This portion of www.YourHealthInformation.com (hereinafter referred to as "Web site," and "We") is designed to give visitors to the Web site (hereinafter referred to as "You" and "Your") a basic understanding of how the Web site operates, what the policies are, and what your obligations as a visitor are.

Privacy Policy - Our commitment to your confidentiality
Last revised February 18, 2005

As a user of this site, you take on certain risks and responsibilities. You also have the right to know how we protect your privacy and ensure your confidentiality and what you should expect from us. This site and Healthvision have partnered together to create this Web site. This site and Healthvision are responsible for the editorial content, products and services offered on this site and Healthvision maintains the site on our behalf.

Our Commitment to You

Healthvision is extremely committed to protecting your privacy and is a founding member of Hi-Ethics (Health Internet Ethics), a coalition of health information Web sites that has developed ethical principles for offering Internet health services to consumers. The principles are designed to help ensure that Internet health services reflect high quality and ethical standards, provide health information that is trustworthy and up-to-date, clearly identify online advertising, disclose sponsorships or other financial relationships, keep personally identifiable information private and secure, and empower consumers to distinguish online health services that follow the principles from those that do not. Healthvision strives to ensure that the operation of this Web site complies with the principles, including those related to privacy as further described below.

Your Role, Responsibilities and Risks

• You need to be an informed user of this site. Please read all our policies in full so you know how our site works and how you interact with the site.

• Pay special attention to your risks as a user. Web site users open themselves up to certain risks, such as data collection.

• Understand how we collect data and how it is used. It is our goal to protect your personal information from misuse. We do, however, offer programs that collect data for special reasons, such as research, scientific studies, and statistics, in which case you may be interested in participating.

• Be aware that use of this site, its services, programs, and the health information on it cannot replace nor is it intended to serve as a health care provider-patient relationship. You must always consult with a professional for diagnosis and treatment for specific health problems.

What You Should Expect From Us

• We will strive to maintain your privacy, confidentiality, and security at all times.

• It is our goal to ensure your trust and confidence by providing you with as much information as we can about data collection procedures and information when needed.

• We will not sell or share any information you provide, nor will we intentionally use your data without your permission, unless for purposes of maintaining the site or for reviewing the site's use.

• We will make every effort to notify you accordingly of all data collection practices.

• It is our intention to clearly inform you when your risks or privacy may change during the course of using this site.

• We will make every attempt to tell you when our privacy policy is no longer in effect and another one is, such as when you use an integrated program that is being operated on another web site with a different privacy policy.

• It is our goal to make you aware when you leave our site for another.

• We want you to know that this system operates on a secure server and your personal and professional information and health-related personal information is encrypted before it is transmitted. Encryption is a form of scrambling and de-scrambling that ensures that no unauthorized person can see your information.

• We will separate health information content from advertising and sponsorship programs so you can distinguish between the two.

• Where health professionals may interact with consumers, we will make every effort to tell you if this establishes a patient-provider relationship and make available the credentials and qualifications of professionals.

• We will not accept or show you health information content, advertising, sponsored programs, or services that we know to contain false or misleading information or that promote ineffective or dangerous products.

Our Security Measures

We want your personal information to remain as secure as possible; our business depends on it. We use encryption practices to help insure the integrity and privacy of the personal information and/or health-related personal information you provide to us. As an added security precaution, all personal information and/or health-related personal information are kept on servers with firewalls that meet or exceed industry standards to prevent intruders from gaining access. Although we make every reasonable effort to protect personal information and health-related personal information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information via the Internet and that hackers or thieves do find ways to thwart security systems.

Changes in Our Privacy Policy

It is our goal to use personal information and health-related personal information in the manner described in the privacy policy that is in effect when your information is collected. We do, however, reserve the right to change the terms of this privacy policy at any time and will post revisions to our site. If at any point, personal information or health-related information is to be used differently from those practices stated in the privacy policy in effect when your data was colleted, we will notify you. You will be given the choice to opt-in to any additional uses or disclosures of your personal information.

About the Information We Collect

We understand that the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personally Indentifiable Health Information (PIHI) you provide during your visit to our site is highly sensitive and you may have concerns about sharing such information with us. It is our goal to protect your privacy and we strive to develop practices and policies to safeguard your personal and health-related personal information.

At different places on our site, you may be asked to volunteer your name, e-mail, address and telephone number. We refer to this type of information as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) because it can be used to identify or contact you. When this information is combined with any information on your health or medical status, we refer to this information as Personally Identifiable Health Information (PIHI). We often collect information on site use that has nothing to do with you as an individual, only as an anonymous user of the site. We call this information "aggregate information." We intend to use the personal information, health-related personal information, and aggregate information only for the purposes for which it was provided.

Some personal information and health-related personal information is needed to use this site, and we ask that you provide it with the knowledge that it will be used to enhance your experience. This information is kept confidential. We do offer special data collection programs that you can "opt-in" to use, in some cases to receive e-mail on health topics or to participate in a new service. For opt-in programs we provide you, when applicable, with detailed information on:

• Who is collecting the data

• What data are collected

• Why and how the data are transferred to a third party

• How the data are being used

• How long the data are being collected

• Who has access to the data

• What revenue that is generated from data use in relation to advertisers and sponsors

• How to opt-out of data collection.

