The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (“NICHQ”) is a mission-driven nonprofit dedicated to driving dramatic and sustainable improvements in the complex issues facing children’s health. This website, the NICHQ Collaboratory, CORAL and its derived instances (“Powered by CORAL”), and other online resources (together “NICHQ websites”) are owned and operated by NICHQ. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) apply to any and all information, online communications, services, text, images, video, audio files, links, or other material and content that is or becomes available on NICHQ websites. By using NICHQ websites, you agree to abide by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is hereby incorporated into this agreement by reference, constituting an agreement between NICHQ and you. When we refer to ourselves as “we,” “us,” “our,” and similar terms, we mean NICHQ, including any subsidiary we control. We may change these terms from time to time; use constitutes your acceptance of such changes.
You may not circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with the security features of NICHQ websites, nor the features that prevent or restrict the use or copying of any content. Moreover, you may not collect or harvest any personally identifiable information.
You represent and warrant that any content you publish does not infringe upon or injure the personal or property rights of any individual, group, or entity—including but not limited to defamation, harassment, invasion of privacy, tort, or disclosure of confidential or trade secrets. Furthermore, you shall not violate any law, treaty, or intellectual property rights protected by law (such as copyright, patent, and trademark rights).
The Community, Research, & Analytics Laboratory (CORAL) is a NICHQ product that powers some NICHQ websites covered by these Terms. CORAL is an online system facilitating online collaboration among teams engaged in quality improvement efforts or other children’s health projects. Users of CORAL may include physicians, nurses, other clinicians, managers, executives, policymakers, educators, parents, caregivers, interested members of the lay public, and others. CORAL is a resource meant to help improvement teams build community, accelerate change, and strive for continual innovation in many areas affecting children’s health.
If you are a healthcare professional you should remember that this content is not meant to serve as a substitute for your own clinical judgment. If you are a consumer who chooses to use the information on CORAL, you should not rely on that information as professional medical advice or use it to replace any relationship with your physician or other qualified healthcare professional. For medical concerns, including decisions about medications and other treatments, consumers should always consult their physician or, in serious cases, seek immediate assistance from emergency personnel. Individuals with any type of medical condition are specifically cautioned to seek professional medical advice before beginning any sort of health treatment.
We follow a standard set of editorial procedures when presenting any information on CORAL, but do not generally review content posted directly by users in advance of its publication. However, we reserve the right to review any content at any time prior to, or after, it is published.
You shall not violate any law, treaty, or intellectual property rights protected by law (such as copyright, patent, and trademark rights). You acknowledge that the content and materials available on NICHQ websites include intellectual property that is protected under the copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws of the United States and/or other countries (“Intellectual Property Laws”). Such Intellectual Property Laws generally prohibit the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or exhibition of all text, photographic and graphic (art and electronic) images, audio video, and other protected materials. The violation of applicable Intellectual Property Laws may give rise to civil and/or criminal penalties.
NICHQ websites, and the content contained therein, are provided on an “As Is” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation warranties of title, non-infringement, or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant that any content is complete or accurate, that the website will be uninterrupted or error free, or that any content or material is free of rogue programming.
Though we expect all users to adhere to our content policies in these Terms, you may be exposed to content that violates our policies or is otherwise offensive through the use of the website. Your use of NICHQ websites is at your own risk, and you agree that we are not liable for content that is provided by others. We take no responsibility for your exposure to content whether it violates our policies or not. You understand that the information and opinions in content uploaded by third parties represent solely the thoughts of the author and is neither endorsed by nor does it necessarily reflect our beliefs. You hereby release and waive any and all claims and/or liability against NICHQ and our employees, officers, trustees, affiliates, and/or licensors, arising from or in connection with your use of the website, the content, and/or any other material on the website.
These Terms and the content may be revised, amended, or supplemented by NICHQ without notice at any time for any reason. Continuing to use NICHQ websites after a change has been made will signify your acceptance of the changes. You should refer back to this page for future updates.
The NICHQ Privacy Policy provides additional terms and conditions that apply to your use of NICHQ websites. If you do not agree to the conditions therein, please do not continue to use NICHQ websites.
These Terms will be governed by and interpreted in the English language pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States of America, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
For questions or concerns about these Terms of Service, please contact NICHQ (webmaster@nichq.org).
Updated October 9, 2024.
