Purpose

Australian Menopause Centre Pty Ltd (AMC) recognises the importance of privacy and is committed to the management and handling of Personal Information in an open and transparent way. AMC is required to comply with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and this policy creates a framework to ensure that any Personal Information AMC holds is collected, used, stored and disclosed in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act.

Your personal information is held securely in accordance with this Privacy Policy and privacy laws and is treated with respect and care. You have the right to contact us to access or correct your personal information. We encourage you to contact us if you have questions or concerns about your privacy or how your personal information is handled by AMC.

Scope

This Privacy Policy documents the handling of Personal Information by AMC and all AMC related entities and operations, both within and outside of Australia and all business activities which utilise AMC information systems or infrastructure. At the time this policy was created, that included:

  • Men’s Clinic International
  • Menopause Health

References to AMC throughout this policy include AMC and the above related entities and business operations.
This policy does not apply to the handling of Personal Information about AMC employees.

Related Policies

AMC policies that should be read in conjunction with this policy are:

  • Mandatory Data Breach Reporting Plan
  • Employee Code of Conduct

Regulatory Environment

As a healthcare services company which deals with Personal Information and Sensitive Information, AMC has an obligation to respect the privacy of individuals and to follow the Australian and New South Wales privacy laws, which include:

  • the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended from time to time);
  • the National Privacy Principles contained in Schedule 3 to the Privacy Act or where applicable, the Australian Privacy Principles contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act;
  • Health Records Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW); and
  • all other applicable laws that require a person to observe privacy or confidentiality obligations in respect of Personal Information.

Please notify AMC in writing if you are currently, or in the future become, a resident of the European Union.

Personal Information Collected and Held by AMC

AMC may collect and hold information about individuals who may be customers, members of the general public, job applicants, business contacts, healthcare professionals and others.
The information AMC typically collects and holds is detailed below.

General Public

We collect personal information necessary to provide the health management services requested by you or your requesting clinician. When you become an AMC patient, an electronic record is made containing your personal information such as your name, date of birth, address and other contact details. The information we receive in a request will typically include information about your health including:

  • your medical history;
  • results of previous tests and investigations;
  • medications you may be taking or treatments you are undergoing;
  • details about your treating doctors and other health professionals involved in your care;
  • information required for a pharmacist to fulfill a prescription;
  • other information which may be relevant to your care.

We may also collect other sensitive information that is relevant to your care. Information may also be collected about individuals who are not patients of AMC. For example, we may collect information about your family in the form of a family medical history.

Job Applicants

The types of Personal Information AMC collects from job applicants, including for both employment and contract positions, may include:

  • Employment history
  • Qualifications
  • Information relating to credentialing of health professionals
  • Opinions about suitability for employment from referees and previous employers
  • Taxation and banking details
  • Information from public domain and social media websites
  • Driver’s licence/passport details
  • Superannuation Fund details
  • Next of Kin

Job applicants have the right to not disclose Personal Information, however AMC may not be able to assess a candidate’s suitability for employment when it does not receive all necessary information.  AMC will only disclose the Personal Information of job applicants to third parties with the consent of the job applicant, or as otherwise permitted in limited circumstances by law.

Once a position has been filled, all applications received by AMC are filed and kept by the recruitment manager in the human resources team.  However, the following information, if previously collected, will not be retained for applicants who do not commence employment or a contract position with AMC: bank account details, driver’s licence/passport, Tax File Number, superannuation fund details, next of kin.

Business Contacts

  • Your name, business address, business telephone number(s) and email address
  • Dealings with AMC in respect of general business relationships
  • Work, professional and employment references, reports and assessments
  • Information from public domain websites
  • Information obtained when you access AMC’s website

Healthcare Professionals

  • Your name, business address, business telephone number(s) and email address
  • Professional details
  • Practice specialty including areas of interest
  • Membership of professional associations
  • Practice and/or business information including, where applicable, interest in AMC products
  • Information relating to your patients
  • Information from public domain websites
  • Information obtained when you access AMC’s website

Adverse Event Reporting

AMC is required by law to report Adverse Events to sponsors of medicines listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.
The following information is collected and used to fulfil these reporting requirements:

  • Identifiable patient information, which may be required for an Adverse Event report to be validated or for follow-up, however in general, only patient initials OR age OR gender is required.
  • Suspect Drug Information (name, strength, dosage, route of administration, therapy start and end date, indications for use).
  • Adverse Event details (date started/ended, outcome, causality).
  • Concomitant medications (if any)
  • Medical conditions (if available)

How Will AMC Collect Your Personal Information

Wherever possible, AMC will collect Personal Information about you directly from you. Nevertheless, on some occasions AMC may collect your Personal Information from other sources, such as:

  • Third party agents or data providers
  • Public domain websites on the Internet
  • Electronic communications such as articles and information pieces in which you feature such as a health information site or a medical professional site
  • Publicly available directories and listings such as telephone directories
  • Newspapers, magazines, professional journals and the electronic media
  • The date, time and domain from which you access AMC’s website
  • Personal interactions and/or communications with AMC employees and/or contractors
  • Databases purchased from an external provider
  • Healthcare professionals

Personal information about you which AMC collects and holds may vary depending on your particular interaction with AMC and will be for a legitimate business purpose. AMC will not collect Sensitive Information about you, such as information about your health or ethnicity without your consent.

Collection of Your Personal Information Through AMC’s Website

AMC’s website provides for direct input of Personal Information under some circumstances.
In addition, AMC’s website makes use of ‘cookies’ which are small text files that are stored in the visitor’s local browser cache. This enables recognition of the visitor’s browser to optimise the website and simplify its use. Most browsers are set up to accept these cookies automatically, however you can deactivate the storing of cookies or adjust your browser to inform you before the cookie is stored on your computer. Data collected via cookies will not be used to determine the personal identity of the website visitor.
AMC expects to increasingly makes use of web analytics, including analysis by third party service providers, which may use IP addresses. While this may in some circumstances be ‘Personal Information’ neither AMC nor the service providers have any interest in an individual’s browser activities and will not use the information to take any action targeted to individuals without having obtained that person’s consent.