Please note that Healthvision does not actually collect any personally identifiable health information (PIHI). Any of this information you voluntarily provide to us is collected only by WellMed, a third-party content provider, and their use of personally identifiable information is governed by WellMed's privacy policy.

Where This Information Is Collected

We collect information about you at several places throughout the site. You will be informed on how this information is colleted at that time. You will also have the ability to opt-in to information collection when you enter the site or use a service. Most information is collected in the following instances:

• Interactive Services/Tools

In order to access the interactive services and tools which may be available on our site, you are required to complete a registration form that requests certain information, such as name, date of birth, gender and e-mail address. In addition, you are asked during registration to tell us about health topics that you are interested in.

We may use your registration information to send you an e-mail confirming your registration with our site, to respond to questions from you, or to notify you if there is a problem with any order for goods or services that you placed. We may also, from time to time, send e-mails, with your permission, on special promotions or newsletters we think may be of interest to you. You may opt out of this at any time.

Some of the interactive tools on our site ask you for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personally Indentifiable Health Information (PIHI). Specifically, our health risk assessment tools may ask for information on your personal and/or family medical history including height, weight, blood pressure, history of certain conditions and/or diseases and medication history. Our healthcare professional directory may ask you for information on your insurance plan and geographic location in order to identify listed professionals in your area. The health risk assessment tools use the personal health information you provide to generate a personal health record to help you manage your health. Your personal health record is kept strictly confidential and can only be accessed by using your password and login ID. We will make every effort not to use or disclose your personal health record to any one without your express consent. In some cases, you can permit your physician, pharmacist or other health care-related professional to have access to your personal health record.

WellMed, Inc. is contracted to provide the health risk assessment tools on this site. When you select to use a tool, you will in fact be working on WellMed's site and it will collect your data and return the results directly to you via our servers. In all instances where a WellMed tool is used, you will have access to WellMed's privacy policy and information on how the tool works and when it was last evaluated.

• Classes and Events Registration

We may offer information on classes and events on this site, including the ability to register online. If you wish to register online, you are required to complete a registration form that requests certain information, such as name, telephone number and e-mail address. This information is collected by Healthvision, and is provided only to your local hospital. Any interactions you engage in during the course of class or event registration will be strictly between you and your local hospital.

• Chat Rooms/Bulletin Boards

As a service to our users, we may feature chat rooms/bulletin boards where users with similar medical conditions can share information and support one another. In addition, we may also offer online discussions on a variety of topics moderated by medical experts. You should be aware that any information shared in a chat room/bulletin board is public information and you should think carefully before disclosing any personal and/or health-related personal information in any chat room/bulletin board.

• Online Shopping

When this service is offered on this site and you purchase non-prescription products and services from us, such as ordering flowers for delivery to a local hospital, we will request that you provide your name, e-mail address, credit card number and expiration date, phone number, and billing and shipping addresses.

If you order prescription drugs or medical equipment, we will ask for all of the information above, as well as the information that you would ordinarily provide to your pharmacist, including your prescribing doctor's name, your residential address, your gender and birth date, any drug allergies and existing medical conditions. If applicable, we will also ask for your health insurance information including the name, address and telephone number of your insurer and your member identification number (which may be your Social Security number). We may also ask for additional information about your current prescriptions and medical history. This information will help us provide you with the necessary information to make the safest and most effective use of your prescription medication or equipment.

This information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We will make every effort to maintain the privacy and security of this information at all times.

Our Site Uses Cookies

In addition to collecting information that you submit to us, we also rely on "cookies." A cookie is a numeric code that a Web site transfers to your hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Every computer is assigned a different cookie, but our cookie does not contain or collect your name or other personal identifying information. When you revisit our site, the cookie allows us to recognize you, your interests, and your preferences. We also use cookies to help track the level of interest in different features on our site and to compile data that can help us improve our content.

Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies, including cookies from our site. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the Help section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookie, certain functions and conveniences of the site may not work properly. You do not have to accept our cookie in order to productively use our site. If you accept our cookie, we will never link the cookie to personal information and/or health-related personal information you provide to us. We will not allow other sites or third parties to use our cookies.

How We Use Your Personal Information

We continually seek new ways to maintain your trust as a user and improve our offerings. To provide new and better services, we tend to monitor user traffic patterns and try to analyze what our users like and do not like about our current offerings so we can design better services for you. We may also use certain information for testing purposes, site development and planning, and during the normal course of maintaining the site. When you use our site, you automatically allow us to collect this information. In these cases, researchers, business analysts, system designers, and others may have access to the data we collect.

We do not intend to use or disclose any personal information or health-related personal information you provide on our site to an unrelated third party without your express permission, except as explained in this section. You should know that there are circumstances when, in the ordinary course of business, we will share some information about you with a related third party.

• We have relationships with different vendors and suppliers that ship products ordered on our site directly to our customers. In these cases, we provide to the vendor the information necessary to fulfill your order, such as the items ordered, your name, and shipping address. We require these partners to adhere to our privacy policy and have discussed with them that they are not to use our customer information for any other purpose.

• If you have insurance coverage for your prescriptions, your insurance company or prescription benefit manager may have access to information about your orders so they can process your benefits or assist you with your prescription orders, if necessary. This information is shared in accordance with the terms of your health plan and the information remains confidential.

