Upheal handles sensitive personal information, and we're committed to upholding the highest possible standards of data protection and privacy. Therefore, to comply with privacy regulations, care providers must obtain client consent before using Upheal.
If your clients want to know more about the consent they are asked for when using Upheal, please send them a link to this page for clients.
What consent do I need to collect?
Consent for data processing
This is the agreement between your practice and your client, which you might refer to as informed consent or your practice-client privacy policy. Any client whose data enters Upheal must consent to data processing, regardless of how you hold sessions.
As a provider, it is your responsibility to collect client consent for data processing so you remain compliant with your regional data protection standards including HIPAA, GDPR, PHIPA, PIPEDA, etc. We offer three simple solutions for obtaining this consent, explained below.
How do I obtain client consent?
We offer flexible options for collecting consent for data processing. You can manage consent collection independently, or use our resources as needed.
Important: Regulations are regional
Privacy and data laws differ by region, and the forms we provide you and your clients are tailored to local regulations. Please make sure you set your region in Settings > Consent collection.
If you’ll be using Upheal with clients under the age of 16, you need consent from their parent or legal guardian to use Upheal. Read more here.
Option 1: Sending an email through Upheal
You can send a prewritten email directly through Upheal with a link for your client to consent to Upheal’s agreements online. This includes an agreement that Upheal generates for you between your practice and your client acknowledging that Upheal processes personal data. All the client needs to do is read the documents and check boxes — this is a quick, easy way to obtain consent.
Sending a consent collection email:
On your client’s page, click Consent.
Select the first option, Collect via email, and a preview will appear.
If your client doesn’t already have an email address in their profile, enter their email now, and click Send.
When your client agrees, consent is automatically marked as collected in their profile.
Here’s what your client sees when they follow the link in the email:
Option 2: Downloading our template
If you want to collect consent on your own, you can download our template and deliver it to your client for signing any way you choose. We generate a downloadable document for each client, or you can download our blank template.
Using our template to collect consent:
On your client’s page, click Consent.
Select the second option, Consent for (client), to download the form. This form will already have the client’s name included.
Give or send this form to your client.
When you receive their signature, you can mark their consent as collected.
You can find the templates specific to your region here.
Option 3: Adding Upheal to your own informed consent document
If you already have your own informed consent documents and process, you can simply copy our provided statements into your own forms.
Find the statements specific to your region here.
Turning off in-app consent management
You can hide the consent section from client profiles by turning off in-app consent management. You might want to do this if your practice already manages consent independently of Upheal, so you don’t need Upheal’s assistance. Turning off consent management also prevents other practice members from inadvertently using Upheal to collect consent when it’s already handled elsewhere.
Go to your Settings and find Consent collection on the left.
Scroll to the Consent in client profiles section, and deselect Show consent collection in client profiles.
What additional consent does Upheal collect?
Depending on how you use Upheal, we might ask your clients to consent to two more agreements. Unlike consent to data processing, Upheal manages these two policies automatically.
Upheal’s Terms of Service
If you hold video calls using Upheal or the Upheal Zoom integration, your client will also need to agree to our application’s Terms of Service. If you capture audio from in-person sessions, use our browser extension, or upload your own recordings, your client never interacts with Upheal directly and will never be asked to agree to Upheal’s Terms of Service. Upheal handles this agreement automatically.
The use of de-identified data for AI training (optional)
Clients can also optionally agree to their de-identified data being used to train our AI for the improvement of the Upheal app (read the policy or learn more from our blog). This data is anonymized and untraceable to the client or provider. Client data will only be used for app improvements with express permission. Clients can withdraw consent at any time by contacting Upheal support. Consent is withdrawn once Upheal support receives and processes the request, but withdrawal does not work retroactively.
For now, Upheal will only ask clients to opt in to de-identified data use for AI training if you’re holding sessions on Upheal’s video calling platform or with our Zoom integration. You can automatically opt out all clients in your settings.
Want to know more about Upheal’s policies?
Visit our Privacy and compliance page.