Community Guidelines for Patients

In order to foster productive discussions and maintain a safe space for plastic surgery consumers to come together as a community, we require all members of the general public ("Patients") to adhere to the following guidelines while participating in the Patient Community (the "Community").

• The Community does not provide medical advice or treatment consultations on particular patient cases. All interactions in the Community between Surgeons ("Members") and Patients shall be exclusively limited to general advice and consultation about prevailing standards of care. None of ASPS, the Community or any Member shall be listed and/or represented to any third party as a treating physician and/or provider involved in or responsible in any way for a Patient's course of treatment, care or outcomes.
• In no way shall a physician patient relationship be created when a Member offers exclusively limited general advice or consultation about prevailing standards of care to a Patient in the Community.
• All Patients shall respect other's privacy. Patients shall not expose or attempt to uncover personal information of anyone in the group.
• All Patients shall practice mutual respect. All Patients shall be mindful that everyone in the Community comes from different backgrounds and has differing levels of knowledge and experience in this space. ASPS wants everyone to feel welcome within the Community.
• All Patients shall share their own experience only. Patients shall only upload pictures of themselves. Patients shall not share anything about friends or family members without their express permission.
• Avoid conflicts of interest by disclosing any connections you have with plastic surgeons, medical companies or other organizations related to plastic surgery when posting.
• Patients shall not provide medical advice to any other Patients. Patients shall not provide any medical advice that they may receive from other sources.
• Patients shall not personally attack any other Patients and/or Members. Patients shall not use hate speech, bullying or degrading comments about a Patient and/or Member's race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity.
• Patients shall not discuss and/or post about suicide, violence or self-harm.
• Patients shall not discuss and/or post overtly sexual content and/or nudity unrelated to the topic. Patients shall not make sexual advances towards any other Patients and/or Members.
• Patients shall not post any commercial material or content (including, but not limited to, solicitation of funds, advertising or marketing of any good or services). Patients shall not provide links to any websites, promotions, spam or donation requests in their posts.
• Patients shall not post, discuss or depict anything that would be interpreted to promote illegal activity under international, state or federal laws.
• Patients shall agree not to submit or provide any information which identifies themselves and/or others that constitutes protected health information or personally identifiable information under federal or state privacy laws without the legal authority to do so, including without limitation obtaining any and all required authorizations and/or consents. Transmission of personally identifiable information to the Community and/or a Member and/or a Patient in violation of the foregoing is prohibited.
• Patients are specifically prohibited from posting or transmitting to the Community or any other Member or Patient (i) any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material or content that would violate rights of publicity and/or privacy or that would violate any law; and (ii) any material or content that infringes, misappropriates or violates any copyright, trademark, patent right or other proprietary right of any third party. Patients shall be solely liable for any damages resulting from any violation of the foregoing restrictions or any other harm resulting from your provision of such content to the Community and/or other Member and/or Patient.
• Patients shall not have any discussions outside the purpose of the community.
• ASPS may exercise its rights and delete any content a Patient submits without notice to the Patient. ASPS has no obligation to respond to the Patient's submission, if, in its sole discretion, ASPS believes the submission to be unlawful, inappropriate, in violation of these Terms and/or outside the scope of the Community. ASPS reserves the right in its absolute discretion to determine which submissions are published to Members and/or Patients as part of participation in the Community.
• ASPS makes no representation that materials, products or services made available within the Community are appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States and accessing them from territories where the Community or its services is illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access the Community from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.