• We may also share aggregate statistical information on our users, sales, traffic patterns and site usage with our business partners and sponsors. There is nothing in this information that could be used to identify or contact you.

• We may, from time to time, contract with vendors to provide specific services, such as data analysis, data storage, e-mail processing, customer service, sweepstakes or special promotions. We ask vendors to adhere to our confidentiality standards and do not permit a vendor to use our customer information for any other purpose. In many of these instances, you will be given the opportunity to opt-in to this collection of information and can opt-out at any time.

• We may share registration data with business partners that maintain a co-branded service or content, only with your affirmative consent. For more information on co-branded sites, read the information below on our relationships with third parties.

• In certain limited circumstances, we may be legally compelled to release your personal information in response to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, law or regulation. In the event that we are compelled to disclose personal information and/or health-related personal information to a third party, we will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order. We also reserve the right to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigating and prosecuting users that violate our rules or engage in behavior that is harmful (or illegal) to other users.

Our Relationship with Third Parties

Where third parties such as sponsors, information providers, and health assessment software tools providers, have access to health-related personally identifiable information from this Web site, our agreements with these third parties will follow these privacy principles in giving you notice and choice with respect to their access and use. Where we have relationships with third parties, we will adopt procedures to tell you if third parties have access to personally identifiable information about you from our site. We will take appropriate precautions to prevent inadvertent disclosures of personally identifiable information to third parties and will take immediate steps to eliminate such disclosures, if they occur, once they have come to our attention.

At present, there is only one third party, health assessment software tool on this Web site. My HealthQuotient™ by WellMed is a personally identifiable health information self-assessment software tool that appears on the site as part of the "MyHealth" section. As described on the WellMed Web site, the tool "assesses your overall health status, identifies risks and delivers personalized information and recommendations relevant to your specific needs." The personally identifiable information that you input into the tool will not be disclosed to any third party by WellMed or VHA. Again, please note that VHA does not collect any personally identifiable health information. Any of this information you voluntarily provide to us is collected by WellMed, and their use of personally identifiable information is governed by WellMed's privacy policy. Also, if you elect to "opt-in" to receive email communications from VHA, please understand that these communications are coming from WellMed on our behalf.

If you wish to have your personally identifiable health information removed from the WellMed database, you may do so by submitting a written request to WellMed. WellMed will remove personal information only at the request of an authorized user of their products. In order to verify that it is the authorized user requesting removal of their personal information, WellMed requires you to send a signed statement, including your name, address, email address and birth date, to the address below authorizing WellMed to remove your personal information from their active databases and other readily searchable media.

WellMed, Inc.
Attn: Record Removal
520 NW Davis St.
Suite 300
Portland, OR 97209

WellMed will notify you by e-mail after your personal information has been removed.

Additionally, we work with several types of third-party vendors, including those that provide products and services that we integrate to our site, sponsors that provide us revenue through logo and link placement on our site, advertising companies that serve up advertisement programs for the site, and organizations that maintain this site. We request that third-party vendors supply us with information on their security procedures, and we evaluate them periodically to ensure that they are using data in the agreed upon way.

You should know that our relationship with some third-party vendors provide us with revenues based on the number of users who view an advertisement or use a sponsored or co-branded program. These revenues are based on the use of a site and not on you as an individual. In some cases we also receive revenue from the use of external services, such as buying flowers online or other such services, and may get a commission on specific purchases made online. In addition, we may allow third-party vendors to buy aggregate data collected on our site but that data cannot be used to identify you.

There are three types of relationships that differ from our standard business partner relationship in which we license content or a product for integration. These exceptions are:

• Sponsored or Co-Branded Sites

We allow other companies to make services and/or content available to you, sometimes on a sponsored or co-branded basis. To access the services on a sponsored or co-branded site, you may have to complete an online registration form in addition to the registration you completed for us. Whenever you provide registration information on sponsored or co-branded sites, data can be collected. You should read the individual privacy policies of sponsored or co-branded sites. Reading the policies will help you make an informed decision on whether or not you want to use the site.

• Advertising Servers

We may have relationships with third-party advertising servers to display advertisements on our site. If you click on an advertisement while on our site you will be taken to another site where your risk and privacy change. These third-party ad servers may use cookies to collect non-personal information on your preferences and interests via the advertisement you decide to view. We do not give them access to non-personal information that we might collect on our site unless they agree not to use that information in combination with information they already possess to identify our users. We do not intentionally share with third-party ad servers any personal or health-related personal information that you share with us.

You should know that we might allow advertising to be coordinated with health information content on our site. This happens through linking up identification codes with an ad and a health topic. In no way is your use of this site and the health information you view directly connected with advertising.

• External Links

We feature external links to other Web sites that we believe you might find useful; however, we do not endorse these sites. Additionally, unless otherwise noted in this section, links to other sites are provided strictly for informational purposes, and are not based on any fees or reimbursements paid to Healthvision for “clicks.” We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We will make every effort to notify you when you are leaving our site and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of each site you visit that may collect information or ask you to disclose personal information and/or health-related personal information.

