Terms and Conditions

Key Points

  • DON'T include any details in your messages that may identify patients.
  • DON'T assume that messages on this site will be, or remain, confidential - however, you should maintain the confidentiality of material posted by other members.
  • DO use pseudonyms for your patients and change any patient details that are not relevant to the particular matter (e.g. patient's location and occupation).
  • DO respect all other members and never harass, attack or threaten others in a discussion
  • DO let us know via the Contact Us link on this site if you think other members are breaching these Terms and Conditions.
Thank you for being part of USANZ's online community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established these Terms and Conditions.By joining and using this community, you agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions. 

USANZ Communities gives our members the chance to interact, engage and build value. We hope that you will use this site to solicit the advice of your colleagues, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. 

In addition to these Terms and Conditions, your access and use of this site is subject to our Privacy Policy This site is operated by Higher Logic, LLC.  Higher Logic's terms and conditions and privacy policy are available on their website.

If you have questions, please contact via the Contact Us link on this site or via email. 

In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to moderate conversations, and suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who we believe violates these Terms and Conditions. If you see a member engage in conduct that may breach these Terms and Conditions, please contact the USANZ President via email so that we can assess whether we need to intervene. 

The Rules

  • Don't use any details in your messages or attachments to your messages (such as scans) that may identify a patient. Always use pseudonyms rather than real names and change any details that are not necessary to your medical findings or to answering other members' questions (e.g. a patient's area of residence or occupation, where it permits, obscuring identifying details on scans, etc.).
  • Don't disclose any information included in messages by other members outside the online community.  Ensure you maintain confidentiality at all times.
  • The USANZ Communities is for USANZ members only.  Do not allow non-members to access or use the online community through your account or otherwise.  In particular, do not share your account or password with anyone else.
  • Treat other members with professional courtesy and respect.
  • Don't attack others. The discussions and messages are meant to stimulate conversation not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may. 
  • Don't post commercial messages on this site. You must not use this site for any generalised marketing, advertising, promotion, sale or supply of any product, service or commercial offering. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would help them.  This does not extend to promotional material about educational or similar opportunities. 
  • Be aware that messages you post on this site are available for all to see, and are subject to Australian laws, including defamation and competition laws. 
  • All misleading, deceptive, false, defamatory, abusive, menacing, hateful, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal communications are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
  • Please note carefully all items listed below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of material you post.
  • Remember that, unless you specify otherwise, other members have the right to reproduce on this site messages created by you.
  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate lists or libraries. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message.
  • All messages must add to the body of knowledge. We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.

Discussion Group Etiquette

  • Include a signature tag on all messages.
  • State concisely and clearly the topic of your messages in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your messages and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject. 
  • Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information and put your response before the original message. 
  • Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from.
  • Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals--not to the entire list. .
  • Do not send administrative messages, such as "remove me from the list". Instead, please contact USANZ via the Contact Us link on this site or via the following email address: secretary@usanz.org.au.

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of USANZ. USANZ does not endorse and is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others and disclaims any responsibility for that material. To the fullest extent permitted by law: (a) the site is provided on an "as is" basis only; (b) USANZ provides no express or implied warranty or guarantee of any kind in relation to it or the content posted on this site, whether posted by USANZ, a member, or any third party; and (c) in no event will USANZ be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Although USANZ seeks to ensure only members have access to this site, you should compose messages on the understanding that material you post may become accessible by non-members and may not be kept confidential. 

Members of this site warrant that the material that they post:
  • is not false, misleading, deceptive, defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal;
  • is their own original work, and/or they have the right to make the material available to the site;
  • does not infringe any rights of third parties; 
  • does not encourage or facilitate (or could be construed to give rise to) any arrangement, agreement or understanding with other members that expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of a business or other conduct that could illegally restrict competition; and
  • is not commercial promotional material about them or about any business that they may be associated with.  This does not extend to promotional material about educational or similar opportunities.
You accept all liability for any breach of these Terms and Conditions, and USANZ does not accept responsibility for the site's infringement of your or any third party's intellectual property rights. Members should be particularly wary of any messages discussing actual prices or profit margins; customer or territory allocations; and rejection or boycotting of customers or suppliers.  In addition, you grant USANZ and the other members of this site a royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, publish, and communicate the material for the purposes of the site.

USANZ does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate messages and does not undertake editorial control of messages, but does reserve the right to delete or amend messages that breach any part of these Terms and Conditions. In the event that any inappropriate message is brought to the attention of USANZ we will consider whether to intervene, possibly by deleting or amending a message or taking action against the member in question.  We may assign this responsibility to a third party.

USANZ reserves the right to terminate a member's access to this site without notice where the member does not abide by these Terms and Conditions. In addition to any rights under our Privacy Policy, if a message posted by a member could constitute a criminal offence or gives rise to a civil action, we may disclose any information we hold about that member at our discretion. In the most extreme cases, we may also seek damages and costs (including legal fees) from the member that we may incur as a result of that member's breach of these Terms and Conditions. 

USANZ may change these Terms and Conditions from time to time. USANZ will post any new version of the Terms and Conditions on the site. Members will be taken to have agreed to these Terms and Conditions as amended by continuing to use the site.

This site is intended for the use of USANZ members only. These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of New South Wales, and members and USANZ submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales. We appreciate that this site may be accessed from outside Australia. However, we make no representations as to the compliance of this site with the laws of other jurisdictions. Members who choose to access the site from locations outside of Australia do so at their own risk and are responsible for compliance with overseas local laws and regulations.