Frequently Asked Questions:
Malpractice and Liability
EDVYCE is intended as an educational social media platform for doctors.
We provide a private platform for physicians to discuss issues of educational value to other physicians.
Topics may include interesting clinical conundrums, educational images, practice management questions, and other topics of interest to physicians.
Any posts and comments made by users represent the users’ own opinions and are not endorsed by the software platform.
Can users be liable for content / images posted by users in the app?
If users properly remove all personally identifiable information, then no. There should be no way to identify who appears in the image. In addition, users should make sure that all patients have signed releases. If users do not have access to their own image release forms, Inner Archways LLC provides an image release form that can be used.
Can users who post content / images on the app be liable for what OTHER users choose to do with that information?
Maybe, but only if users were negligent in what they posted. If a user posts instructions for a medical procedure on the app and someone else follows those instructions, resulting in injury to the patient, the patient COULD claim that the user who posted the instructions was to blame. However, that claim would only work if the instructions were wrong and the user was negligent in posting them.
The user could not be held liable merely because the doctor who followed the instructions was inept or incompetent.
Can users who perform procedures based on content / images that they find on the app be liable for injuries to their patients?
A medical professional has to follow to his or her own duty of care. Reading about or viewing a procedure in an app is no different that reading about it in a medical journal such as the New England Journal of Medicine. The doctor has to provide a quality service, without negligence.
In general, a medical malpractice suit must be based on some medical procedure that was done improperly (typically, negligently). It cannot be based on the mere fact that images were posted online.
Can Inner Archways be liable for content / images posted by users in the app?
In general, no. The Terms provide considerable protections, but, even without them, the company is insulated by what’s known as Section 230 which essentially provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by third-party users. The courts have decided that virtually all websites qualify as an “interactive computer service”.
We will not manipulate user images or edit the content.
Inner Archways is not liable for content / images that users post in the app.
Can Inner Archways be liable for content / images posted by users in the app?
Inner Archways cannot be liable for what someone does with information that they learn online.