Framed Links

In some cases, this Web site will “frame” another Web site within this site’s navigation. When this is done, you will be notified that you are accessing another site within this site, and that the framed site carries a different set of policies, prior to accessing it.

We have agreements with the following organizations to frame their content within our site:

· WellMed
· Veritas Medicine
· Medline from the National Library of Medicine
· Consumer Product Safety Commission
· Food and Drug Administration
· USDA Food and Safety Inspection Service
· National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Veritas Medicine pays a fee to Healthvision, based on clicks generated to their site from this site. The use of all other framed sites is not based on any fees or reimbursements paid to Healthvision. In the case of WellMed, Healthvision pays a fee for their content and/or services. For all other framed sites, there is no financial relationship based on these links.

Our Children's Policy

Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to register on our site, or to access areas that require registration. We have established a mechanism in the registration process that does not allow children under 13 to complete the registration process. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected information from an individual under the age of 13, that information will be immediately and permanently removed from our servers.

Your Privacy Choices

You have the choice on this site to opt-in to information collected about you in most circumstances, the exceptions being the instances when data are used for site maintenance and so on. If you opt-in to data collection we make every effort to give you detailed information on the program or service you select. To opt-out of data collection, make any changes or updates, or request that information be deleted, you have several choices.

Opt-Out

When you register with our site, you are given the option of receiving e-mail with information that we think you might find useful including promotions, announcements of new services and products, and newsletters on particular health topics. You may also participate in our personalized e-mail reminder system that allows you to send an e-mail reminding you of certain health-related activities such as a doctor's visit or to schedule tests. If you decide, at any time, that you no longer wish to receive these e-mails you may opt-out by deselecting the checkbox on your personal information page.

Change/Update Personal Information

You may change or update your personal information and/or health-related personal information at any time using the following options:

• Go to your personal information page and change the information there.

• You can contact us in writing using the address in our Contact Us link

Remove or Delete Personal Information

You may remove previously provided personal and/or health-related personal information at any time using the following options:

• You can contact us in writing using the address in our Contact Us link

• To delete information from the Wellmed database, please follow the instructions outlined on this page under the header, "Our Relationship with Third Parties"

Users should be aware that it is not always technically possible to remove or delete the information you provide to us. We back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss, and that means a copy of your personal information may exist in a non-erasable form that may be difficult or impossible for us to locate. Nevertheless, upon receiving your request we will try to remove or delete all personal information and/or health-related personal information stored in the databases that we use for research and daily business activities. We will not intentionally disclose any personal information stored in a non-erasable format after receiving your request for removal, except as required by law.

There are certain restrictions on your ability to correct, update or remove the health information you enter into a personal health record. If your doctor or other health care professional has access to your personal health record, and they add information to that record, your personal record could be considered an official medical record for legal purposes. In this case, information cannot be deleted or removed, only updated or annotated.

Relationship to Advertising/Sponsorship Policy

The principles and practices outlined in our Advertising/Sponsorship Policy will be continued and enhanced by the ongoing application of this Privacy Policy. For example, we will not permit any sales or marketing of personally identifiable health information to third party sponsors that would reveal to them personally identifiable medical conditions. We will provide the names and addresses of an individual user to sponsors or other third parties only when you indicate that you desire to review additional information from the third party and understand that your name and address information will be transmitted.

Questions or Comments

We are committed to continuously improving the quality of the health information and tools found on this Web site. If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy or the health information found on this Web site in general, please contact us at HealthInfo@healthvision.com, or write us at: Healthvision, Health Information Product Manager, 6330 Commerce Drive, Irving, Texas 75063.

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Advertising and Sponsorship Policy
Last revised February 18, 2005

Advertising or sponsorships may be displayed on this Web site. Healthvision has established the following principles to allow us to maximize the benefits to our sponsors, without in any way infringing on our essential editorial control and content integrity, or consumers' privacy.

No Influence on Healthvision's Health Information

There will be absolutely no influence of advertising or sponsors on the news, information, and editorial content presented on this Web site. There will not be any influence on the order of presentation, search engine priority/rankings, or quotes from qualified experts in various health areas.

Distinguishable from Content

All sponsorship of any kind on this Web site will be easily distinguishable to consumers from news, information, and editorial content. This goal will be achieved by including the words "advertisement" next to ads, and "sponsored by" next to sponsorship boxes, or next to health topics. Additionally, this site will not publish any "advertorial" content (sponsorships that make health claims) that is not clearly identified as such.

How We Use Sponsored Health Information

In some instances, we may allow companies to sponsor health information topics or specific pages of content on our site. We do not intend to allow sponsors to influence content. However, sponsored programs that appear on the site may contain information that the sponsor writes or has written for it. In these and in all cases where sponsorship appears, our goal is to provide you with the following information, when it relates to the sponsored program:

• The sponsor's involvement in selecting the content that is shown.

• The sponsor's involvement in preparing the content that is shown.

• The sponsor's involvement in search engine priority listing of results.

• The sponsor's involvement in product listings.

• The sponsor's involvement in other preferences or presentations of information that appear before users.

• A description of revenues or fees that are generated from sponsored programs.

Selection Criteria

Our selections are driven by the content relevance and the publicly known integrity of the advertisers and sponsors. Our selections are not based on personal information about any given consumer or his/her use of this Web site, but are based to some degree on aggregate users’ preferences and site usage data applicable to consumers as a group.

