Clinic privacy policy

INFORMATION HANDLING

Australian privacy laws which apply to the privacy and confidentiality of medical information also apply to Telehealth consultations.

Clients have the right to withhold or withdraw consent to the use of Telehealth at any time either verbally or in writing, without affecting their rights to future care or treatment.

Your personal information is protected by law, including the Privacy Act 1988, and is collected by Services Australia for the assessment and administration of payments and services. This information is required to process your application or claim. Your information may be used by the agency, or given to other parties where you have agreed to that, or where it is required or authorised by law (including for the purpose of research or conducting investigations). You can get more information about the way in which the agency will manage your personal information, including our privacy policy.

Patient’s medical information will only be stored on secure, cloud-based medical software and will not be held on any insecure website or computer elsewhere.

For details on how Real Life Medicine’s clinical software provider (Halaxy) collects and handles your data please refer to: https://www.halaxy.com/article/privacy . For information about their data security measures CLICK HERE.

Our clinicians use an AI medical scribe called HEIDI to assist with note-taking. This allows them to focus more on the conversation and less on notetaking, but still ensure a thorough written record of your consultation. No enduring audio recordings are retained. Your clinician will notify you at the beginning of your consultation but you have the right to decline if you have concerns. CLICK HERE for more information about how HEIDI handles your private information.

Email addresses and phone numbers are required so that Real Life Medicine can contact clients regarding their appointments.

Clients booking with Real Life Medicine agree to receive SMS and email reminders unless they contact Real Life Medicine directly to withdraw consent at [email protected]. Emails will also be added to the Real Life Medicine mailing list to receive information updates and newsletters, but clients can opt out of this at any time.

Real Life Medicine will use secure email or document transfer systems to convey information to clients wherever possible, but the receipt and handling of that information is the clients’ own responsibility. If their email service is insecure it may potentially allow unauthorised access to information received and sent by the client.

Real Life Medicine will take all reasonable steps to mitigate these risks and protect the information sent and received, but the security and confidentiality of all electronic communications cannot be guaranteed.

Real Life Medicine may share information with patient’s usual doctors and/or the Australian e-Health record system with clients’ consent, but patients can withhold or withdraw that consent and/or choose which information is shared.