HealthEngine Privacy Breach

Hi there,

Some may be aware of the recent news story that Health Engine online booking service has been sharing data with private health insurance companies and lawyers (amongst other questionable things!).

We would like to issue a statement assuring our clients that this is not a risk with Front Desk online booking gateway. I can't seem to find your privacy policy/collection statement for the online booking gateway though?

Thanks heaps,

Sarah

22 Posts
4 Reply Likes

Posted 2 years ago

2 years ago

Tony Taddeo, Managing Director

99 Posts
41 Reply Likes

Hi Sarah

We are also a little surprised by what is the allegedly inappropriate use of patient data by Health Engine. What is important to note is that we believe that Health Engine users may have unwittingly agreed to have their booking data used for other uses outside of making patient bookings.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-25/healthengine-sharing-patients-information-with-lawyers/9894114

Smartsoft has designed the Patient Booking Gateway so that no patient data is transmitted to Smartsoft or any other third party other than the limited and controlled information provided to the patient making the appointment or viewing future appointments in their webpage. Your data only resides in your system, as we believe it should! If you are using Health Engine for your online bookings, a program has been installed on your machine, which continually queries your data and uploads it to the Health Engine servers.

Importantly, unlike other booking systems Smartsoft does not advertise to your clients, try to make appointments with other health professionals or engage in patient surveying of their practitioner experience.

https://www.smh.com.au/healthcare/very-poor-gp-booking-service-healthengine-sanitises-patient-review...

regards

Tony

(Edited)

Comment

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2018-06-25T02:16:26+00:00

Timothy, Business Care Manager

908 Posts
271 Reply Likes

Hi Sarah. In the past, we haven’t had a specific privacy policy for the Patient Booking Gateway as the system is hosted by our users and not Smartsoft. In light of the current environment, we do think that it is important to include a privacy policy and we will work on introducing this in the next Patient Booking Gateway update.

2018-06-25T05:10:48+00:00

Timothy, Business Care Manager

908 Posts
271 Reply Likes

Hi Sarah. On consideration, we've decided not to add a general Smartsoft privacy policy as we do not use data collected by individual implementations of the Patient Booking Gateway nor do we have access to this data. Instead, we will be introducing an optional setting that allows you to include a link on your Patient Booking Gateway that directs patients to the privacy policy on your practice website. You may need to revise your practice privacy policy website to include how you are handling online booking data.