Prohibited Content

We will not accept any form of sponsorship that we consider inconsistent with the stated purposes of Healthvision's health information, or the Principles of the Hi-Ethics (Health Internet Ethics) coalition, of which Healthvision is a founding member. This means that we will not accept sponsored health information content that we know either contains false or misleading claims, or promotes ineffective or dangerous products. While proposals for sponsorships will be considered individually and without bias, we will not accept those related to tobacco, alcohol, and firearms.

No Endorsements

We will clearly disclose any third-party support or other sponsorships of items featured on this Web site. While sponsor messages appearing on this Web site may include links to other Web sites, Healthvision does not explicitly or by implication endorse the content of any third-party Web sites, or endorse any companies, products or claims made by our sponsors on this Web site. Healthvision does not assume any liability for products or services sponsored on this Web site. Any questions, comments or complaints should be addressed by site users directly to the sponsor.

Relationship to Privacy Policy

The principles and practices outlined in this Web site's Privacy Policy will be continued and enhanced by the ongoing application of this Advertising/Sponsorship Policy. We will not permit any sales or marketing of personal health information to third parties that would reveal personal medical conditions. We will provide the names and addresses of an individual user to advertisers or third parties only when the user indicates that he/she desires to review additional information from the third party and understands that the name and address information will be transmitted.

What Information is Collected and Why?

Healthvision has partnered with myDNA.com to provide advertising on select sites. myDNA.com collects information from its users in two ways: (a) Web server logs/IP addresses and (b) cookies

(a) Web Server Logs / IP addresses
An IP address is a number assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. All computer identification on the Internet is conducted with IP addresses, which allows computers and servers to recognize and communicate with each other. Hi-Privacy Networks (myDNA.com Web site service provider) collects IP addresses to conduct system administration, report aggregate information to affiliates, sponsors, or partners, including Hi-Privacy Networks to conduct site analysis and Web site performance review. Hi-Privacy Networks will also use IP addresses to identify users who threaten Hi-Privacy Networks service, sites, users, customers, or others.

(b) Cookies
A cookie is a piece of information that the computer that hosts our site gives to your computer (your browser) when you access a Web site. The cookie uniquely identifies your browser to the server so the server can maintain a session. Sessions allow us to temporarily store information on the server to help make the Web experience better. Personally identifiable information on users (name, e-mail, or home address, etc.) is NOT collected from users of myDNA.

Questions or Comments

We are committed to continuously improving the quality of our health information product. If you have any questions or comments regarding this policy or this health information in general, please contact us at at HealthInfo@healthvision.com, or write us at: Consumer Health Information Product Manager, Healthvision, 6330 Commerce Drive, Irving, Texas 75063.

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Editorial Policy
Last revised February 18, 2005

As a user of this site it is important that you are informed about our editorial processes and guidelines. We strive to provide you with accurate, comprehensive, and reliable health information that you can use to inform yourself as patients or caregivers. We have not provided health information written for a doctor or in medical terms, unless you are accessing a professional health content site.

The health information we provide for consumers is written specifically for consumers and patients to understand symptoms, a diagnosis, or a complicated illness. In addition, we provide you with a multitude of resources that supply you with more information on community self-help groups and access to content that can help you find the same clinical research that your doctor or clinician uses.

We feel it is critical that you know about our editorial processes so you can judge, on your own, the type of health information we provide on this site. The following sections provide detailed information on who provides the information for us, how the health information is evaluated, who writes the information, and how we use sponsored health information. In addition, we outline our conflict of interest policy.

It is important you understand that the health information content offered on this site cannot replace nor is it meant to represent a health care patient-provider relationship. You must always consult with a professional for diagnosis and treatment for specific health problems.

What You Can Expect From Us

• We will post, whenever possible, who wrote the material, where it came from, who reviewed it, and when it was written and last updated.

• We have not presented to you, to our knowledge, any health information that is false, misleading, or has claims of therapeutic benefit without sufficient clinical support.

• We do not, to our knowledge, allow health information on this site that promotes ineffective or dangerous products.

• We separate our health information from all forms of advertising and sponsorship so you can understand or see the difference between an advertisement and content.

• We will make every effort to show to you all relevant information about sponsored content so you can evaluate and create an opinion on such content.

• It is not our intention to gather information about you on what health information you look at that could be used to identify you. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information on data collection and use.

Who Provides Health Information For Us and Their Qualifications

Health news, information, and software tools appearing on this Web site are provided by the following reputable third-party health news and information sources. Healthvision has selected them based on the general quality and integrity of their information, and because they do not violate our conflict of interest policy.

Healthvision's management performs periodic reviews and analyses of the third parties' content review and control procedures prior to posting their information on the Web site. While We do not review all content pages or attempt to verify information in each article, Our review of their procedures helps to ensure that there are no claims of therapeutic benefit without reasonable support based on scientific methodologies such as clinical trials, surveys, or interviews, and that there is no false or misleading information.

Healthwise, Incorporated
http://www.healthwise.org

About Healthwise

Healthwise is a not-for-profit educational, charitable, and scientific organization founded in 1975 to help people do a better job of staying healthy and taking care of their health problems. Healthwise provides the core content for the Health Library, which includes:

• More than 5,000 evidence-based topics on health conditions, medical tests and procedures, medications, and everyday health and wellness issues.

