Terms of Usage and Privacy Policies

Terms of Use

This site, including e-Editions, newsletters/reports, and any ancillary product related to Bariatric Times, and all of its content is copyrighted 2004 to present by Matrix Medical Communications. All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced or distributed in any way, including (but not limited to) hard copy distribution, email distribution, or distribution via any website, without express written consent by Matrix Medical Communications (fee may apply). Opinions expressed by authors, contributors, and advertisers are their own and not necessarily those of Matrix Medical Communications, the editorial staff, or any member of the editorial advisory board. Matrix Medical Communications is not responsible for accuracy of dosages given in the articles printed herein. The appearance of advertisements in this journal or on this website is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality, or safety. Matrix Medical Communications disclaims responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas or products referred to in the articles or advertisements.

The content on this website, including the e-Editions, is intended for healthcare professionals only. It is not intended for users under the age of 18 and/or patients or individuals seeking healthcare advice or diagnoses. Individuals seeking healthcare advice or diagnoses should consult with a qualified healthcare professional.

Privacy Policy

Matrix Medical Communications, LLC (MMC) is committed to respecting your privacy and recognizing your need for appropriate protection and management of the personal information you share with us or that we collect from other sources in the course of providing our services. This Privacy Notice discloses the practices of MMC and applies solely to the personal information we collect and/or use, including but not limited to information collected through any of our websites, including www.matrixmedicalcommunications.com, www.jcadonline.com, www.innovationscns.com, www.bariatrictimes.com, and any other websites to which this Privacy Notice is linked (collectively, the “Sites”) and/or collected in connection with any of our services, healthcare professional digital advertising data solutions, healthcare content publishing and syndication and the our medical journal, textbooks and healthcare websites (the “Services”).
The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to explain the types of personal information MMC collects, how it is used, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to review and correct, your information. Unless you send a specific written request to us opting out of a specified use of your information, you are accepting and consenting to the use of your information as described in this Privacy Notice, including through your use of and benefit from the Site and/or Services.

1. What Information We Collect
In connection with certain aspects of our Services, we may collect or you may provide personally identifiable information, including but not limited to: your name, contact information, email address, and/or information obtained from public databases or third parties. Personally identifiable information is information that identifies a specific individual, such as first and last name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number and date of birth.
MMC also automatically receives and records information from your web browser when you interact with the Services or the Sites, including your IP address and cookie information. This non-personally identifiable information is information that does not identify a specific individual. We use non-personally identifiable information to troubleshoot, administer the Sites, analyze trends, gather demographic information, comply with applicable law, and cooperate with law enforcement activities. We may also share this information with our clients, partners, and authorized third parties in the context of our Services to measure the overall effectiveness of online advertising, content, and programming. This non-personally identifiable information may include:

Metrics and Performance Statistics:
MMC may collect and track metrics and performance statistics relating to use of the Services and the Sites, and MMC may use these metrics and statistics to generate analytics (including analytics provided to MMC through a third party). This information may include, but is not limited to: (i) the IP address and precise or estimated physical location of each device accessing the Sites or Services; (ii) the referring websites or services; (iii) the time and date of each access and the amount of time spent on certain sections of the Sites or Services. These metrics and analytics may be used by MMC and/or its partners for promotional activities, including targeted email regarding products or services that may interest you, to improve MMC websites and services and/or to conduct market research.

Cookies and Tracking Technology:
Our Sites and Services use or may use “cookies” to gather non-personally identifiable information about you and/or the ways you access our Sites or view our information (including email communication or content on our Sites or available through our Services). A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. There are two types of cookies used on our Sites:
Performance Cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors use our Sites for web analytics purposes, for instance which pages visitors go to most often and error messages received. These cookies are only used to improve how our Sites work and your experience on our Sites; they do not track your browsing activity on other websites.
Functionality Cookies: These cookies allow our Sites to remember choices you make (such as remembering your user name and password, language preference or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personalized features. These cookies may also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other personalization. They may also be used to provide services you have requested, such as keeping you logged in to your account as you browse the internet. These cookies do not track your browsing activity on other websites.
By using the Sites and/or Services, you consent to MMC’s use of cookies, including third party cookies. Generally, we (or our partners/clients) use cookies to store information about your preferences and activity and to provide you with information (on our website and/or other websites you visit) that is tailored to your needs and interests.
Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually refuse cookies, or selectively accept certain cookies, by adjusting the preferences in your browser or by installing an opt-out browser add-on. If you turn off or disable cookies there may be some features of our Sites or Services, or the content displayed on our Sites or in our email communications, that will not be available to you and some pages may not display properly.

