Tracker₈

ICRH Privacy Practices

Contact Information

Questions regarding this document or its implementation can be directed to:

Victoria Sanchez
Director of Research and Evaluation
Institute for Community and Rural Health (ICRH)
West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
P.O. Box 9009
Morgantown, WV 26506-9009
304-293-6999
victoria.sanchez@hsc.wvu.edu

Users of Tracker

Tracker is a restricted system designed for use by the West Virginia University Institute for Community and Rural Health (WVU ICRH), West Virginia Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) and participating West Virginia health professions schools. As of the current revision of this privacy document, those users include:

1. Health Professions Students at those health professions schools who use Tracker indirectly for scheduling community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing;
2. Campus Coordinators who initiate the scheduling of student community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing;
3. WV AHEC staff who facilitate the scheduling of student community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing;
4. WVU ICRH administrators who have access to data across all participating health professions schools and AHEC regions;
5. WVU ICRH program evaluators who have access to data across all participating health professions schools as well as raw data responses to the various program evaluation instruments; and
6. CARDIAC program staff who access contact information for students who are on community-based or rural clinical rotations throughout the state of West Virginia.

Data Access by User Type

Tracker restricts access to data appropriate for each user type, as outlined below:

1. Health Professions Students have access to view data about their own completed, scheduled and requested community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing, including location, dates of rotation(s) or housing, preceptor of record and all associated activities (community service, interdisciplinary learning sessions, etc.) as entered by their Campus Coordinators and by the relevant AHEC staff and they may view their own responses to completed WVU ICRH evaluation instruments. Students may contact their Campus Coordinators, relevant AHEC staff or the Tracker Programmer (see Contact Information above) to challenge the accuracy of these data. A health professions student has no access to scheduling information or activities of any other health profession student.
   
   Tracker does not collect information on grading or other evaluations of academic performance of health professions students on their community-based or rural clinical rotations.
   
   Health professions students can access and modify personal contact information (e.g., email address, phone number, etc.) via the Tracker system. While such data is not publicly available via the online directory, it is used by AHEC staff or by CARDIAC staff or by the Tracker system itself to contact students (see "Automated Electronic Mail Notifications," below) and may be made available to the field faculty with whom the student is scheduled to participate in a community-based or rural rotation, along with additional, narrative information which students may elect to provide, such as a description of their academic background, previous health professions training, etc.

2. Campus Coordinators have access to add, view, modify and delete data about health professions students within the discipline and school for which they are responsible (e.g., "Pharmacy" at "West Virginia University"). Such data includes completed, scheduled and requested community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing, including location, dates of rotation and/or housing, preceptor of record and all associated activities (community service, interdisciplinary learning sessions, etc.) as entered by the Campus Coordinator and the relevant AHEC staff.
   
   Campus Coordinators have the ability to add, view, modify and delete community-based or rural preceptors and practice locations that are used by the Campus Coordinator’s program.
   
   Campus Coordinators do not have access to view, modify or delete the raw data responses provided by health professions students to any WVU ICRH evaluation instruments. Responses to such instruments are provided to Campus Coordinators only in aggregate form and in such a way that protects the confidentiality of the responding health professions students.

3. AHEC staff has access to view contact information about health professions students who engage in rotations or use housing within their region, and to add, view or modify data about the rotations and/or housing themselves within their own region. Such data includes completed, scheduled and requested community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing, dates of housing, and all associated activities (community service, interdisciplinary learning sessions, etc.) as entered by the AHEC staff and relevant Campus Coordinators. AHEC staff does not have access to the raw data responses provided by health professions students to any WVU ICRH evaluation instrument.
   
   AHEC staff has access to add, modify or delete online directory contact information about members of their AHEC region, including the AHEC Directors themselves as well as their support staff.

4. WVU ICRH Administrators have access to all data listed above for Campus Coordinators and AHEC staff. Administrators do not have access to add, modify or delete any existing data about health professions students or their community-based or rural clinical rotations and/or housing or associated activities (e.g., community service, interdisciplinary sessions, etc.) in the Tracker system.
   
   Administrators do not have access to the raw data responses provided by health professions students to any WVU ICRH evaluation instruments. Responses to such instruments may be provided to Program Administrators only in aggregate form and in such a way that protects the confidentiality of the responding health professions students.

5. Evaluators identified in the WVU Community and Rural Rotation Evalution IRB protocal have access to all data listed above for Administrators. In addition, they have access to the raw data within the Tracker system, including responses of students on the various WVU ICRH evaluation instruments, but are obligated to take care to protect the confidentiality of these responses. Summary evaluation reports prepared by the evaluators will be distributed internally for program improvement and may be published as a contribution to the scientific understanding of medical education, but all such reports will maintain student confidentiality.

