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The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) understands that your privacy and security are important to you. This privacy policy outlines how the AOA intends to collect, use and safeguard information on its various websites and digital applications, including Osteopathic.org, DoctorsThatDO.org, JAOA.org, certification.osteopathic.org, AOA social media properties and any other digital services and platforms officially operated or used by the AOA (“Site(s)”).
By using an AOA Site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please read this policy thoroughly and carefully. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please exit the Site immediately.
The AOA is the sole owner of the information collected on our Sites. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement.
In the future, the AOA may make changes to this Privacy Policy. When we make changes or additions to our privacy policy, we will post the date of the update on the privacy statement. If you choose to reject any portion of this policy and have your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) removed from AOA records, please notify us at [email protected].
Personal information collection/use
“Personally Identifiable Information” (PII) refers to any information that identifies or can be used to identify or contact you when you use or visit our Site. The AOA collects the PII that you provide, which may include, but is not be limited to, your name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number, as well as demographic and transactional data. In addition to PII collected online, the AOA may also receive information about you from other sources, such as state licensing boards, colleges of osteopathic medicine and government agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) or the US Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Additional PII collected and used by AOA on physicians and osteopathic medical students is outlined in the Physician Data Collection and Use section below.
Some examples of where and when your PII may be collected include when you:
register for an AOA event or meeting;
access our products or services;
participate in a service where your PII is displayed, such as the Find Your DO tool on DoctorsThatDO.org or AOAProfiles.org;
create an account on our websites;
subscribe to our publications;
request marketing materials from us;
enter search queries on our websites;
participate in a promotion or survey provided by the AOA;
serve as a volunteer;
participate in continuing medical education (CME) activities and reporting;
contact the AOA with feedback or request membership/customer support.
Aggregate information is information in summary form and is not considered PII because it does not reveal your identity. The AOA uses analytical tools and software to analyze trends, administer the Site, track your movements through the Site, and gather broad information for aggregate use. The AOA uses and allows third parties to use aggregate information to aid in the development or implementation of programs, products and services. The AOA also uses such aggregate information to analyze website visits, page views and referral links to gain insight into functionality, interest, and overall user experience.
Financial information
The AOA does not disclose payment information provided by its members and customers. When members and customers choose to pay, whether by credit card, check, or other form of payment, AOA submits the information needed to obtain payment to the appropriate clearinghouse.
Activity tracking
AOA websites use cookies to improve users’ experience with our Sites. A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive which allows organizations to collect non-PII about the user’s use of a site. This cookie is used to identify you, to assist in displaying personalized content on our Sites or to save your Site login information. Some of the ways we use cookies are to identify you, assist in displaying personalized content, save your login information and analyze our traffic.
Some of our websites and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit the AOA, for example, to count users who have visited those pages, or opened an email, and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
The AOA may use automatic data collection technology to gather information about your device(s) and how you interact with content on our sites. This may include information such as whether you are a new or existing user, the duration and frequency of your visits, the web content you view, and what searches you conduct. We may also collect information about how you’re accessing our sites, such as the type of device you’re using (e.g., cellphone, tablet, desktop computer, etc.), what browser you’re using, your network, your operating system and the speed of your server connection.
Advertising
Information about your visits to AOA websites (but not your name, address, email address or other personal information) may be used to serve advertisements while you browse online. Our sites use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies placed on your computer to help present, better target, and measure the effectiveness of the ads served to you on our website or through affiliate advertising network providers.
We may also participate in interest-based advertising using similar technology. This means information about your browsing behavior may be used to serve ads tailored to your interests when you visit our sites, or to serve ads for AOA products and services when you visit other sites within our affiliate advertising network. Although these sites use your web browsing history to choose which ads to display, no Personally Identifiable Information about you is shared with third party ad networks.
You may opt out of receiving behavioral ads from third party advertisers who follow the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting the opt-out section of the DAA website: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. You can also opt out of interest-based ads from third parties who are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NIA): http://networkadvertising.org/choices. Opting out of behavioral advertisements will not opt you out of traditional digital or print advertising.
Other websites, such as Facebook, may serve you ads using interest-based preferences you have selected for those sites. Some internet browsers, websites such as Facebook and mobile devices offer opt-outs for interest-based advertising. Please refer to the website that you are visiting, your browser and/or your device settings for additional information.
Our Sites contains links to other sites. The AOA is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites. This Privacy Policy applies solely to our Sites. Should you follow a link to another site, you are encouraged to review the privacy policy applicable to that website.
Using your PII
The AOA uses PII collected to:
provide access to subscription-based or membership content and services;
deliver personalized content on our sites based on the visitor’s PII;
improve or add content, usability, functionality to our sites;
display content, ads and marketing;
send informational service or marketing-related communications on AOA activities, news, events or products and services;
process your payment for AOA member dues, or an AOA-sponsored product, service or event;
process and record your CME for your CME report;
Disclosure and sharing with third parties
The AOA will disclose your PII to third parties when necessary for the provision of services to you, for the protection of others, and when required by law.