• Compelling illustrations that complement the in-depth information.

• Current (updated quarterly), commercially-unbiased (we're nonprofit) content that is rigorously reviewed by medical experts from leading centers of excellence.

• Decision-focused information, including unique Healthwise Decision Points, to help people know when to see the doctor and what treatments are best for them.

• Innovative Actionsets to help people manage chronic illnesse

All information published by Healthwise undergoes rigorous scrutiny before it is made available to the public. Each topic is initially reviewed by the Healthwise Medical Director or one of three Associate Medical Directors, who are board-certified in family practice, emergency medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. The text is then submitted for further review by a member of the Healthwise Medical Review Board. Review Board members are board-certified in their specialty areas.

HealthDay News
http://www.healthday.com
Our daily health news and other news products are from HealthDay, the leading bureau for health news.

WellMed
http://www.wellmed.com
WellMed is a premier provider of health risk assessment tools that help you assess your lifestyle and how it may help or hinder your health. The health risk assessment tools, if available on this site, is provided by Wellmed's software tool. We rely on WellMed to keep the tool maintained and updated. We also rely on WellMed, per their content contract, to uphold the HI-Ethics Principles and URAC Standards. in the delivery of their health information and interactive health tools. As described on the WellMed Web site, the tool "Assesses your overall health status, identifies risks and delivers personalized information and recommendations relevant to your specific needs."

WellMed has provided the following information as it relates to the development of their tools:

"WellMed tools are developed in collaboration with medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, licensed health educators and medical information specialists. WellMed has established a Medical Review Board to ensure the quality, accuracy, credibility, timeliness, usefulness and variety of clinical perspectives within its tools. At least one health professional on the Medical Review Board reviews each piece of original content at least once annually. WellMed frequently submits its original content to additional Medical Review Board members, independent medical professionals or institutions, as well as consumer focus groups for additional review. Within each tool, you will find the review date and reviewer credentials by clicking on the 'Medical Review' link at the bottom of the screen."

When accessing these tools, you should be aware that you will be accessing information and tools on a different server, which carries with it a different set of policies. You should also be aware, however, that WellMed is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics.

How We Evaluate the Health Information You See

Healthvision's management performs periodic reviews and analyses of the third parties' content review and control procedures prior to posting their information on Web sites using our health content. While we do not review all content pages or attempt to verify information in each article, our review of their procedures helps to ensure that there are no claims of therapeutic benefit without reasonable support based on scientific methodologies such as clinical trials, surveys, or interviews, and that there is no false or misleading information.

My HealthQuotient™ by WellMed is a personal health self-assessment software tool that appears on select sites that subscribe to this tool. We rely on WellMed to keep the tool maintained and updated. We also rely on WellMed, per their content contract, to uphold the Hi-Ethics Principles and URAC Standards. in the delivery of their health information and interactive health tools. As described on the WellMed Web site, the tool "Assesses your overall health status, identifies risks and delivers personalized information and recommendations relevant to your specific needs."

WellMed has provided the following information as it relates to the development of their tools:

"WellMed tools are developed in collaboration with medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, licensed health educators and medical information specialists. WellMed has established a Medical Review Board to ensure the quality, accuracy, credibility, timeliness, usefulness and variety of clinical perspectives within its tools. At least one health professional on the Medical Review Board reviews each piece of original content at least once annually. WellMed frequently submits its original content to additional Medical Review Board members, independent medical professionals or institutions, as well as consumer focus groups for additional review. Within each tool, you will find the review date and reviewer credentials by clicking on the 'Medical Review' link at the bottom of the screen."

How We Use Sponsored Health Information

In some instances, we may allow companies to sponsor health information topics or specific pages of content on our site. We do not intend to allow sponsors to influence content. However, sponsored programs that appear on the site may contain information that the sponsor writes or has written for it. In these and in all cases where sponsorship appears, our goal is to provide you with the following information, when it relates to the sponsored program:

• The sponsor's involvement in selecting the content that is shown.

• The sponsor's involvement in preparing the content that is shown.

• The sponsor's involvement in search engine priority listing of results.

• The sponsor's involvement in product listings.

• The sponsor's involvement in other preferences or presentations of information that appear before users.

• A description of revenues or fees that are generated from sponsored programs.

Who Writes the Health Information

We strive to make clear who wrote the material you look at and other vital details that are essential for you to make an informed opinion on the material we provide. In most cases, you will find the following credits:

• The author's name, credentials, and/or qualifications

• The source of the material (i.e., the individual or organization where the information comes from)

• The date of creation or initial publication

• Any statements of permission to reprint the material

• The date of last update or review

• The names of expert reviewers or review board members.

How We Identify Conflicts of Interest

As a consumer of this site, you deserve to know if any of the authors who publish articles and other information have a conflict of interest with the topic they are writing about. A conflict of interest takes place when an author, reviewer, or editor has a bias toward the material he or she is writing, evaluating, or editing. This bias causes a conflict when it influences the person's ability to render neutral opinions, research, comments, or judgments. Sample conflicts of interest in the health care field are in the area of scientific research and specific financial relationships or exclusive affiliations with companies or organizations that have potential influence over that research; for example, a medical researcher who conducts medical research on a drug and is paid by the pharmaceutical company that manufacturers that drug. Conflicts can additionally exist through employment, stock ownership, family affiliations, consulting arrangements, and academic competition.

