team’s contact information, and specialist reports and test results;
    • information about your operation or health service you have had/received or will have/receive;
    • before and after photographs of the area of your body undergoing operation;
    • video footage of your operation;
    • appointment and billing details;
    • your Medicare number and health insurance details;
  4. where you are applying for a position with Surgery TV, information that is relevant to Surgery TV’s assessment of whether you are able to perform the inherent requirements of the particular role, including your education, qualifications, experience and work history, and health information; and
  5. other information required for Surgery TV’s functions and activities, including where required by law.

In some circumstances Surgery TV may also hold other personal information provided by you or by third parties on your behalf.

How does Surgery TV collect personal information?

Where possible, Surgery TV collects your personal information directly from you (if you are a patient), through scanning your patient sticker at the time of surgery using Surgery TV smart phone technology, or through the completion of a form, in a medical appointment, or by way of interaction through our website, telephone, video conference, facsimile, email or post.

If you are a patient, there may be occasions when Surgery TV collects your personal information from third parties and other sources such as from:

  1. your surgeon, a referring medical practitioner or nominated general practitioner;
  2. other health service providers or health professionals who provide health care to you;
  3. your patient identification tags and labels at the time of surgery;
  4. health care workers involved in, or consulted in relation to, your treatment and associated administration (for example, pathology or radiology services); or
  5. a hospital where you receive health care.

If you are not a patient, Surgery TV may collect your personal information from third parties and other sources such as from:

  1. an entity you represent, where necessary for Surgery TV to provide its products or services to that entity through you or where necessary for that entity to supply products or services to Surgery TV;
  2. an information services provider;
  3. a publicly maintained record or other publicly available sources of information including social media and similar websites, such as LinkedIn; or
  4. if for recruitment purposes, an external recruitment, labour hire, or background screening services provider or third parties with whom you have previously worked.

Generally, Surgery TV will only collect your personal information from sources (including third parties) other than you if it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect personal information directly from you. 

Why does Surgery TV need your personal information?

If you are a patient, Surgery TV collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information for the purpose of enabling medical practitioners (including your surgeon) to provide you with health care and for directly related purposes.  In particular, Surgery TV enables surgeons to efficiently, securely and electronically handle personal information in the provision of health care.

For patients, Surgery TV may also collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the one or more of the following purposes:

  1. if you are a patient, to allow you to access and view video footage of your operation;
  2. providing Surgery TV products and/or services to you (or the organisation you represent) and all associated purposes including:
    1. to verify your identity and contact details;
    2. for invoicing and administrative purposes;
    3. to respond to any inquiries, feedback or complaints made by you; and
    4. engaging with you in your dealings with Surgery TV;
  3. enabling Surgery TV to promote its products and services to you if you are a potential future surgical patient;
  4. assisting Surgery TV to improve its products and services;
  5. invoicing, billing and other internal administrative purposes;
  6. otherwise managing Surgery TV’s internal business operations and processes;
  7. complying with legal requirements; and/or
  8. providing information to a surgeon, insurer or a court if required in the event of actual or anticipated legal proceedings.

For potential employees, Surgery TV may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

  1. processing and assessing employment applications for current and future positions;
  2. your employment with Surgery TV; and
  3. matters which are permitted or required by law.

For medical practitioners Surgery TV may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

  1. enabling you to maintain and document electronic health records, including digital surgical records and digital consult records; and
  2. enabling Surgery TV to promote its products and services to you.

Surgery TV may also use your personal information for purposes related to the above purposes (and where the information is health information, directed related to the above purposes) and for which you would reasonably expect Surgery TV to do so in the circumstances, or where you have consented, or the use is otherwise in accordance with law. 

Where personal information is used or disclosed, Surgery TV takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure it is relevant to the purpose for which it is to be used or disclosed.  You are under no obligation to provide your personal information to Surgery TV, and your consent may be withdrawn at any time.  However, without certain information from you, Surgery TV may not be able to provide its products and/or services to you.

To whom does Surgery TV disclose your personal information?

Surgery TV discloses your personal information for the purpose for which Surgery TV collects it.  That is, generally, Surgery TV will only disclose your personal information for a purpose set out at paragraph 4.  This may include disclosing your personal information to:

  1. if you are a patient:
    1. your treating surgeon;
    2. a referring medical practitioner or nominated general practitioner;
    3. other health care workers involved in, or consulted in relation to, your treatment and associated administration (for example, pathology or radiology services);
    4. other health service providers and health professionals that provide your treatment;
    5. a hospital where you receive health care;
    6. a third party provider (for example a rehabilitation provider);
    7. other health service providers in the event of an emergency where you are not able to provide consent;
    8. medical students and trainees;
  2. third parties engaged to perform administrative or other business management functions;
  3. people or entities considering acquiring an interest in Surgery TV’s enterprise or assets (noting that Surgery TV would not disclose health information or other sensitive information during this process);
  4. Surgery TV’s professional advisors, agents, contractors, consultants and related bodies corporate;
  5. insurance providers;
  6. recruitment and labour hire agencies (as required);
  7. regulatory bodies if and as necessary, including during audit processes; and
  8. as required by law.