The AOA may also use PII provided by you to conduct research, to improve our Sites, and to provide services to you. Your PII may be shared with our business partners so that they can identify and offer products or services that you may be interested in, ranging from the business or practice of medicine to practice-related commercial offers to physicians as consumers. The AOA may work with outside companies to carry out tasks such as, but not limited to, certification and licensing, CME processing, advocacy action alerts, credit card payment processing, distributing purchases, responding to customer inquiries, consulting, website analytics and monitoring, printing, mailing, event registration, email marketing, website hosting and data storage. Any companies we work with are given only the information they need to deliver that service, and they are forbidden by contract from using the information for any other purpose. Except as described here, third parties are not allowed to collect PII about your digital activities over time or across other internet-based platforms or applications when you use our Sites.
Managing your PII
You can manage your profile and email preferences, or request to be removed from any non-transactional communication from the AOA by contacting us using the information in the Contact Us section of Osteopathic.org. California residents have additional considerations per California’s “Shine the Light” law.
You have the right to:
Request and view any personal data we have about you;
correct or update any data we have about you*;
ask us to stop using or sharing data about you; and/or
ask us to delete any data we have about you.
The AOA will remove your PII from our active databases or anonymize so that the data is no longer identified with you. In instances where physicians request the AOA’s assistance in verifying credentials for employment, licensing or other practice-related support, deletion of your data could impede or delay the credentialing process. Additionally, your data may remain in our archives if the AOA determines that it is not possible to delete.
*Corrections or updates to certain data we have on you (i.e., licensure, medical education or training, etc.) will require primary source verification prior to any changes to your data.
Physician data collection & use
The AOA collects data on all osteopathic medical students and osteopathic physicians, including those who are not AOA members, which is collectively referred to as the AOA Masterfile (“Masterfile”). Osteopathic physicians are physicians who have graduated from medical schools accredited by the AOA’s Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation. The AOA also collects data on those who are not DOs but who are members of the AOA, such as allied or associate members.
The AOA obtains osteopathic medical school, internship/residency and fellowship training, and board certification information only from primary sources. It obtains demographic information from osteopathic medical schools. National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers are obtained from the CMS, physician DEA registration numbers are acquired from the DEA. The AOA also obtains address and contact information from commercial sources and from other organizations related to the osteopathic medical profession, including osteopathic state associations and specialty colleges.
The Masterfile is used in aggregate form to document and research trends in the osteopathic medical profession and the important role osteopathic physicians serve in health care. It benefits the practicing physician by providing an easy way for the public, hospitals and licensing boards to verify credentials.
Each physician record in the Masterfile includes demographic information, osteopathic medical school, postgraduate information, and current practice information. Demographic information includes gender, date of birth, self-identified race/ethnicity, mailing address and other contact information. Current practice information includes type of practice, self-identified specialty, state medical licensure, National Provider Identifier (NPI) number, opioid prescriber number, and board certification from AOA or ABMS certifying boards. Physicians may also ask the AOA to verify certain types of non-osteopathic postgraduate medical education, which then becomes part of their physician record.
While data verification and authentication are the Masterfile’s primary purpose, the AOA shares limited information from the Masterfile with other osteopathic organizations, and licenses portions of its Masterfile to selected licensees. Both operate under carefully restricted information usage agreements and these organizations and licensees will have their own published policy on the collection and use of your PII. The AOA does not release home addresses to licensees when we have a business address. Licensees work with many health care related companies that offer a wide range of products and services that may be of interests for osteopathic physicians and the larger medical community. They include:
Drug recall and safety information
Continuing medical education programs
Physician credential verification services
Drug samples and pharmaceutical information
Medical equipment and supplies
Employment opportunities
General practice-related commercial offers of interest to physicians as consumers
In addition to the PII management rights listed earlier, physicians may further direct the AOA:
Not to release contact information to affiliates or licensees: This option permits the AOA to contact the physician, but the AOA will not share any contact information with other osteopathic organizations, or with its licensees, which is the basis for receiving most of their products and services, including journals, new product announcements, information about health hazards and information about drug recalls.
Not to release physician-provided information (PII): This option means that the AOA will not release any physician-provided information to licensees or other osteopathic organizations. This would include not-releasing physician-provided information used to announce drug recalls and health hazards, information given to state licensing agencies and agencies verifying credentials such as hospitals and physician groups. Physicians electing this non-release option will also be excluded from the AOA’s Find Your DO searches, and will not receive the JAOA or any AOA special publications.
The AOA will immediately record your request and preferences; however, there will be a delay while your request to remove PII is communicated to its licensees. You may see residual marketing and communication pieces or emails for a short length of time until your PII is removed. Please contact the AOA should you have any questions or concerns.
The AOA takes precautions to protect the information we collect. We use SSL encryption to protect your payment transactions. We also take necessary precautions to protect our database off-line. The server on which we store personally identifiable information is kept in a secure environment.
Due to the current state of technology, there is no ability to provide complete assurance as to the security of data transmissions over the Internet and electronically stored data. While the AOA takes appropriate and reasonable efforts to protect the PII and other Data from unauthorized access as described in this Privacy Policy, we are unable to guarantee or warrant the security of the Personal Data you transmit to us.
Contact us
For suggestions, compliments, or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy, please email the AOA Member Resource Center (MRC) at [email protected] or use the online feedback form in the Contact Us section of Osteopathic.org.
The MRC team can also be reached by phone Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. CST, at (312) 202-8000, fax: (312) 202-8202, or by mail at American Osteopathic Assn, Attn: Customer Resource Center, 142 E. Ontario St., Chicago, IL 60611-2864.
Revised 1/10/2022