How Will AMC Hold and Use Your Personal Information

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

  • Information relating to patients, healthcare professionals and third parties with which AMC conducts business will be held on AMC’s secure customer relationship management (CRM) software platform. This information will be accessed and used in the ordinary course of conducting business, including but not limited to communicating with you, order processing and fulfilment, accounting, responding to enquiries or complaints.
  • Information relating to third parties with which AMC conducts business will be used to facilitate the provision of products and services to AMC.

Personal Health Information

  • AMC will collect and record your personal health information obtained from you during the course of telephone or in-person health consultations.
  • Your personal health information may be provided to your referring healthcare professional or to other healthcare professionals involved in your treatment and care.
  • AMC may use your personal health information to prepare a prescription and deliver it to a pharmacy to have your medication dispensed.

Other Use and Disclosure

AMC may disclose information about you in the course of any of the uses described above, including to related businesses and third-party service providers for routine business purposes such as order delivery, marketing, hosting, data processing and validation, data storage or archiving, printing and mailing. AMC will use only reputable service providers and will ensure that it enters into appropriate contractual provisions with service providers to safeguard your privacy.

Should AMC in the future buy or sell (or propose to buy or sell) all or part of its business, AMC may disclose your Personal Information to a third party, as customer information is generally regarded as a business asset.
AMC will otherwise only disclose Personal Information about you to a third party where required by law.

Overseas Recipients

AMC conducts business either directly or via third parties in jurisdictions outside of Australia which includes an AMC affiliate entity maintained overseas. AMC ensures that any AMC or AMC affiliate facility complies with the privacy laws in Australia in the management of Personal Information.  Your personal information including sensitive information will be collected by, transferred to or accessed by personal based in the AMC affiliate facility as part of the routine provision of services to you by AMC.

Where AMC uses external service providers located in countries outside of Australia, AMC takes reasonable steps, including by contract provisions, to ensure that these service providers do not breach the Australian privacy laws.

  • Data Security

AMC uses technical and organisational security precautions to protect your data from misuse, interference or loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Any Personal Information that is provided to AMC by you through AMC’s systems will be encrypted in transit to prevent its possible misuse by third parties. AMC’s security procedures are continuously revised based on new technological developments.
In the event of an actual or suspected data breach, AMC will follow the procedures outlined in its Mandatory Data Breach Response Plan, including

  • containing the data breach
  • conducting a risk assessment to assess the severity rating of a suspected or known data breach
  • assessing whether an Eligible Data Breach has occurred.

If an Eligible Data Breach has occurred, AMC may report the data breach to third parties such as:

  • AMC’s financial services provider
  • police or law enforcement bodies
  • the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC)
  • the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
  • the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)
  • the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)
  • the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA)
  • the Department of Health
  • State or Territory Privacy and Information Commissioners
  • Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
  • professional associations and regulatory bodies
  • insurance providers.

AMC will contact you if you have been personally impacted by an Eligible Data Breach.

Data Retention

AMC will delete from its records Personal Information which it is no longer required to maintain due to legal or regulatory requirements. This does not apply to patient medical records, which will be retained for a minimum period of 7 years after a patient’s most recent contact with AMC.
If AMC is required to retain Personal Information (e.g. Adverse Event records), then wherever practicable, it will be held in a de-identified form.

Data Access and Correction

You may request access to Personal Information AMC holds about you at any time. If you believe your Personal Information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you may request to have it corrected.
Requests to access or correct Personal Information should be sent to the Privacy Officer. Please provide as much detail as possible to assist in the location of information AMC may be holding about you, such as your name, contact details, any former name(s), and if possible the context, for example, your relationship with AMC. Please specify if you are seeking access to specific Personal Information.
AMC will respond to your request within 30 days of receipt or within any further time notified to you in writing.

Deletion of Data

You may notify AMC at any time if you do not wish AMC to retain your Personal Information. AMC will comply with all such requests wherever practicable and lawful.

  • Complaints

All complaints regarding your Personal Informational should be made in writing to AMC’s Privacy Officer.
AMC will respond to your complaint within 30 days of receipt of your correspondence or within any further time notified to you in writing.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the response you receive, we can refer you to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (as applicable) for further investigation.

Privacy Officer contact information
All requests relating to access, correction or deletion of Personal Information, or any other information relating to AMC’s Privacy Policy should be made in writing to:
The Privacy Officer
Australian Menopause Centre Pty Ltd
436-438 Burwood Road
Belmore
NSW 2192
Australia
Phone: 1300 883 405
Or by email: privacy@theamc.com.au

  • Definitions
Term Definition
AMC Australian Menopause Centre Pty Ltd, the Men’s Clinic International, Menopause Health and other related entities or businesses using AMC information systems or other infrastructure which AMC places within the framework of this policy.
Confidential Information Information that is not known to, or readily accessible by, the public and disclosure of that information would cause harm to or disadvantage a person or organisation. Access and disclosure of Confidential Information must be controlled and will only be given to persons who require access to perform their duties.
Data Breach An incident, in which Personal Information or Confidential Information is lost or subjected to unauthorised access, modification, disclosure, or other misuse or interference.
Eligible Data Breach A Data Breach which has caused serious harm to an individual requiring notification under the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme under the Privacy Act.
Personal Information Any information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, as defined in the Privacy Act.
Privacy Act Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
Sensitive Information Personal Information categorised as Sensitive Information under the Privacy Act, including but not limited to health records.

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