Surgery TV disclosures of your personal information to third parties are on a confidential basis and/or otherwise in accordance with law.  Surgery TV may also disclose your personal information with your consent or if disclosure is required or authorised by law.

Video footage of your surgery

If you are a patient, Surgery TV may disclose video footage of your operation to your treating surgeon or third parties following your surgery for the following purposes:

  1. education (this would involve disclosure of de-identified video footage only):
    1. to allow surgeons to enhance their professional development;
    2. to enable surgeons to share information when participating in educational events or seminars;
    3. to educate other health professionals, medical students or trainees;
  2. marketing (this would involve disclosure of de-identified video footage only):
    1. to market and promote a surgeon’s practice and/or business;
    2. to share on a surgeon’s personal website;
    3. to develop a surgeon’s personal brand and reputation;
    4. for a surgeon to create a Surgery TV public profile;
  3. insurance (this would generally involve disclosure of de-identified video footage only, unless the disclosure of video footage is directly related to an insurance claim in relation to your surgery and/or health care):
    1. for health insurance purposes;
    2. for professional indemnity insurance purposes;
  4. legal purposes (this would generally involve disclosure of de-identified video footage only, unless the disclosure of video footage is directly related to a legal claim or matter in relation to your surgery and/or health care):
    1. for medico-legal purposes;
    2. to assist in defending a legal claim made against a surgeon.

Please note de-identified video footage of your operation does not contain any personal information, and is not information that is capable of identifying you.

Overseas disclosures

Surgery TV is not likely to disclose any personal information to overseas recipients.  De-identified video footage of your surgery may be shown during online presentations and at international conferences.

However, if Surgery TV becomes likely to disclose personal information to any recipients located overseas, Surgery TV will update this privacy policy regarding the likely disclosures (including, if it is practicable to do so, the countries in which such overseas recipients are likely to be located).

Surgery TV may store personal information ‘in the cloud’, which may mean that is resides on servers which are situated outside Australia.  If you have any queries or objections regarding the storage of personal information, please contact us on the details set out in paragraph 12.

Direct marketing

Surgery TV may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information in order to inform surgeons, interested persons or entities of products and services offered by Surgery TV or to facilitate business relationships.  Surgery TV would never use health information or other sensitive information for direct marketing purposes.

Individuals can opt-out of receiving such communications by contacting Surgery TV on the contact details set out in paragraph 12 or through any opt-out mechanism contained in a marketing communication. 

Security of your personal information

Surgery TV takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the personal information it holds is protected from misuse, interference, and loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. 

Surgery TV holds personal information in electronic form in secure databases, accessible only by authorised users. 

Surgery TV will destroy or de-identify personal information in circumstances where it is no longer required, unless Surgery TV is otherwise required or authorised by law to retain the information. 

Can you access and correct the personal information that Surgery TV holds about you?

Surgery TV takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure the personal information it holds is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading.  Under the Privacy Act and other applicable privacy and health records legislation, you have a right to access and seek correction of your personal information that is collected and held by Surgery TV. 

If at any time you would like to access or correct the personal information that Surgery TV holds about you, or you would like more information on Surgery TV’s approach to privacy, please contact Surgery TV’s Privacy Compliance Officer on the details set out in paragraph 12 below. 

Surgery TV will grant access to the extent required or authorised by the Privacy Act and other applicable privacy and health records legislation, and take steps reasonable in the circumstances to correct personal information where necessary and appropriate. 

To obtain access to your personal information:

      1. you will have to provide proof of identity to ensure that personal information is provided only to the correct individuals and that the privacy of others is protected;
      2. Surgery TV requests that you be reasonably specific about the information you require; and
      3. Surgery TV may charge you a reasonable administration fee, which reflects the cost to Surgery TV for providing access in accordance with your request.

Surgery TV will endeavour to respond to your request to access or correct your personal information within 30 days from your request or as otherwise required by law.

Cookies

When accessing Surgery TV’s website, Surgery TV may use ‘cookies’ which are small pieces of information sent from the website and stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive.  Cookies that Surgery TV may use enable its systems to provide features of its services, personalize and improve your experience, and improve the functionality and user-friendliness of its services and monitor how its website is used through your computer.

This information may be used by Surgery TV to improve and tailor its website functionality and better understand how you interact with Surgery TV’s products and services and to monitor aggregate usage and web traffic routing on its website. You can modify your browser setting by editing your browser options to reject Surgery TV’s cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie.  However, if a browser does not accept cookies or if you reject a cookie, some portions of Surgery TV’s online services may not function properly.

How to contact us

For further information or enquiries regarding your personal information, or if you would like to opt-out of receiving any promotional or marketing communications, please contact Surgery TV’s Privacy Compliance Officer at:

privacy@surgery.tv

Privacy complaints

Please direct all privacy complaints to Surgery TV’s Privacy Compliance Officer. At all times, privacy complaints:

      1. will be treated seriously;
      2. will be dealt with promptly;
      3. will be dealt with in a confidential manner; and
      4. will not affect your existing obligations or affect the commercial arrangements between you and Surgery TV.

Surgery TV’s Privacy Compliance Officer will commence an investigation into your complaint.  You will be informed of the outcome of your complaint following completion of the investigation.  In the event that you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you may refer the complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or the relevant health records authority.