Virtual Hospital Policies

Copyright Policy

All information contained within the Virtual Hospital is copyrighted--©1992-2002--and the property of the University of Iowa unless otherwise noted.

Permitted uses:

Virtual Hospital authors allow duplication of their information for personal use. There is no need to secure permission from Virtual Hospital for these permitted uses. Here are examples of permitted use:

• Printing one or two copies of a Virtual Hospital Web page on a printer for later reference, for yourself, for a student, or for a patient.
• Copying portions of Virtual Hospital text in an e-mail document and sending it to a small group of friends or associates.
• Including quoted Virtual Hospital text or a photo, chart or illustration in a college term paper or K-12 school project.
• Using a printout of a Virtual Hospital page as a handout or reading for classroom purposes. Please cite the source as follows: "Copyrighted material used with permission of the author, The University of Iowa, and Virtual Hospital, www.vh.org." If you are hoping to use an electronic version of Virtual Hospital content in a classroom presentation or course Web site, please follow the permissions guidelines "For all other uses" found below.
• News media--in print, television, and radio--may use Virtual Hospital materials as part of their coverage, provided that each use is credited as follows: "Copyrighted material used with permission of the author, The University of Iowa, and Virtual Hospital, www.vh.org." Other media, including Internet publishers, book publishers, and academic journal publishers should follow the permissions guidelines "For all other uses" found below.

When using Virtual Hospital information in a scholarly work, term paper, or school project please use the following example as a guide for citing your source:

Bergman, Ron, et al. Atlas of Human Anatomy in Cross Section. [Web document]. The University of Iowa: Virtual Hospital, 1995: [2001]. http://www.vh.org/Providers/Textbooks/HumanAnatomy/CrossSectionAtlas.html.

That is:

Author Lastname, Firstname, others. Title of Document. [Type of document]. Place published: Publisher, original publication date: [last revision date]. Web address of the cited document.

Permissions Policy for all other uses:

Electronic publishing: The authors and publishers of Virtual Hospital, as a rule, do not give prior permission for duplicating Virtual Hospital material in other electronic forms such as other Web sites, intranet sites, CD-ROMs, DVDs, videotape, electronic slide show, personal digital assistant format, etc. Any such use of Virtual Hospital material must receive specific approval from the author. To secure that permission, please fill out our permission form as completely as possible and submit it electronically for swift handling.

Textbook and journal publishers: Virtual Hospital authors are pleased to assist textbook and journal publishers with use of their content. To secure authors' permission, please fill out our permission form as completely as possible and submit it electronically for swift handling.

Privacy Policy

Virtual Hospital is a digital library of health information from The University of Iowa to the world.

Of the information we learn about you from your visit to "http://www.vh.org" we store only the following:

• the IP address from which you access the Internet
• the date and time,
• the Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly to our site,
• the name of the files read or the words you searched,
• the browser used to access our site.

This information is used to measure the number of visitors to the various sections of our site and identify system performance or problem areas. We also use this information to help us expand the coverage of the site to assist users in finding health information.

We do not give, share, sell or transfer any personal information to a third party.

When inquiries are e-mailed to us, we store the question and the e-mail address information so that we can respond electronically. Unless otherwise required by law, we do not identify publicly who sends questions or comments to our web site. We will not obtain information that will allow us to personally identify you when you visit our site, unless you chose to provide such information to us.

Cookies: A "cookie" is information stored on your computer by a Web server and used to customize your Web service in some way. The Virtual Hospital site does not send cookies.

Liability Disclaimer

Medicine is an ever-changing science. As new research and clinical experience broadens our knowledge, changes in treatment and drug therapy are required. The authors have checked with sources believed to be reliable in their efforts to provide information that is complete and generally in accord with the standards accepted at the time of publication. However, in view of the possibility of human error or changes in medical sciences, neither the authors nor the University of Iowa nor any other party who has been involved in the preparation or publication of this work warrants that the information contained herein is in every respect accurate or complete, and they are not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained herein with other sources.

The Role of a Digital Library

It is not the intention of Virtual Hospital to provide specific medical advice, but rather to provide users with information to better understand their health and their diagnosed disorders. Specific medical advice will not be provided, and Virtual Hospital urges you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions.

All contents copyright © 1992-2004 the Author(s) and The University of Iowa. All rights reserved.

http://www.vh.org/welcome/help/vhpolicies.html