Internet Tracking Technology:
We may also use internet tracking technology, such as Web beacons (also called clear GIFs or pixel tags) and other similar technologies, to deliver or communicate with cookies and track your use of our Sites, Services, and/or the sites and services of advertising publishers, our partners or sponsors. We may also include web beacons in e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. Some of our partners/clients or third party advertisers that advertise on sites that you visit may also use cookie and/or pixel tag technologies.
The information we (or our partners/clients) obtain about you enables us to customize the services we offer and allows us and our partners/clients to customize the information you may receive from us or from third parties to highlight information, promotions or content that may be tailored to your specific interests, profession and/or demographic. We (or our partners/clients) may also use this information to measure the overall effectiveness of online content, advertising campaigns, products and services, and promotional and educational communications. Some of this information will be used and shared only in anonymous and aggregate form; in other cases, it may be combined with other identifiable information we (or our partners/clients) have collected in order to better serve you digital advertising and content that is tailored to your role as a healthcare professional and/or provide you with information that may be of interest to you.

Do Not Track
Currently, various browsers – including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari – offer a “do not track” or “DNT” option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header, which sends a signal to Web sites’ visited by the user about the user’s browser DNT preference setting. MMC does not currently commit to responding to browsers’ DNT signals with respect to the Sites, in part, because no common industry standard for DNT has been adopted by industry groups, technology companies or regulators, including no consistent standard of interpreting user intent.

DMD Healthcare Communications Network Participation Disclosure
This website is a member of the DMD Healthcare Communications Network (the “HCN”). HCN is owned and managed by DMD Marketing Corp (“DMD”) and is designed to enable DMD and HCN members to provide medically relevant business communications to authenticated health care professionals.

Your registration at this website includes registration with HCN. As a result, your contact and other professionally relevant information will be disclosed to DMD and each HCN member to provide you medically relevant content as described in the HCN privacy policy available at https://HCN.health/privacy-policy/. The HCN privacy policy provides details on how to managed your information, including opting out of participation in the HCN.

To the extent that this site’s privacy policy conflicts with the HCN privacy policy, with respect to the use of this information by HCN, the conflict will be resolved in favor of the HCN policy.

2. Content Sharing Features
Our Sites include social media sharing features, such as LinkedIn and Twitter buttons, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. These features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our Sites. Social media features are governed by that social media company’s privacy policy.
• Facebook Privacy
• Twitter Privacy
• LinkedIn Privacy

3. How We Collect and Use Information About You
We collect personally identifiable information when you provide it to us, including when you register for our white papers/newsletters/emails or subscribe to The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, Bariatric Times, The Hot Topics Series, Innovations Journal Series or Nutrition Health Review. We may also collect information from public databases or from third parties.
Generally speaking, we use your information to:

• offer content solutions and services to healthcare professionals and in the healthcare field and enable our partners/clients to educate and engage in meaningful ways with healthcare professionals;
• provide you with the all features and functions of the Sites and the Services;
• to communicate with you regarding our Sites and Services or products or services that may interest you;
• to allow our partners/clients to communicate or interact with you with regarding their products or services and/or to provide you with promotional, marketing or educational content that may be of interest to you;
• to conduct research that may improve our Sites, our Services, or contribute to the development of future products or services.

We may also use your information on an aggregated and anonymous basis to analyze visitor behavior and to help us understand how visitors use our Sites and Services and to measure interest in the various pages. We may use this information to gather statistical information, improve the content of our Sites, to make our Sites easier to use, to provide information and statistics to our sponsors/partners, and to customize our promotional activities or the activities of our third party partners or sponsors.