It is our goal to provide as much unbiased health information content as possible to you. However, there will be instances where authors, reviewers, and editors have existing financial relationships or affiliations that may hint at a conflict of interest. We will make every effort to disclose these conflicts so you can make an educated decision about how that conflict may influence the information you're viewing.

The conflict of interest policies set forth here are modeled after the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

These Are Our Conflict of Interest Goals:

• We ask all authors who publish information on our site to sign a conflict of interest agreement for each document they write.

• We ask authors to tell us if a conflict exists, and if one does to detail how that conflict influences the material; for example, if the author has a financial relationship or affiliation with a company or holds stock in a company that he or she is writing about.

• We ask editors or reviewers to disclose conflicts of interest and request that they disqualify themselves from reviewing or editing specific material if there is a potential conflict.

• We strive to post any conflict of interest along side the information we publish to give details on the conflict so you can decide if the information you read is influenced.

• We ask the companies from which we license health information to tell us if any of their authors have conflicts of interest, and if so to provide that information to us so we can inform you.

• We will not intentionally publish any health information or research articles that have been directly influenced by an author's research so much that it skews results toward being favorable to an author's financial relationships or affiliations.

• If fraud or plagiarism is discovered, we will immediately bring it to the attention of the appropriate individuals and organizations and remove the information from our site until an investigation is completed.

Questions or Comments

We are committed to continuously improving the quality of our health information product. If you have any questions or comments regarding this policy or this health information in general, please contact us at at HealthInfo@healthvision.com, or write us at: Consumer Health Information Product Manager, Healthvision, 6330 Commerce Drive, Irving, Texas 75063.

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Web Site Overview and Visitor Rules
Last revised February 18, 2005

This page is designed to give you a basic understanding of how the Web Site operates, what the policies are, and what your obligations as a visitor are. This area of the site is a consumer health information resource Web site. It includes news, information, and access to health care related software tools (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Services"). The goal of the Web site is to provide quality current health information on a variety of topics to help you make informed decisions in managing your personal medical care in conjunction with medical professionals.

As a visitor to the Web site, you are our guest. As a guest, this Web site and its third party content contributors grant to you a limited license to view the contents of the Web Site, and to use and copy contents solely for your personal benefit. Additional terms and conditions applicable to your usage of third party content and software tools are listed in the Third Party Content Terms and Conditions section of this Site. We reserve the right to deny access to you at any time if you engage in prohibited activity, such as unauthorized copying or use of information or functionality on the Web site, attempting to obtain unauthorized access to restricted areas of the Web Site, using slanderous, profane or inappropriate language in communications involving the Web site, or infecting the Web site with computer viruses or other destructive functionality.

Hi-Ethics Principles

Healthvision is a founding member of Hi-Ethics, a coalition of Internet health care information Web sites. Hi-Ethics has developed a set of Ethical Principles for Offering Internet Health Services to Consumers designed to help ensure that Internet health services reflect high quality and ethical standards, provide health information that is trustworthy and up-to-date, clearly identify online advertising and disclose sponsorships or other financial relationships, keep personal information private and secure, and empower consumers to distinguish online health services that follow the Principles from those that do not. Healthvision strives to ensure that the operation of the Web Site complies with the Principles.

Other Policies

In order to further ensure that you understand this Web site's content, functionality, and general operational policies, we have posted a Advertising and Sponsorship Policy, an Editorial Policy, and a Privacy Policy for your convenience.

Content Partners

All content appearing on this Web site is protected by copyright, with all rights reserved in Healthvision, and third party contributors. Health news, information, and software tools appearing on this Web site are provided by the following reputable third party health news and information sources. Healthvision has selected them based on the general quality and integrity of their information, and because they do not violate our conflict of interest policy.

Healthvision's management performs periodic reviews and analyses of the third parties' content review and control procedures prior to posting their information on the Web site. While We do not review all content pages or attempt to verify information in each article, Our review of their procedures helps to ensure that there are no claims of therapeutic benefit without reasonable support based on scientific methodologies such as clinical trials, surveys, or interviews, and that there is no false or misleading information.

Healthwise, Incorporated
http://www.healthwise.org
Healthwise is a not-for-profit educational, charitable, and scientific organization founded in 1975 to help people do a better job of staying healthy and taking care of their health problems. Healthwise provides the core content for the Health Library, which includes:

• More than 5,000 evidence-based topics on health conditions, medical tests and procedures, medications, and everyday health and wellness issues.

• Compelling illustrations that complement the in-depth information.

• Current (updated quarterly), commercially-unbiased (we're nonprofit) content that is rigorously reviewed by medical experts from leading centers of excellence.

• Decision-focused information, including unique Healthwise Decision Points, to help people know when to see the doctor and what treatments are best for them.

• Innovative Actionsets to help people manage chronic illnesses.

HealthDay News
http://www.healthday.com
Our daily health news and other news products are from HealthDay, the leading bureau for health news.

