TERMS OF USE

Barbara A. Walker, MD, MPH

A Friend Who’s a Doctor is an online health review platform. It is an informational service only. No direct healthcare is provided including no prescriptions, no examination and no ordering of ancillary services such as physical therapy, labs or X-rays. A Friend Who’s a Doctor can help you better understand your health conditions and provide guidance for seeking health services or further treatment.

The following terms and conditions constitute an agreement between you and Nomadic Consultations, LLC the operator of adocfriend.com (the website).

By using this site, and/or registering with us, you signify that you agree to these terms of use, including that you agree to comply with all applicable laws. Please not that this site offers no warranties or guaranties for the services provided. If you are registering an account or using the site on behalf of an individual or entity other than yourself, you represent that you have legal authority to do so and that you are authorized by such individual or entity to accept these terms of use on that individual’s or entity’s behalf.

A Friend Who’s a Doctor’s medical experts are not “your” physician or healthcare provider. Whenever we use the words ‘your physician’ or ‘your doctor’ or your ‘provider’ or similar verbiage, it is in reference to your personal doctor whom you have a real world, formal doctor-patient relationship.

A Friend Who’s a Doctor’s medical experts will provide online consultations and will serve you to the best of our ability under the noted terms and conditions as follows:

NO DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP. A Friend Who’s a Doctor doesn’t replace your relationship with your physician or healthcare provider. The information interpreted (not limited to content of the site and information derived from online consultations) Should Not be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified healthcare provider. This information should be put to be use only after consulting your physician or other healthcare provider.
- You acknowledge information on this site, (including information provided in direct response to your questions or postings) may be provided by a physician but the provision of such information does not create a doctor patient relationship. The information is provided to inform you about various medical conditions, medical diagnosis and treatment and it does not constitute a direct medical diagnosis, treatment or prescription. Everything on A Friend Who’s a Doctor should be used for information purposes only, A FRIEND WHO’S A DOCTOR DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, AND/OR PRESCRIPTION OF ANY KIND.
- A Friend Who’s A Doctor is designed to support the health decisions and choices that you make. These decisions and choices are yours, and we believe that you, in connection with the advice you receive from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider, are the best decision maker about your health. We cannot make decisions for you. What we can do is help you find good health information and connect with doctors for in-person information. With A Friend Who’s a Doctor you can ask health related questions and receive educational answers or recommendations from a physician. The site is not a place for the practice of medicine, but the physician(s) on site can be a resource for reliable, relevant general health information. We hope these services will be of value to you. Please use them responsibly.
- Even if your real life doctor is on A Friend Who’s a Doctor medical treatment or diagnosis are not permitted through A Friend Who’s a Doctor. You agree not to solicit these or use any information as if it were personal advice, treatment, or diagnosis. This applies both to public interactions on A Friend Who’s a Doctor as well as to paid consultations. Whenever you want personal medical advice, treatment, or diagnosis, you should contact your physician or professional healthcare provider and see them in person. We do allow you to connect privately with physicians for consultations and second opinions – but consultations are not for physical examination, diagnosis, prescription or treatment.
- All users must be eighteen years or older. In the case of minor Consumers (under eighteen (18) years), a parent or guardian must accept this Agreement and guide all consultations under the services offered.
- Your right to use the Services is not transferable.
- THE SERVICES OFFERED ARE NOT FOR USE IN MEDICAL EMERGENCIES OR FOR CRITICAL HEALTH SITUATIONS REQUIRING PROMPT MEDICAL ATTENTION. The service is not intended to be real-time and is not the best solution when a faceto-face consult is a must.
- The User takes full responsibility for ensuring that the information submitted is accurate. A Friend Who’s a Doctor shall make no effort to validate any information provided by the consumer for use in services with respect to content, correctness or usability. In order to provide the best service possible, we may request more information if needed.
- Using A Friend Who’s a Doctor requires basic familiarity with the Internet, related payment services and general security practices. The Consumer is expected to possess the necessary internet-usage skills and knowledge to use our services.
The Physicians Are Independent. The opinions, statements, answers (collectively “consultation”) provided by the physicians on ADocFriend.com are solely the individual and independent opinions and statements of such individuals and do not reflect the opinions of A Friend Who’s a Doctor or Nomadic Consultations, LLC, its affiliates or any other organizations or institutions to which such physician is affiliated or provides services. A Friend Who’s a Doctor does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned during a consultation.
Member Responsibilities. You represent and warrant that you are at least eighteen years of age and that you possess the legal right and the ability to enter into agreements pertaining to Terms of Use, to register on A Friend Who’s a Doctor’s services under your own name and to use the A Friend Who’s a Doctor’s services in accordance with the Terms of Use and abide by the obligations hereunder.
- You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for all activities carried out under you’re a Friend Who’s a Doctor account. You agree to prohibit anyone else from using your password and immediately notify A Friend Who’s a Doctor of any unauthorized use of your password or other security concerns.
- Your affirmative act of using this Site and/or registering for the Site or the Services constitutes your electronic signature to these Terms of Use and your consent to enter into agreements with us electronically

A Friend Who’s a Doctor makes no warranty that the Services will meet your requirements, or that the Service(s) will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free. This includes loss of data or any service interruption caused by A Friend Who’s a Doctor employees or third party vendors. A Friend Who’s a Doctor is not responsible for transmission errors, corruption of data.

