Code of Conduct

American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Networking and Resource Center Access Agreement

 

            Welcome to the home of the Networking and Resource Sharing Project of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (“ASPHO”) (hereinafter, the “Resource Center”).  As a condition of initial and continuing access to the Resource Center, ASPHO requires those Members wishing to participate to accept and adhere to the terms of the following Access Agreement.

Rules


1. ASPHO has made the Resource Center available to interested Members for the purpose of providing a forum for the exchange of information relating to the treatment of childhood cancer and blood diseases. Any posted information must be related to the purposes of the Resource Center.

2. Members must comply at all times with the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (“Privacy Rule”) and the Electronic Security Rule (“Security Rule”) established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). Information posted to the Resource Center will not be treated as confidential and, therefore, should not identify any patient by name or other identifying features, characteristics or any other individually identifiable Patient Health Information, as defined under the Privacy Rule. In fact, since any information posted to the Resource Center may be downloaded, reproduced, and disseminated without the knowledge of the sender(s), Members should use extreme care when posting or sending such information.

3. Posted information is not a recommendation or endorsement of a course of treatment for a particular patient. Responses are only provided for informational purposes to facilitate discussion on a given topic.

4. Members should exercise both common sense and courtesy in the messages they transmit and may not use the Resource Center to transmit defamatory, obscene, and otherwise offensive communications.

5. Members are prohibited from using the Resource Center to communicate with competitors about prices, terms of service, to exchange practice management or any other proprietary information with anyone involved in the management of physician practices, or otherwise communicate in a manner that may violate federal or state antitrust laws.

6. Policy on Surveying Members: Approved June 19, 2013; Last Revised February 17, 2014
  • The society, its board of trustees, committees, staff or others designated by the board may propose surveys of the members in order to guide planning and decision making for the society, 
  • Survey requests initiated by society board members, committees or staff should be proposed to the board as part of the annual budgeting process for the coming year. Proposals should include a statement of anticipated benefit of the survey to the society’s strategic priorities and operations, an estimate of project resource requirements, a timetable and the proposed survey questionaire. The board will consider approval of surveys in the context of the annual strategic priorities, overall work plan and available resources for the year. 
  • Survey requests initiated by workshop or symposium chairs must be proposed as part of their original session description and plans. Proposals must include the draft survey and a justification why it is important to the content and effectiveness of their session, and should ideally result in a work product of value to all members. Unless otherwise negotiated and agreed to, the data compiled through such surveys remain the property of ASPHO and may be used only with permission and appropriate acknowledgement. 
    • Only one such survey will be allowed annually and the Program Committee will bear the responsibility of evaluating these proposals and in the event of more than one survey proposal, make a recommendation to the Board. The Board will give final approval for surveys. Such surveys must be administered and concluded 5 months in advance of the annual meeting. ASPHO national office staff will administer a survey, if requested, but cannot provide data analysis or summaries, which will be the responsibility of the session chair. 
  • Access to the membership mailing list will not be provided to member or non-member researchers conducting research in the area of pediatric hematology/oncology for the purpose of administering surveys.
  • Member researchers may post survey announcements on the clinical forum discussion group within the member community section of aspho.org. Surveys posted by members are not endorsed by ASPHO. The society will not provide other assistance in survey projects by announcing or promoting surveys in member communications.
7. Members interested in posting any files, articles, or other documents to the Resource Center may do so only after completing an Authorization and Release form and complying with all other ASPHO rules and regulations regarding such postings. Members may not post any other information subject to trademark, copyright, or other proprietary rights, except with the express consent of the owner of the rights. Unless expressly provided otherwise, Members represent that any and all material provided to ASPHO for the Resource Center may be further published, displayed, copied, downloaded, transmitted, or modified by ASPHO or any of its Members participating in the Resource Center.

8. Posted information will not be treated as confidential.

9. Members are prohibited from posting commercial messages advertising or selling goods or services, or the promotion of individual member or other organization’s information or issues.

10. Members must respect the security of the Resource Center and may not attempt to gain access to areas private to ASPHO or other Members.

11. Members may not provide their passwords to any third party without the express prior written consent of ASPHO.

12. Members are prohibited from using the Resource Center for illegal purposes or in any manner that violates the bylaws or any other policies, procedures, rules or regulations of ASPHO.

13. ASPHO shall deny access to the Resource Center to any Member who has not agreed to the terms of this Access Agreement and reserves the right to terminate access to any Member who does not abide by such terms.

Limitation of Liability and Indemnification

 

Any views expressed on the Networking and Resource Center are those of the individual participants. They do not and should not be construed as representing the views of ASPHO. ASPHO makes no warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the accuracy or sufficiency of the information posted to the Resource Center, whether posted by ASPHO or any third party, and ASPHO assumes no responsibility or liability regarding the use or misuse of such information for any purpose. Moreover, ASPHO makes no warranty that the Networking and Resource Center, or any computer, server, device, software, or other technology associated with the Networking and Resource Center, is free of viruses, worms, or other elements or codes that manifest contaminating or destructive properties. ASPHO disclaims any and all responsibility to maintain copies of any information provided to the Networking and Resource Center or to assure that such information is deleted. Unless specifically stated otherwise, ASPHO does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service or organization presented or mentioned on the Networking and Resource Center, and information from the Networking and Resource Center should not be referenced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement.  NEVERTHELESS, ASPHO RETAINS THE RIGHT TO MONITOR POSTED INFORMATION AND DECLINE TO POST AND/OR REMOVE MESSAGES OR MATERIALS THAT IT BELIEVES DO NOT COMPLY WITH THE TERMS OF THIS ACCESS AGREEMENT OR ARE NOT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF ASPHO.

 

EACH MEMBER HAVING ACCESS TO THE NETWORKING AND RESOURCE CENTER SHALL INDEMNIFY AND HOLD ASPHO HARMLESS FROM AND AGAINST ANY AND ALL LIABILITY, CLAIMS, DAMAGES, LOSSES, COSTS AND EXPENSES (INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES) RELATING TO HIS OR HER ACTS OR OMISSIONS OR TO MATERIALS OR INFORMATION HE OR SHE TRANSMITS IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE RESOURCE CENTER.

Choice of Law

 

This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of Illinois irrespective of its choice of laws rules.  In addition, Members consent to be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts of Cook County, Illinois in the event of any dispute between the parties.

 

Amendment

 

ASPHO reserves the right to modify the rules of this Access Agreement as they determine from time-to-time in the best interests of ASPHO, provided all Members are notified prior to any such change.