Protecting your private information is our priority. This policy addresses how NICHQ collects, uses, protects or otherwise handles your personally identifiable information in accordance with the NICHQ public website (https://nichq.org), the Community, Research, & Analytics Lab (CORAL), and other online resources (together “NICHQ websites”). Personally identifiable information, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. By using NICHQ websites, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.
NICHQ may collect information from you when you subscribe to a mailing list, fill out a form, respond to a survey or enter information on the site. In these instances, you may be asked to provide your name, email address or other details. NICHQ encourages you to review the privacy statements of other websites that you choose to link to from NICHQ so that you can understand how those sites collect, use and share your information. NICHQ is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on such websites not operated by NICHQ.
NICHQ may use the information collected from you to send periodic emails and newsletters, or to tailor the website’s content to improve your experience. NICHQ may also use your personally identifiable information to invite you to provide feedback via surveys or other mechanisms regarding your opinion of NICHQ services or your experience using the NICHQ website.
NICHQ does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. NICHQ may share data with trusted partners to help perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail or provide customer support. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to NICHQ, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.
NICHQ may keep track of the pages and files that visitors access within the NICHQ website to determine which services and information are most popular. These data are used to deliver customized content within the NICHQ website to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.
NICHQ may disclose your personally identifiable information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on NICHQ or the website; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of NICHQ; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the NICHQ website, or the public.
Information about your computer hardware and software may be automatically collected by NICHQ. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information provides general statistics regarding the use of the NICHQ website, and is used to maintain its operation and quality.
The NICHQ website may use “cookies” to understand visitors’ preferences and interests so that NICHQ can better personalize their online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. They are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued them to you. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page, to help recall your specific information on subsequent visits.
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the NICHQ website.
As described in NICHQ’s Terms of Use, the Community, Research, & Analytics Lab (CORAL) is an online system facilitating online collaboration among teams engaged in quality improvement efforts or other children’s health projects. Information collected about the users of CORAL may include areas of expertise, geographic location, and other voluntary data, in addition to an email address required for access. This information constitutes a user’s “Profile” and is intended to help improvement teams build and sustain an online community in order to accelerate change, and strive for continual innovation in many areas affecting children’s health.
NICHQ will not release any personally identifying information from CORAL regarding our users (e.g., email addresses, names, organizational affiliation) without their explicit permission. In addition, any information on user activity that we might share on the NICHQ website or elsewhere outside of CORAL will be de-identified and aggregated.
NICHQ does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen. If you are under the age of thirteen, you must ask your parent or guardian for permission to use the NICHQ website.
In accordance with the CANSPAM Act, NICHQ agrees to the following: (1) not to use false or misleading subjects or email addresses; (2) identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way; (3) include the physical address of the NICHQ headquarters; (4) monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used; (5) honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly; and (6) allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
NICHQ respects your privacy and gives you an opportunity to opt-out of receiving announcements, newsletters or other communications. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can follow the instructions at the bottom of any communication or contact webmaster@nichq.org and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
NICHQ will notify you via email within three (3) business days should a data breach occur. NICHQ also agrees to the Individual Redress Principle, which stipulates that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.
You may contact us to request access to the information we have related to you. In order to comply with your request, we may ask you to verify your identity. We will fulfill your request electronically. If you believe that the information we have about you is incorrect, you are welcome to contact us so that we can update it and keep your data accurate. Any data that is no longer needed for the purposes described in the “Use of Personally Identifiable Information” or “NICHQ CORAL User Information” sections, above, will be deleted. If at any point you wish NICHQ to delete information about you, please contact us.
If you are a subscriber to one of NICHQ’s mailing lists, you may edit your communication preferences by clicking the “email preferences” link in the footer of any NICHQ newsletter or project email that you receive. Alternatively, you may contact us directly to request access to the personal data that we have about you (e.g., your name, email address), which we will supply electronically, or to request that we modify or delete that information.
NICHQ may occasionally update this statement, so you are encouraged to periodically review the policy to remain informed of how NICHQ is protecting your information.
NICHQ welcomes your questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you believe that NICHQ has not adhered to this statement, please use the following contact information:
National Institute for Children’s Health Quality
308 Congress Street, 5th Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02210
Email: webmaster@nichq.org
Phone: (617) 391-2700
Updated October 9, 2024