WellMed
http://www.wellmed.com
WellMed is a premier provider of health risk assessment tools that help you assess your lifestyle and how it may help or hinder your health. The health risk assessment tools, if available on this site, is provided by Wellmed's software tool. We rely on WellMed to keep the tool maintained and updated. We also rely on WellMed, per their content contract, to uphold the HI-Ethics Principles and URAC Standards. in the delivery of their health information and interactive health tools. As described on the WellMed Web site, the tool "Assesses your overall health status, identifies risks and delivers personalized information and recommendations relevant to your specific needs."

WellMed has provided the following information as it relates to the development of their tools:

"WellMed tools are developed in collaboration with medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, licensed health educators and medical information specialists. WellMed has established a Medical Review Board to ensure the quality, accuracy, credibility, timeliness, usefulness and variety of clinical perspectives within its tools. At least one health professional on the Medical Review Board reviews each piece of original content at least once annually. WellMed frequently submits its original content to additional Medical Review Board members, independent medical professionals or institutions, as well as consumer focus groups for additional review. Within each tool, you will find the review date and reviewer credentials by clicking on the 'Medical Review' link at the bottom of the screen."

When accessing these tools, you should be aware that you will be accessing information and tools on a different server, which carries with it a different set of policies. You should also be aware, however, that WellMed is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics.

Conflict of Interest Policy

Healthvision requires that any staff member with editorial responsibility disclose any interest, investment, employment, affiliations or relationship with an outside party or entity, which may be considered to be a conflict of interest. If such a relationship is disclosed or discovered, it will be reported to our Quality Oversight Committee, which has responsibility for activities related to our health information product. This committee will then provide direction as to which actions will need to be taken to eliminate the conflict of interest.

Healthvision also requires that all third party content providers create and enforce a similar conflict of interest policy, further assuring that the the health information content we provide is free of influence and bias from outside entities. This is verified through regularly scheduled editorial process reviews with our content providers.

Changes

We will strive to continually improve the content and operation of the Web Site, and to keep you up to date about major changes to the Web site. However, for reasons involving operational necessity, Healthvision reserves the right to make changes to this Overview and Visitor Rules, all Web Site Policies, the Web Site content, and all other aspects of the operation of the Web Site at any time without notice to you. We will post changes to this page from time to time, and therefore you should periodically review the then-current versions of this Overview and the other Web Site Policies to make sure that you are up to date.

Links

This Web site includes electronic links over the Internet to various Web sites run by third parties, such as other health information providers and content sources. When selecting links, our goal is to provide the most reliable sources available, however we do not endorse them. Please note that your use of those other Web sites is at your own risk. Healthvision does not assume any operational or legal responsibility for the content or operation of those sites. Using those sites may involve different risks, responsibilities and expectations for you than when using this site.

Framed Links

In some cases, this Web site will “frame” another Web site within this site’s navigation. When this is done, you will be notified that you are accessing another site within this site, and that the framed site carries a different set of policies, prior to accessing it.

We have agreements with the following organizations to frame their content within our site:

· WellMed
· Veritas Medicine
· Medline from the National Library of Medicine
· Consumer Product Safety Commission
· Food and Drug Administration
· USDA Food and Safety Inspection Service
· National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Veritas Medicine pays Healthvision a fee, based on clicks generated to their site from our health information sites. The use of all other framed sites is not based on any fees or reimbursements paid to Healthvision. In the case of WellMed, Healthvision pays a fee for their content and/or services. For all other framed sites, there is no financial relationship based on these links.

Ownership

The health information on this site is provided by and housed on servers owned by Healthvision Inc., 6330 Commerce Drive, Irving, Texas, 75063. A leading, browser-based e-health solutions provider, Healthvision is the healthcare organization's partner. We help local healthcare organizations use the Internet to reach physicians, patients, consumers and employees through customized, branded e-health solutions.

No Practice of Medicine

This Web site is not engaged in the practice of medicine. Any information and advice on the Web site is given on a generalized, generic basis, and is not specific to any individual patient's condition. Use of this Web site is helpful in making sure you are informed about health care issues. However, online health services and health information content cannot replace a health professional-patient relationship, and you should always consult with a professional for diagnosis and treatment of their specific health problems. You should not disregard any advice or treatment from those professionals based on your interpretation of what you may read on this Web site.

No Warranty

Healthvision works diligently to produce and maintain our health information product found on this Web site. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, OR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE.

No Liability

We will not be liable to you for any damages you may incur resulting from your use of the Web site or any other Web sites whose links are on this Web site. Your use of the Web Site Services and third party Web sites is solely at your own risk.

Accessibility

If users cannot access information from a PC, either due to inaccessibility or inability, they can contact us and we will attempt to provide an alternate means of accessing this information. Users wishing to access information from this site but are unable to should contact us at at HealthInfo@healthvision.com, or write us at: Consumer Health Information Product Manager, Healthvision, 6330 Commerce Drive, Irving, Texas 75063.

Questions or Comments

We are committed to continuously improving the quality of our health information product. If you have any questions or comments regarding this Agreement or this health information in general, please contact us at at HealthInfo@healthvision.com, or write us at: Consumer Health Information Product Manager, Healthvision, 6330 Commerce Drive, Irving, Texas 75063.

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History of Policy Changes
Last revised February 18, 2005

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