Privacy Notice for Hamad Medical Corporation

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is the principal public healthcare provider in the State of Qatar. We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy notice explains how we collect, use, share, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our website, use our services, or interact with us.

Personal information is any material held within HMC concerning you, the patient.

What information do we collect and how?

We may collect and process the following types of personal information about you:

• Information that you provide voluntarily, such as your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, gender, nationality, medical history, health insurance details, and payment information when you register for our services, make an appointment, request a consultation, or purchase a product or service from us.
• Information we obtain from other sources, such as your health records, test results, referrals, prescriptions, and feedback from other healthcare providers or third parties involved in your care or treatment.
• Information that we collect automatically, such as your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, pages viewed, links clicked, and other usage data when you visit our website or use our mobile app. We may also use cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect and analyze this information.

Why do we collect and use your information?

We may collect and use your personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide you with high-quality healthcare services and products that meet your needs and preferences.
• To communicate with you about your appointments, treatments, prescriptions, billing, and other service-related matters.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, such as reporting, auditing, and quality assurance.
• To protect our rights and interests, such as enforcing our terms and conditions, preventing fraud, and resolving disputes.
• To fulfill any other legitimate interest that we or a third party may have if it does not override your rights and interests.
• To improve our website, mobile app, and services by analyzing user behavior, feedback, and preferences.

How do we share and disclose your information?

We may share and disclose your personal information in line with Personal Data Privacy Protection Law (No. 13/2016) with the following parties for the purposes described above:

• Other healthcare providers or third parties involved in your care or treatment, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratories, hospitals, clinics, and insurers.
• Our affiliates, subsidiaries, and partners that provide us with support services, such as IT, administration, marketing, and research.
• Our contractors, consultants, and vendors that perform services on our behalf, such as hosting, maintenance, security, payment processing, and analytics.
• Government authorities, regulators, courts, and law enforcement agencies, when required by law or when necessary to protect our rights and interests or those of others.
• Other parties that you consent to or that we notify you of at the time of collection.
• Other Healthcare Organizations abroad that you may visit and consent to data sharing with, these are considered cross border data disclosures.
• We may also share aggregated or anonymized information that does not identify you with third parties for research or statistical purposes. 

What are the Lawful Purposes we rely on to share your Information?

• Protection of vital interests - It may be necessary for HMC to process or disclose personal information to protect someone’s life.
  
• Public Safety Emergency - In exceptional circumstances, there may be an overriding public interest in disclosing personal health information when the information will reduce or prevent a serious threat to public health or safety, such as to help manage contagious diseases and prevent future outbreaks. 
  
• Population Health Management - HMC may share personal health information to improve clinical health outcomes through better coordinated, more proactive, and personalized care or to manage patient cohorts for a specific nation-wide campaign. 
  
• Public Health Surveillance - HMC may share pseudonymized Personal Information in the public interest. E.g., to support the detection of disease or virus in outbreaks, which if detected, may need to be re-identified to manage the outbreak. 
  
• Scientific Research - Researchers may request access to personal health information to carry out a research project to provide insights into care. In most cases, anonymized data would suffice. In other cases, consent shall be obtained from the patients. There could also be situations where neither option is possible.
  
• Education/Advancement of Knowledge - HMC may share personal information to provide learning opportunities or advance knowledge through case studies. 
  
• Legal Investigation - HMC may be required to gather and process necessary personal information for investigation into a criminal offense, upon an official request from investigative bodies.

How do we store and protect your information?

We store your personal information on secure servers that are located in Qatar or in other countries that have adequate data protection laws. We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information. We manage your data in accordance with law and guidance from the appropriate competent authority.

How long do we keep your information?

We keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, or as required by law or regulation. We may retain some of your personal information for longer periods if we need to do so for legal, accounting, or reporting purposes. We will delete or anonymize your personal information when it is no longer needed.

What are your rights and choices?

You have the following rights and choices regarding your personal information:

• the right to protection and lawful processing
• the right to withdraw consent.
• the right to object to processing in certain circumstances.
• the right to erasure in certain circumstances
• the right to request correction.
• the right to be notified of processing.
• the right to be notified of inaccurate disclosure.
• the right to access your personal data.

Please note certain circumstances may cause us to reject any request regarding your Personal Information, if this is the case we will advise you.

How do we update this privacy notice?

We may update this privacy notice occasionally to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, or legal requirements. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the updated version on our website or mobile app, or by sending you an email or other notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice periodically to stay informed about how we collect, use, share, and safeguard your personal information.

How do you contact us?

If you have any questions, comments, complaints or requests regarding this privacy notice or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

Hamad Medical Corporation
PO Box 3050, Doha, Qatar.

Phone: 16060
Overseas:(+974) 4439 5777
Email: Nesmaak@hamad.qa
Web: Hamad Medical Corporation (Customer Services)

Further Guidance

If you need any further guidance on your privacy rights you can also contact the competent authority, National Cyber Governance and Assurance Affairs, regarding matters of Privacy.

Privacy related inquiries:

National Cyber Governance and Assurance Affairs,
PO Box 24100, Doha, Qatar.

Phone: (+974) 2362220 
E-mail: privacy@ncsa.gov.qa
Web: National Cyber Governance and Affairs (Guidance)

Last updated: 08/09/2024​​​​