Last Updated: 13 February 2002

BY USING THE WEB SITE OR ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THE WEB SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

1. Introduction.

This Web site provides information about Dental-Consults Limited, its technology and transmission systems. We only facilitate consultations requested by registered practicing dentists.

Our Terms and Conditions outline our mutual rights and obligations. We strongly urge you to read and consider this section carefully before you register, as this forms the basis of our relationship with you. If you are unclear over any point made, please email us.

Please review these Terms and Conditions each time you use this Web site, since there may be changes and updates from time to time. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, please do not use this Web site. If you use this Web site, you will be deemed to agree to these Terms and Conditions.

The Terms and Conditions below apply to any services we provide to you through our Web site including any consultation and to everything else we or any of the persons referred to in clause 14 below do for you. The contents of these Terms and Conditions are subject to the provisions of any consumer legislation which takes priority over them.

2. Definitions.

In these Terms and Conditions:

"advice" means an assessment or recommendation provided by a specialist as part of a consultation regarding an oral health problem submitted by you. If clarification is required, it includes one follow-up communication made within 14 days from the date the original assessment or recommendation is placed in your patient record on our Web site.
 
"consumer legislation" means any compulsory provision of law of a legislative or regulatory nature passed by a competent body which applies no matter what you and we say and affects any services provided through our Web site to you or any other person.
 
"consultation" means when you visit our Web site and electronically supply to it details of a patient's oral health problem as you perceive it, for the purpose of obtaining an advice and includes that advice itself.
 
"specialist" means any person to whom the information relating to an oral health problem is referred to by us for the purpose of providing an advice and who supplies an advice.
 
"services" covers all goods and services of any kind we or any of the persons referred to in clause 14 provide to you through our Web site.
 
"we", "us" or "our" means Dental-Consults Limited.

"you" means you, the dentist, who requests a consultation.

3. Important General Clause.
(This clause 3 takes priority over all other clauses of these Terms and Conditions.)

(a) Acquiring Services Where Consumer Legislation Applies to the Supply:
None of your rights under any consumer legislation shall be reduced by these Terms and Conditions which shall apply to the extent legally permitted.

(b) Acquiring Services Where Consumer Legislation does not apply to the Supply:
If you are acquiring services in circumstances where no compulsory provisions apply, you and we are allowed to agree on different Terms and Conditions. Then you agree that your general rights at law regarding those services will, to the extent permitted, be subject to these Terms and Conditions only and that the provisions of consumer legislation which would otherwise apply, will not apply to the services.

4. Nature of Services Provided.

Dental-Consults is a Web-based teledentistry consultation system developed for use by dentists. The system enables referring dentists to send a consult, including dental images and radiographs, for a specialist second opinion, via the Internet. The specialist reviews the consult and provides the diagnosis and treatment plan. It increases patient access to quality dental care. For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions the advice is deemed to have been provided to you as the referring dentist.

The services provided through this Web site are not suitable for and do not extend to situations requiring emergency assistance.

In those circumstances we suggest you immediately contact your usual health provider. This applies to any situation where immediate or urgent health care may be needed to avoid injury, or rapid deterioration of a current injury or illness, or death and where you are not able to assess it is a situation requiring emergency assistance.

5. Limitations of Consultation Process.

After careful assessment and review of the data, Dental-Consults formulate and post a written recommendation to the consulting practitioner. The recommendation may consist of a proposed diagnosis, suggested diagnostic procedures, and standard therapeutic options.

Since we have not seen the patient, we can not truly diagnose the patient. We can only provide our opinion as to what the problem is likely to be, and based on this proposed diagnosis, we provide you with recommendations for the most common treatments of this problem. Where they are available, we will also send you the scientific information (e.g. reference citations and abstracts) underlying our suggestions. The advice is solely based on the information you provide to us as part of the consultation and this is acknowledged in the Consent Form that should be printed out and completed by both you and your patient.

You must ensure we receive all relevant information about the oral health problem being experienced and the person experiencing it including their history both medical and non-medical. If incorrect information is provided, or pertinent information that would otherwise influence or aid in the diagnosis/treatment plan is not provided, the accuracy of the assumed diagnosis and proposed treatments will be adversely effected. Any services including any advice are provided to you personally and may not be relied upon by any other person.

We may decline your request for a consultation where a specialist considers a consultation inappropriate. In that case we will advise you and refund any payment you have made.

6. Disclaimer.

While consultants may provide additional information, the ultimate medical, ethical, and legal responsibility for diagnosing and treating your patient is with you, the treating dentist. While Dental-Consults is willing to provide its best efforts in helping you with your patient, it assumes no legal liability for this consultation or any consequences resulting from it. For each referral, both you and your patient should complete the Consent Form.

The referring dentist remains responsible for the patient's primary diagnosis and is responsible for evaluating the report and communicating any information in the report to the patient.