Each consultation includes at least three free follow up questions. All follow up questions must be received within one week of the physician’s initial response.

Patient Profile Use

Your Patient Profile is created to store record of your consultations and your personal health information online, including history, health conditions, allergies and medications.

Any information provided as part of a web, over-phone or a video consultation becomes part of your health record. You agree to provide accurate information to help us serve you best to our knowledge, to periodically review such information and to update such information as and when necessary.
A Friend Who’s a Doctor reserves the right to maintain, delete or destroy all communications and materials posted or uploaded to the ADocFriend.com website according to its internal record retention and/or destruction policies.
The Consumer shall not attempt to undermine the security or integrity of computing systems or networks of ADocFriend.com, its partners, or those accessed through or with their product, and must not attempt to gain unauthorized access.
A Friend Who’s a Doctor reserves the right to terminate any account which doesn’t follow our Terms and Conditions.

For additional information regarding use of information about you, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Supplemental Communication

A Friend Who’s a Doctor may send you newsletters and other information regarding common medical and health-related topics or preventive care messages containing specific medical and health related information, links to other related websites and specific questions related to your health record. Additionally, Life2theMax.com makes available self-care informational services that provide general, medical and health information.

These communications and resources are not comprehensive medical text and do not necessarily include complete information pertaining to the subject matter. These are solely meant for general, educational and informational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for patient-specific medical diagnosis and treatment or construed, directly or indirectly as the practice of medicine or dispensing of medical services by A Friend Who’s a Doctor.
The information contained in these communications and resources is compiled from a variety of sources and may or may not be authored by A Friend Who’s a Doctor. A Friend Who’s a Doctor makes no warranty with respect to the content of these materials or the information contained therein.

Informed Consent

As with any medical procedure, there are potential risks associated with using A Friend Who’s a Doctor’s services. By using the A Friend Who’s a Doctor, you agree to abide by the Terms and Conditions, Privacy policy and risks described below. These risks include, but may not be limited to:

We will always try to provide the best possible medical information to the patient, but the Physician will not be examining you physically.
The physician may not have access to all or some of your medical history that might be critical to consult you.
The physician will not have access to information that would typically be obtained by examining you in person, observing your physical condition and by going through your medical records. Therefore, the physician may not be aware of facts or information that would affect his or her opinion of your diagnosis.
By deciding to engage this service, you acknowledge and agree that you are aware of this limitation and agree to assume the entire risk of this limitation.

Please share and discuss any opinions or recommendations from A Friend Who’s A Doctor with your local physician before taking any action based upon those recommendations.

By requesting a medical opinion through A Friend Who’s a Doctor, you acknowledge and agree that:

The advice/information/opinion you may receive could be limited and provisional;
The medical opinion is not intended to replace a face-to-face visit with a physician and it does not replace an actual Doctor-patient relationship;
In case of a second opinion where there is a difference of opinion among our Medical Experts and your physician, you will bear responsibility for deciding next steps of care.
The physician is reliant on information provided by you and hence any information demonstrated to have been falsified will immediately render the opinion and all details therein null and void;

In some cases, the consultant may determine that the transmitted information is of inadequate quality and may ask for more information, without which he/she may refuse to answer the query.

In rare cases, the consultant may feel that the query may not be answerable without physically examining the patient and the consult may be refused.

In very rare instances, security protocols could fail, causing a breach of privacy of personal medical information.

Delays in medical evaluation and answers could occur due to deficiencies or failures of the service as per those mentioned in Terms of Use.

Proprietary Information

You agree that the Services, which include all software and information, both electronic and printed media, contain copyrighted material, trade secrets, patent related material and other proprietary intellectual property and are the proprietary property of A Friend Who’s a Doctor. They are protected by copyright, trade secret, patent laws and other proprietary rights and laws, and they may only be used or accessed as specifically provided for, in this Agreement.

A Friend Who’s a Doctor welcomes comments, suggestions and submissions by its Consumers including but not limited to messages, notes, feedback, artwork, communications, computer code or creative materials provided to A Friend Who’s a Doctor. The act of commenting, suggesting or submitting shall act as a full assignment of all rights whatsoever (copyright, patentability, and intellectual property) to A Friend Who’s a Doctor. A Friend Who’s a Doctor shall have the right to use the same as its own for all legal purposes including but not limited to reproduction, disclosure, publishing, distribution and the like without any compensation to the Consumer.

NOTE: This section shall not include any personal information submitted by the Consumer that would be included as part of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, enacted by the U.S. Congress.

