Terms of Use | FHC New Site

Terms and Conditions of Use

Effective March 1, 2018

The following terms constitute an agreement between you and Friends' Health Connection (“FHC”), the operator of http://www.friendshealthconnection.org and any programs, services or networks that are facilitated by FHC through this Site or other sites (the “Site”). This agreement (“Agreement”) governs your use of the Site, both as a casual visitor and a registered member as described below.

By assessing or using the service or by registering with us, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

Membership Eligibility

Friends’ Health Connection is a non-profit organization that connects people with the same health challenges in order to provide support, education and friendship during difficult times. To become a member and access the area on this Site reserved for members (the “Member Area”), Friends Health Connection requires that you are either (a) a diagnosed patient, (b) a caregiver for a patient, (c) a health care professional (e.g. doctor, nurse, health researcher, etc.), or (d) a guest as authorized by a Friends Health Connection member or employee. Children under the age of 18 are prohibited from registering as members. By registering as a member you represent that you are age 18 or older.

2. This Site Does Not Provide Medical Advice

The information shared and services provided through this Site are intended solely as a general educational aid and are neither medical nor health care advice for any individual problem nor a substitute for medical or other professional advice and services from a qualified health care provider familiar with your medical history. Use of this site, does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Nothing contained in this Site is intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment. Decisions about the best choices and medical treatments should be made in consultation with your personal health care providers.

All of the material provided on the Site, such as text, treatments, dosages, outcomes, charts, patient profiles, graphics, photographs, images, advice, messages, forum postings, and any other material provided on the Site are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your health. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or not read on this Site.

If you think you may have a medical emergency, seek immediate assistance from emergency personnel. FHC does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions or other information that may be mentioned on the site. Reliance on any information provided by FHC, by persons appearing on the Site, or by other members is solely at your own risk.

Medical treatment and knowledge change quickly, and this Site should not be considered error-free or as a comprehensive source of all information on a particular topic. FHC makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the content of the Site, and assumes no responsibility for any consequences relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction you take based upon the information and material on this Site. Your use of the Site is subject to the additional disclaimers and caveats that may appear throughout these terms and conditions. You assume the entire risk of loss in using this Site and materials contained in the Site.

3. Acceptable and Lawful Use of Site by Members

Members shall not post or upload any information or other content on the Site that (a) is false, inaccurate or misleading; (b) is obscene or indecent; (c) infringes any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy of any party; or (d) is defamatory, libelous, threatening, abusive, hateful, or contains pornography. Members shall not interfere with other members' use and enjoyment of Site (for example, by harassing, threatening or stalking another participant of a chat room, forum, seminar, or threaded message, including the use of expressions of bigotry, racism, hatred, or profanity). Members may not use the Site to conduct any activity that is illegal or violates the rights of others, provide instructional information about illegal activities, or promote physical harm or injury against any group or individual.

All members represent and warrant that the information they provided when registering as a member, and all information that they subsequently provide regarding themselves and their membership, is true and correct and not misleading in any way. Your membership and contact with other members is at your own risk. FHC does not screen members or qualify them for a discussion. If you become aware of offensive content or other conduct that violates these terms by any other member you should notify FHC.

4. Links to Other Sites

This Site may contain third party-owned content (e.g., articles, data feeds, abstracts, etc.) and may also include hypertext links to third party-owned web sites. We provide such third party content and links as a courtesy to our users. We have no control over any third party-owned web sites or content referenced, accessed by or available on this Site and, therefore, we do not endorse, sponsor, recommend or otherwise accept any responsibility for such third party web sites or content or for the availability of such web sites. IN PARTICULAR, WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF ANY ALLEGATION THAT ANY THIRD PARTY-OWNED CONTENT (WHETHER PUBLISHED ON THIS, OR ANY OTHER, WEB SITE) INFRINGES THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF ANY PERSON OR ANY LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF ANY INFORMATION OR OPINION CONTAINED ON SUCH THIRD PARTY WEB SITE OR CONTENT. If you link to third party sites from FHC, we encourage you to consult the policy statements of each site you visit.

5. Use of Site by Members and Non-Members

You may not use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means to access the Site or content or services provided on the Site for any purposes. You may not post content on the Site that contains any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, spiders, or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information. You shall not attempt to make the Site unavailable through denial-of-service attacks or similar means. You shall not use contact information provided by members, or collect information about our members, to facilitate the sending of unsolicited bulk communications such as SPAM or allow others use of your membership account to take such actions.

6. Non-Commercial Use by Members

The Member Area and the content and information contained in the Member Area is for the personal use of individual members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may not become members and should not use the Site without express consent from FHC.

7. Privacy

You agree that you have read, understood and accept the terms of Friends Health Connection’s Privacy Policy. This policy governs the collection, use and sharing of personal and non-personal information from you when using the Site.

8. Posting and Use of Content in the Member Area

The Member Area includes community areas, such as forums and member areas, where members may post messages, images, and other content. If you are a member, you (or the author) owns the copyright in the messages, images, and other content you post in the Member Area, but by posting such content to the Member Area you grant FHC and our affiliates the right to use, copy, display, perform, distribute, translate, edit, and create derivative works of your postings, subject to the terms of the Privacy Policy.

