Privacy Policy
Your Privacy is Important to Us
Broward Pulmonary and Sleep Specialists, operating as Advanced Asthma Clinic and its affiliated research partners and collaborating institutions, is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. This Privacy Policy is designed to inform you about how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our website to express interest in participating in clinical trials or contact us. We are committed to complying with applicable privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to the extent applicable.
Information We Collect
When you contact us or apply to participate in a clinical trial through our website, we collect the information you voluntarily provide in the forms. This information may include:
- Personal Identifiers: Your name, email address, and phone number
- Demographic Information: Age, gender, ethnicity (if provided), and other demographic details relevant to clinical trial eligibility.
- Health Information: Information about your medical history, current health conditions, medications, smoking history, pulmonary function test results (like FEV1/FVC ratio), eosinophil counts, exacerbation history, and other health-related data necessary to assess your eligibility for specific clinical trials or provide appropriate information.
- Technical Information: We may automatically collect certain technical information when you visit our website, such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring website addresses, pages visited, and access times. This information is primarily used for website administration, analytics, security purposes, and bot detection (as detailed in our contact form process).
How We Use Your Information
The information we collect is used for the following purposes:
- Communication: To contact you regarding your inquiries, appointment requests, or potential participation in a trial, and to respond to your messages.
- Clinical Trial Application Assessment: To evaluate your potential eligibility for specific clinical trials based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of each study, if you express interest.
- Study Operations: If you are enrolled in a clinical trial, your information may be used for study-related activities, data analysis, and reporting, in accordance with the study protocol and ethical guidelines.
- Website Improvement & Security: To analyze website usage trends, improve our website's functionality, enhance user experience, and monitor for potential misuse or bot activity.
- Legal Compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and ethical standards related to clinical research and patient data privacy.
Data Security and Confidentiality
We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information you submit through our website from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include secure handling of contact form data, logging mechanisms, and standard web security practices.
However, please understand that no website or online transmission is completely secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. Any information you transmit to us is at your own risk.
We maintain the confidentiality of your health information as required by applicable laws and ethical principles.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
We will only share your personal information in the following circumstances:
- Internal Personnel: With our clinic staff, physicians, nurses, and clinical trial personnel who are directly involved in responding to inquiries, evaluating applications, determining eligibility, and conducting clinical trials.
- Clinical Trial Sponsors: If you participate in a trial, relevant information may be shared with sponsors (pharmaceutical companies, research organizations, etc.) as necessary for study participation, data management, monitoring, and regulatory compliance.
- Regulatory Authorities and Ethics Committees: When required by law or to comply with requests from regulatory authorities (such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)) or Institutional Review Boards/Ethics Committees overseeing the clinical trials.
- Legal Obligations: If we believe disclosure is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, protect our rights or safety, or the rights or safety of others.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us using the information provided on our Contact Page.
Effective Date: April 17, 2025