By agreeing to use our services you agree to hold Dental-Consults, its officers, employees and agents harmless from and against any and all liability, loss, expense (including reasonable legal fees), or claims for injury or damages arising out of a Dental-Consults consultation.

7. Privacy.

During our relationship, Dental-Consults will collect information about you from yourself for the purposes of performing services. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (United Kingdom), we follow strict procedures in collecting, storing and disclosing information about you. You may decide whether to provide any information we seek from you. However, if you do not provide it, we may not be able to provide the services to you. Our security measures mean that in order to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information we store your information in our secure database behind an electronic firewall and we may request proof of identity before we disclose it. You may ask to see information we hold about you and ask for any details that are wrong to be corrected.

For each referral, both you and your patient should complete the Consent Form.

You may decide to send Dental-Consults your Personal Identifying Information, for example, in an e-mail requesting additional information. No information which identifies any individual will be transmitted to third parties. Dental-Consults will take commercially reasonable security measures to protect such identifying information and/or security measures required by applicable United Kingdom laws, regulations and rules.

Questions, answers, case studies, sample reports, and other materials may be included on this Web site without identifying information, but only with authorization from the patient, requesting dentist and consulting specialist. Also, we may track the visits to this Web site by domain or other point of entry, and we may compile aggregate information concerning the use of the Web site.

Further details are available in our Privacy Policy statement.

8. Internet Use.

You should be aware of the general risks of transmitting information over the Internet. The public section of our Web site is not encrypted. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your requirements for accuracy of data input and output, backing up of data, and protection from "viruses," "worms," "trojan horses" or other malicious or damaging computer software.

You will maintain a connection with an Internet Service Provider enabling us to contact you as required and that if you do not comply with this requirement, we will be released from any further obligations to you without having any need to refund any moneys you have paid.

You will only use the Web site for requesting and receiving services. We may, monitor the information provided to or through our Web site and disconnect or bar you from access if you fail to abide by these Terms and Conditions or generally accepted standards of use or behaviour of the Internet.

You will indemnify us and the specialist providing the advice to you and keep us both protected against any liability however it arises.

9. Method of Payment.

We accept on-line payment by Visa and Mastercard. Your credit card will be billed as "Dental-Consults Limited". No further details of the consultation are reported to your credit provider. Your fee will be billed in your local currency. Dental-Consults use an accredited secure payment gateway provider WorldPay to process payment fees. Dental-Consults does not store credit card details.

We require you to pay the charge for services you request before they are delivered unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

10. Charges and Tax.

Our charges are stated in our Pricing Plan web-page on the Web site in UK Pounds, which are quoted exclusive of UK Value Added Tax (VAT). We will charge you the equivalent amount of the UK Pound rate in your local currency. You incur our charges at the time you submit your request for a consultation. Your credit card company will bill you according to the rate of exchange on the day they process your bill. Under United Kingdom law a 17.5% VAT is payable in respect of the services to the extent they are provided in the United Kingdom.

No VAT is payable for services supplied directly overseas. You agree to keep us and the specialist providing the advice, indemnified and protected against any liability incurred because either of us have relied on incorrect information supplied by you regarding liability for VAT.

When services are deemed to have been provided in a country other than United Kingdom, all duties, tariffs and taxes, and other similar charges imposed by any competent body of that country are your responsibility. You agree to keep us and the specialist providing the advice, indemnified and protected against any liability in that regard.

We reserve the right to vary our charges with 30 days notice.

11. Prohibited Activities.

The following activities are not permitted on this Web site and are a material breach of these Terms and Conditions:

a. Using this Web site for any purpose in violation of local, state, national or international laws;
b. Posting material that infringes on the intellectual property rights or privacy rights of others;
c. Posting material that is threatening, harassing, malicious, hateful, abusive, slanderous, defamatory, obscene, embarrassing to others or otherwise contrary to the purpose of this Web site, as determined by Dental-Consults in its sole discretion;
d. Posting advertisements or requests for business;
e. Collecting information about others without their written consent; and
f. Engaging in any other conduct that is contrary to the purpose of this Web site or, as determined by Dental-Consults in its sole discretion, exposes Dental-Consults to any other person or entity related to this Web site to any liability or detriment.

12. Links.

Dental-Consults may provide links to other Web sites, for your convenience. However, Dental-Consults does not review, credential, accredit or approve the content of linked Web sites. The use of any such Web sites is at the user’s risk, and is subject to the Terms and Conditions applicable to such Web sites.
No person may create a link to or from or put anything on our Web site whether visible or invisible without our written consent. We do not endorse and neither are we responsible for, the content of any Web sites linked to or framed within, our Web site.

Compensation and Liability

13. Your Ability to ask for Compensation from Us.

Unless consumer legislation requires otherwise, you agree that your rights to compensation are determined and limited by clauses 14 and 15 of these Terms and Conditions.