While some community areas in the Member Area are monitored periodically for topicality, Friends Health Connection has no obligation to prescreen postings and is not responsible for their content. We encourage you to notify us of inappropriate or illegal content and we reserve the right to remove postings for any reason. We reserve the right at any time to remove any postings for any reason or no reason at all.

You agree not to disclose to any person or entity personally identifiable information about other members that you learn using this Site (whether posted in the Member Area by a member or emailed to you by a member) without the express written consent of such member. You may disclose information of a general nature (that could not identify the member who provided such information or whom such information is about) to third parties outside this Site, subject to the above restriction on non-commercial use.

FHC owns all rights to the video and audio posted on the FHC website. FHC does not endorse or recommend any content from audio or videos shared on the website and you assume all risk of reliance on materials presented.

9. Member Password and Login Identity

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your member password and login, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account with or without your knowledge. If you knowingly provide your login and password information to another person, your membership privileges may be suspended temporarily or terminated. You agree to immediately notify FHC of any unauthorized use of your membership password or login or any other breach of security.

10. Links to Other Websites

FHC may contain links to other websites that are not under the control of FHC. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by FHC of such site and FHC is not responsible for the content of such linked sites.

We welcome links to this web site. You can link your site to ours using our suggested link copy, or create your own. However, we do not wish to be linked to or from any third-party web site or link which contains:

a. any information that misrepresents the nature of your relationship with our organization, or incorrect facts or data about our organization; or

b. any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including, without limitation, any content constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, provincial, national or international law, regulation which may be damaging or detrimental to the activities, operations, credibility or integrity of FHC; or

c. any material or information of any kind, which promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual, could be harmful to minors, harasses or advocates harassment of another person, provides material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, provides instructional information about illegal activities, including, without limitation, the making or buying of illegal weapons; or

d. any information, software or other material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others, including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights.

We reserve the right to prohibit or refuse to accept any link to the web site, including, without limitation, any link which contains or makes available any content or information of the foregoing nature, at any time.

11. Membership Termination

You agree that FHC may, with or without cause, immediately terminate your FHC membership and access to the Member Area without prior notice. Without limiting the foregoing, the following may lead to a termination by FHC of a member's membership and use of the Site: (a) breaches or violations of this Agreement or other incorporated agreements or guidelines, (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies, (c) a request by you (self-initiated membership cancellation), (d) unexpected technical issues or problems, and (e) extended periods of inactivity. FHC has no obligation to maintain, store, or transfer to you information or data that you have posted on or uploaded to the Site.

12. Modifications to this Agreement

We reserve the right to modify this Agreement at any time, and without prior notice, by posting amended terms on this Site. We encourage you to review this Agreement periodically for any updates or changes, which will have an update effective date.

13. Fees

Membership with FHC is currently free. FHC reserves the right to from time to time change the terms of this Agreement and charge for membership and/or to provide additional optional services for a fee.

14. Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability

The Site and the content and services made available on the Site are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. FHC AND ITS AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THE INFORMATION, SERVICES AND MATERIALS CONTAINED ON THIS SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOUR USE OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. ACCESS TO THIS SITE MAY BE INTERRUPTED AND INFORMATION, SERVICES AND MATERIALS MAY NOT BE ERROR-FREE. NONE OF FHC, ITS AFFILIATES OR ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING THIS SITE OR THE INFORMATION, SERVICES AND MATERIALS CONTAINED HEREIN ASSUMES ANY LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS OR USEFULNESS OF ANY INFORMATION, SERVICES AND MATERIALS PROVIDED ON THIS SITE; THEY ALSO SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS SITE. ALL INFORMATION, SERVICES AND MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT THE LIMITATIONS SET FORTH ABOVE ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THIS AGREEMENT AND THIS SITE WOULD NOT BE PROVIDED TO YOU ABSENT SUCH LIMITATIONS.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS FOR ANY RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS REGARDING THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FHC, its officers, employees, agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and other partners, from and against any claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements including without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your violation of this Agreement or the posting of material to this Site.

16. International Users

FHC makes no claims that information on the Site is appropriate or may be downloaded outside of the United States. Personal information (“Information”) that is submitted to this Site will be collected, processed, stored, disclosed and disposed of in accordance with applicable U.S. law and our Privacy Policy. At the current time, non-U.S. users will not be permitted to join the member site.

17. Member Notices

If you register as a member, you agree that FHC may send notices to you by email at the email address you provide when registering to become a member (or which you later update using the functionality of the Site).

18. Governing Law and Venue

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey. All disputes arising under, or in any way connected with membership in or use of the Site, shall be litigated exclusively in the state and federal courts residing in the State of New Jersey, and in no other court or jurisdiction. You hereby submit to the jurisdiction of the state and federal courts sitting in the State of New Jersey.

19. Miscellaneous Terms

“Friends Health ConnectionTM” and the Friends Health Connection logo are trademarks of FHC. You agree not to display or use these trademarks in any manner without FHC’s prior, written permission. FHC

may assign this agreement at any time to a subsidiary or parent company or to a successor to its business as part of a merger or sale of substantially all of its assets. You may not assign or transfer this agreement.

If any provision of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable for any reason, the remaining provisions will be unaffected and remain in full force and effect.

For any questions or comments, or to report violations of this agreement, let us know, or contact us at:

Executive Director
732-945-4277
mailto: admn@friendshealthconnection.org