Electronic Payment. You agree, understand and confirm that the credit card details provided by you for payment of services provided by A Friend Who’s a Doctor will be correct and accurate. You confirm that you shall not use credit cards that are not lawfully owned by you.

Other than to carry out the payment transaction, your payment information will not be utilized or shared by ADocFriend.com with any of the third parties unless required by law, regulation or court order. The said information will not be kept longer than necessary for providing the services.

A Friend Who’s a Doctor cannot assist with a stop payment request for any payment scheduled using a Payment Account credit/debit card. In any such case, you must immediately and directly contact your credit/debit card company/bank.

Payment Policy

All fees for consultations are to be paid upfront before any information is reviewed by a physician. After receiving payment for a consult, the Doctors on the panel become committed to devoting their time and completing the consult. Once a request for consult is submitted, no calls for refund owing to cancellations will be considered.

Refund Policy

All consults are offered with no guarantee of satisfaction. There are no refunds. If you are not satisfied with the first reply from our Doctors, you may submit up to three follow up questions regarding the consult at no additional charge.

If your request for consultation or other service is accepted but post-payment due to unexpected and extenuating circumstances, your request is either rejected or not acted upon, you will be given an option of opting for another request for consultation OR you will be offered a complete refund, if you so desire. The refund will be credited to your account within 14 working days.

In case your credit card/debit card/payment account has been accidentally over-charged, please notify A Friend Who’s a Doctor as soon as possible. A Friend Who’s A Doctor will refund the outstanding amount to your Payment Account within 14 working days. In the reverse scenario, if the transaction amount during payment of the fee happens to be less than the actual fee amount, A Friend Who’s a Doctor will notify you of the discrepancy and no consultation will be provided until payment is received in full.

There are NO other situations under which A Friend Who’s a Doctor will provide a refund, except for the condition expressly mentioned above under Refund Policy. In exceptional circumstances, the ADocFriend.com team will work with you to reach a mutually acceptable solution. A Friend Who’s a Doctor intends to be objective, fair and reasonable in resolving such situations in order to maintain a positive and harmonious relationship with consumers.

Suspension of Services

A Friend Who’s a Doctor will make all possible efforts to provide you the best services for your payment. However, A Friend Who’s a Doctor shall not incur any liability and shall declare any service guarantee void in event of one or more of the following circumstances:

If you have not provided accurate patient details including contact information (patient’s email and/or phone number), username and Payment account information.
If the transaction for payment doesn’t go through with your bank due to (including but not limited) insufficient funds, fraudulent access, failure of processing the request by our Affiliate merchants or your bank.
If circumstances beyond the control of A Friend Who’s A Doctor (such as, but not limited to, fire, flood, or interference from external forces) prevent proper execution of the transaction.
If you don’t respond to requests of more information (if needed) by the doctors to make a consultation. You will be notified by email and/or phone and/or as a message in your ADocFriend.com account.
If the user is in breach of any of the Terms and Conditions of this Agreement and/or the Terms and Conditions of the usage of ADocFriend.com.
You acknowledge that your use of the A Friend Who’s a Doctor is solely at your own risk, and that you assume full responsibility for all risks associated therewith.
A Friend Who’s a Doctor will take all necessary precautions to protect itself against failure of our hardware and software. The Consumer acknowledges and agrees that temporary interruptions in service may occur, and that A Friend Who’s a Doctor shall have no liability for any claim, cost, charge, loss or expense arising from or relating to use of the Services. A Friend Who’s a Doctor makes no warranty that the Services will meet your requirements, or that the Service(s) will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free. The Consumer acknowledges and agrees that in the event of failure, restoration of service may take several days.

These Terms of Use, together with the privacy policy represent the complete agreement between you and A Friend Who’s a Doctor and it replaces all prior oral or written communications (if any) concerning such subject matter.

The Terms of Use shall commence upon the date you use the site in any form. This Terms of Use and the licenses granted hereunder shall be terminated without notice in the event you (or any authorized person using your account) fail to comply with the Terms and Conditions of this Terms of Use or the rules for use of the A Friend Who’s a Doctor. We may also cancel or suspend your registration for any other reason, including inactivity for an extended period, but will attempt to notify you in advance of such cancellation or suspension. Upon any termination, you will destroy all copies of A Friend Who’s a Doctor materials in your possession and cease any access to or use of A Friend Who’s a Doctor. Upon this suspension or termination we may delete information, files, and other previously available content to you including but not limited to information provided by you. A Friend Who’s a Doctor shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your access to the Site and/or the Services.

The provisions of this Terms of Use are severable, and in the event any provision hereof is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions, but such a provision shall be reformed, if reasonably possible, only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable.

The failure of A Friend Who’s a Doctor to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder.

Your affirmative act of using this Site and/or registering for the Site or the Services constitutes your electronic signature to these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy which shall be deemed to be a part hereof and incorporated herein by reference and your consent to enter into agreements with us electronically.