VIRTUAL PATIENT EDUCATION
PRIVACY POLICY
1. SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Virtual Patient Education (“VPEd,” “we,” “us”) coordinates real-time supervised clinical education involving participating patients, graduate healthcare students, licensed speech-language pathologists (“SLPs”), and academic institutions. VPEd facilitates patient recruitment, clinical matching, scheduling, supervision, documentation, and educational reporting through its website and clinical education platform. Clinical services are conducted under the direction of appropriately licensed professionals. The allocation of responsibility for patient care, clinical records, supervision, and academic oversight is governed by applicable law and written agreements. This policy describes how personal information is handled in connection with these activities. Separate clinical consent forms or legally required privacy notices may also apply.
2. INFORMATION COLLECTED
Depending on an individual’s role and activities, VPEd may collect: (a) names, contact details, general location, time zone, account identifiers, and authentication information; (b) student school affiliation, academic program, educational status, availability, assignments, clinical hours, and performance evaluations; (c) supervisor credentials, professional licenses, availability, supervision records, and feedback; (d) patient health and communication concerns, relevant history, support-person information, scheduling details, clinical documentation, and appointment history; and (e) technical information such as IP address, device information, login events, and diagnostic logs.
3. PURPOSES FOR USING INFORMATION
VPEd uses information as appropriate to register and authenticate users; confirm eligibility and professional credentials; recruit and coordinate patients; arrange clinical assignments and supervision; schedule and deliver virtual sessions; document care and clinical learning; evaluate student performance and report clinical hours; communicate administrative and service notices; respond to inquiries; support quality assurance and authorized clinical supervision; protect the platform; and comply with applicable law. Any proposed use for research, marketing, AI model training, or unrelated product analytics requires separate review and any legally required notice, authorization, or consent.
4. ACCESS AND DISCLOSURE
Access to identifiable patient information is limited to individuals whose authorized clinical, supervisory, administrative, or educational responsibilities require it. This may include assigned students, their authorized supervising SLPs, and designated VPEd personnel. Participating universities ordinarily receive clinical hour reports, student performance evaluations, and other educational documentation rather than identifiable patient clinical records, unless additional access is authorized and legally permitted. VPEd may share information with service providers supporting hosting, communications, videoconferencing, reporting, and security, subject to applicable contractual and legal protections. Disclosures may also occur when required or permitted by law..
5. CONFIDENTIALITY AND HEALTH INFORMATION
Students, supervising SLPs, VPEd personnel, and other authorized users are expected to follow applicable confidentiality duties, professional standards, institutional requirements, and VPEd procedures. VPEd’s responsibilities under HIPAA and other health privacy laws depend on its actual legal status, services, transactions, and contractual relationships; this policy does not assume HIPAA applies to all information or that VPEd is exempt. Where required, VPEd will maintain appropriate agreements, notices, authorizations, patient rights processes, and breach procedures. A separate Notice of Privacy Practices will be provided if legally required.
6. EDUCATIONAL RECORDS
Student information may be subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) when maintained by or on behalf of a covered educational institution under applicable conditions. Participating institutions and VPEd should define in their agreements the purposes of access, permitted disclosures, record stewardship, retention, and processes for student requests. Students seeking access to institution-controlled education records should contact their institution. Clinical patient records and student education records are not necessarily subject to the same rules.
7. TECHNOLOGY AND SECURITY
VPEd seeks to use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the information it handles, including restricting access to authorized users. Specific security measures—such as encryption, multifactor authentication, access logging, backups, vendor controls, and incident response—must be confirmed with the technical team before publication. No electronic system can guarantee absolute security. Users should safeguard their credentials and report suspected unauthorized access promptly.
8. VIDEO SESSIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
VPEd coordinates virtual clinical appointments and may communicate account, scheduling, security, and service information through the platform, email, or text messaging where applicable. Patient participation in student-led clinical sessions and the involvement of supervising professionals should be explained through appropriate clinical consent materials. If sessions are recorded, transcribed, or used for classroom learning, VPEd will describe the purpose, authorized viewers, storage, retention, and applicable consent or authorization process before that activity occurs.
9. RETENTION AND DELETION
VPEd retains information as reasonably necessary for service delivery and to satisfy applicable clinical, educational, contractual, professional, and legal requirements. Retention periods may differ for patient records, student evaluations, clinical hour reports, communications, recordings, and technical logs. Closing an account does not necessarily require immediate deletion of records subject to retention duties.
10. CHILDREN AND ELIGIBILITY
VPEd’s minimum patient age and eligibility requirements are under review. If minors may participate, VPEd will establish appropriate parent or guardian consent, access, and privacy procedures and evaluate applicable children’s privacy requirements.
11. PRIVACY REQUESTS AND RIGHTS
Individuals may contact admin@virtualpatienteducation.com to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information, or to exercise other rights available under applicable law. VPEd may need to verify identity and coordinate requests involving institution-controlled education records or records maintained by a designated clinical records custodian. Some requests may be limited by legally required record retention or other exceptions. VPEd will provide information about the appropriate request process.
12. COOKIES AND ANALYTICS
The VPEd website and application may use technologies necessary for login, session management, security, and functionality. Any additional analytics, advertising technologies, cookies, or third-party tracking—and any applicable choices or consent mechanisms—must be documented after review of the deployed website and application. VPEd will not make categorical claims about tracking or data sales without verification.
13. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
The approved version of this policy will identify its effective date and be made available through appropriate website or application locations. VPEd will provide notice of material changes or obtain consent when required by applicable law.
14. CONTACT
Virtual Patient Education
Legal entity: VPEd Design, Inc.
5104 76th St. SE
Caledonia, MI 49316