6. CARDIAC staff has the ability to look up basic directory information about students (student name, email, school and discipline) as well as when and with which preceptors the students are on rotation. CARDIAC staff may look up students by county in a specified date range in order to recruit these students for participation in health screenings conducted by the CARDIAC program.

Identification and Authentication of Users

All users of Tracker except health professions students are identified and authenticated by a unique username / password combination. The password expires and must be reset every three (3) months.

Health professions students are identified and authenticated by their school and discipline and by their Student ID, as provided either by their Campus Coordinator (if they are students from a participating WVU ICRH partner school) or by AHEC staff (if they are students not from a participating WVU ICRH school; e.g., from out of state). Student ID numbers are never sent in electronic mail notifications and access to those IDs are restricted to the student’s campus coordinator and to WVU ICRH Evaluators.

System Usage Data Maintained About Each User Type

Tracker maintains information about each user type which is necessary for the functionality of the system itself. Such information includes identifiable data about health professions students (such as name, email address, etc.), Campus Coordinators (such as name, school, discipline, email, phone number, etc.) and AHEC staff (such as name, AHEC region, email, phone number, etc.). Such data is entered by authorized users of Tracker only (e.g., student names are entered only by the relevant Campus Coordinator), is accessible only to authorized users of Tracker (see "Data Access by User Type," above) and is never shared beyond the WVU ICRH program partners. Personally identifiable data, along with program activities and responses to WVU ICRH evaluation instruments, may be used by WVU ICRH program evaluators to assess and improve the success of the program and in published research in such a way that maintains the confidentiality of the student responses, in accordance with the evaluation program approved by the West Virginia University Institutional Review Board.

Tracker maintains system usage information about each user type sufficient to ascertain which user is responsible for the addition and last modification of each data record (e.g., student record, rural rotation and/or housing records, community service, interdisciplinary learning session, evaluation response, etc.) and when that addition or last modification occurred. User profiles are not maintained, but each user’s logins and page visits are logged for the aforementioned audit purposes.

Use of "Cookies" and Session Variables

(What are cookies? Read the World Wide Web Consortium Security FAQ about cookies.)

Tracker makes use of session cookies and server-side session variables as needed to maintain the functionality of the system and to track data additions and modifications as described in paragraph 2 under "System Data Maintained About Each User Type." No persistent cookies are used, and no more detailed information about system usage (e.g., page tracking, user profiles, etc.) is collected or maintained.

Automated Electronic Mail Notifications

Tracker makes use of automated email notifications to selected user types to enhance the functionality of the system. Since the use of Tracker is an integral part of the jobs of the system's users, users may not opt-out of the receipt of these email messages. All users who receive email notifications can modify the email address at which they receive such messages, either directly through Tracker or via request to the database administrators.

Automated email messages generated by Tracker include:

1. Notification sent to the relevant AHEC staff when a Campus Coordinator initiates a request for a community-based rotation and/or housing that meets criteria for AHEC scheduling;
2. Notification sent to a Campus Coordinator when AHEC staff responds to a request for a community-based rotation and/or housing;
3. Notification sent to AHEC staff when scheduled rotations and/or housing is deleted by a Campus Coordinator;
4. Notification sent to participating WVU health professions students when a rotation is within one week of beginning or ending in order to remind the student to complete the relevant evaluation(s). Health professions students will receive up to two additional reminders concerning these evaluations if they remain incomplete. In addition, notification is sent to Campus Coordinators when a student does not have an email address in Tracker;
5. Billing notifications sent to WVU ICRH’s Office Manager who requires the included information in the emails to initiate payment to specific WVU medicine preceptors and to bill specific schools for their students’ use of housing; and
6. Notifications sent to the Tracker Programmer (see Contact Information above) include notices about changes to preceptor data in order to check for duplication of data, notices about system errors, and copies of all previously mentioned automatic emails.

Disputes

Disputes and concerns about Tracker data collection which cannot be resolved directly with the Tracker Programmer (see Contact Information above) can be addressed to the WVU ICRH Associate Director or the WVU ICRH Director of Research and Evaluation, who can be reached at:

Remedies

The Tracker Programmer (see Contact Information above) will make every effort to correct errors in the data collected and maintained through the system in consultation with the Associate Director of WVU ICRH and the Director of Research and Evaluation.

Revised: October 28, 2011