14. Exclusion of Liability.

We exclude all liability we may have to you in respect of any service, consultation, or anything else we do. This exclusion also applies for the benefit of:

-Any company owned by us;
-Every officer, employee, contractor, agent and everyone else we or any company owned by us is responsible for;
-Anyone else who is requested by us or by any company owned by us to perform a service at your request.

None of the people specified above is liable or has to pay you for anything else in connection with or resulting from anything any of them does or does not do, or delays in doing, whether or not it is contemplated or authorised by any agreement or relationship you have with us. This exclusion applies whatever you are claiming for and in whatever way liability might arise if it were not for this clause. This exclusion does not prevent you getting a court order requiring us to do anything we have agreed to do for you.

15. Limitation of our Liability.

In clause 14 we have excluded liability we or any of the people specified in that clause may otherwise have to you. However, if for any reason, any of those people cannot rely on that exclusion of liability, then this clause applies.

If and to the extent this clause applies, the maximum combined amount the people referred to above (together) will have to pay you and anyone else who claims through you (together) is the amount of our charges that you have actually paid to us for the services complained about.

General

16. Intellectual Property Rights.

All designs, text, graphics, marks, logos and the selection and arrangement of them, software, source code, and all other material on our Web site are our property or the property of someone who has allowed us to use it. No part of our Web site may be reproduced without our written permission except for the purpose of requesting services from us.

This Web site is Copyright © 2002 by Dental-Consults Limited. Dental-Consults Limited is a registered company, number 4339576. All rights are reserved. Any copying, transmission or other publication or other unauthorized use of the contents of this Web site is strictly prohibited.

17. Law and Jurisdiction applying to these Terms and Conditions.

These Terms and Conditions continue to apply to our relationship no matter where you are located at the time of the services are provided or where you reside. This will be the case until they are cancelled except to the extent clause 23 says otherwise.

To the extent legally permitted:

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of United Kingdom, except that the relationship between a specialist and yourself, including the content of any advice and any legal requirements regarding it shall be governed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the state or country where that advice is deemed to have been provided under these Terms and Conditions;
 
Any claim or dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms and Conditions must be instituted within one year from the date the relevant service was initiated by you;
 
Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms and Conditions shall be finally resolved by arbitration under the Arbitration Act 1996 (United Kingdom), including the provisions of the Second Schedule to that Act, and shall be conducted in Leeds, United Kingdom, in the English language by one arbitrator appointed in accordance with the provisions of that Act; except as otherwise stated you submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the United Kingdom courts.

18. Altering these Clauses.

We may alter or remove existing clauses of these Terms and Conditions or add new ones. Alterations may be in the nature of completely new clauses. We can do this without the need to obtain the consent of the people in clause 14.

19. Meeting our Duties through Agents.

We may have any Dental-Consults approved agent perform any part of our side of these Terms and Conditions. If that occurs, that agent or its officers, employees, contractors or agents shall have the benefit of any clause that confers benefits on us.

20. Transferring Responsibilities.

We may transfer all of our responsibilities under these Terms and Conditions to someone else. We will tell you if we do this. You may not transfer your responsibilities or any benefit or obligation of these Terms and Conditions to anybody.

21. Use of your Password.

Keep the password to your patient record confidential. Normally you will select your password when you first register with us.

We are entitled to treat all of the people who use your password to access or acquire the services as being authorised by you to do so and people you are responsible for. You must ensure that they meet all your duties under these Terms and Conditions. You agree to make sure that everyone who accesses our Web site using your password or who otherwise obtains access to the information provided to you under these Terms and Conditions will also meet the above obligations.

22. Each Clause Seperately Binding.

Each clause of these Terms and Conditions is separately binding.
If for any reason we, you or any of the people specified in clause 14 cannot rely on any clause in whole or in part, all other clauses of these Terms and Conditions will continue to be effective.

23. Sending Communications.

You authorise us to send communications to the last email address or fax number you have given us. Such communications may refer to the provision of services or the consultation but will not disclose the contents of any advice. We can assume any:

Email has been received by you when it has been sent to the email address we sent it to even if it has not been downloaded from the Internet Service Provider hosting the email address;

Fax has been received by you when we receive confirmation of transmission to the number we sent it to.

You may send any communication to us or contact us in relation to any other matter relating to the services by emailing us at info@dental-consults.com, or contacting us by fax on fax number +44(0)1924 259860. Please tell us if you change your email address or fax number.

24. Rights and Responsibilities that Continue.

The cancelling of any relationship you have with us does not affect any rights and responsibilities, which are intended to continue or come into force afterwards. These include the rights and duties under clauses 3, 9-17, 19, 21, 22 and this clause 24.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS WEB SITE. IF YOU USE THIS WEB SITE, YOU WILL BE DEEMED TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.