4. How We Protect Your Information
We use appropriate administrative, technological and physical safeguards to protect personally identifiable information we hold from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. We also carefully select services providers, business partners/clients and other third parties that may receive or have access to your information to ensure they will treat your information with at least the same level of security that we provide.

5. Data Retention
We will only retain the information we collect, including personal data, for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

6. Disclosures to Third Parties
We may share your information with third parties as follows:

• With Business Partners or Clients: We may share information, including but not limited to email and contact information, with our business partners and/or clients. These partners or clients are carefully screened and tailored to the healthcare industry so that they are providing information and/or services that are relevant and may be of interest to you. They may use the information for market research, educational, informational, and promotional activities or product and service development. You may receive emails or other communications from these partners or clients, and you may view content or advertisements on third party websites relating to the products or services of these third parties and targeted to your interests and/or demographics. If you have any questions regarding the content or policies or practices relating to any third party communication or advertisement, please contact the third party and not MMC. If you would like to learn more about targeted advertisements and/or would like to opt out of receiving certain customized ads, please visit www.aboutads.info/choices/.
• With Service Providers: We may use other companies to perform services including, without limitation, facilitating some aspects of our Sites or Services. These other companies may be supplied with or have access to your information solely for the purpose of providing or facilitating these services to you on our behalf and agree to keep your information safe and secure.
• Special Circumstances: We also may disclose your information, including personally identifiable information, in the following circumstances:
o In response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order, or other request from a law enforcement or government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law;
o When we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our Sites’s terms and conditions or other agreements or policies;
In connection with a corporate transaction, such as the sale of all or a portion of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the event of bankruptcy.

7. How to Opt Out, Correct or Remove Personal Information
If you no longer wish to receive communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions in any communication received from us. Opting out of email communications does not remove you from all databases unless you specifically request that we do so in an email to us at [email protected]. Please note that even if you unsubscribe we may retain and use your information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements and/or provide lists of customers who have opted out of email communications to ensure that such customers are suppressed from future mailings sent by us or on our behalf.
If you no longer wish for your contact information to be included in databases that we may provide to our partners/clients, please contact us at [email protected] with the details of your request.
For more information generally about opting out of behavioral or customized advertising, please visit www.aboutads.info/choices. Please note that your decision to opt out of certain advertising from MMC and/or its partners/clients may not affect or eliminate customized advertising from other third party sources beyond MMC’s control.
If you would like to review, correct or remove your information from our records, please contact [email protected]

8. Special Notification for California Residents
If you reside in California and you have provided us with personal information, you may request information about our disclosures of certain categories of your personal information (if any) to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Such requests must be submitted to us at [email protected]. Within thirty days of receiving such a request, we will provide a list of the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties (if any) for third-party direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the names and addresses of these third parties. This request may be made no more than once per calendar year. We reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the email address specified in this paragraph.

9. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Sites are not directed at and should not be used by children under the age of 13. MMC does not solicit or collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personally identifiable information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete it. If you believe that we have collected personally identifiable information from a child under 13, please contact us using the information below.

10. Links to Third Party Sites
Our Sites and Services may contain links to websites operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. Privacy policies on such linked sites may be different from our Privacy Notice. You access such linked sites at your own risk. You should always read the privacy notice of a linked website before disclosing any personal information on such websites.

11. Notice Changes
MMC may update this privacy statement periodically, including if there are any changes to our policies or practices with respect to the collection and/or use of your information. We will post those changes here so that you will always know what information we collect through ours Sites and Services or otherwise, how we use it, and what choices you have. Please be sure to check this page often.

12. Questions or Feedback
If you have any questions or comments regarding our Privacy Notice and practices, please email us at [email protected] or send correspondence via mail to:
Matrix Medical Communications, LLC
1595 Paoli PikeSuite 201
West Chester PA 19380-6167

This document was last updated on May 4, 2023.