Legal

Privacy Policy

How we collect, use, and protect your personal information. Last updated: October 26, 2026.

1. Who We Are

This Privacy Policy applies to the awakeMD website, operated by Dr. Mehrad Jaberi, MD MSc FRCSC, a Royal College-certified Plastic Surgeon practicing in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. We are committed to protecting your personal health and contact information in accordance with PIPEDA, Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

2. Information We Collect

  • Contact information: name, email address, phone number
  • Health information: areas of interest, medical history (only when provided voluntarily in consultation forms)
  • Form submissions: consultation requests, inquiries and portal registrations

3. How We Use Your Information

  • To respond to consultation inquiries and appointment requests
  • To communicate with you about your care or appointment
  • To operate and improve this website
  • To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations as a medical provider

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party for marketing purposes.

4. Patient Portal & Health Information

Our secure Patient Portal (powered by Firebase/Google Cloud) collects intake information, medical history, and pre-operative questionnaires. This information is encrypted in transit and at rest, access-controlled, and used exclusively by authorized clinical staff for your care. Health records are handled in accordance with PHIPA and are not shared without your explicit written consent, except as required by law.

Welcome form, Comfort Compass and guide requests. Answers entered in the Patient Welcome Form remain temporarily in the active page while you complete it; they are not saved for later in browser storage. When you submit the form, the information is sent to our form service and stored in Firebase/Firestore. For awakeMD submissions, an email containing the answers as text and a PDF copy with your drawn signature is sent through Resend to awakemd@jaberiplasticsurgery.com. Email can carry privacy and security risks; if you would rather not share your information online, please call our office. The Comfort Compass quiz stores your answers in your browser unless you choose to share them. If you request our preparation guide, we use your name and email to reply to that request. Please do not include health details in guide or newsletter requests, and please do not email health information.

5. Cookies, Browser Storage & Analytics

Public awakeMD pages do not currently load a third-party web analytics tool. The Comfort Compass and music preference tools store selections in your browser. Patient portal pages may use session cookies for authentication; disabling cookies may affect portal functionality.

6. Third-Party Services

  • Google Firebase / Firestore: secure database for portal and form data
  • Resend: email delivery for form submission notifications to clinic staff
  • Google Fonts: delivers the typefaces used on this website
  • Calendly: consultation scheduling
  • Stripe: secure payment processing (no card data is stored on our servers)
  • Beautifi and Medicard: external financing applications; their privacy policies apply to information you provide on their sites

7. Data Retention

Contact form inquiries are retained for up to 2 years. Patient portal and health records are retained in accordance with Ontario regulations (minimum 10 years for adult patients; until age 28 for minors). You may request deletion of non-health personal data at any time.

8. Your Rights

Under PIPEDA and PHIPA, you may access the personal information we hold about you, request corrections, withdraw consent for non-essential communications, and request deletion of non-health personal data. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below.

9. Security

We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information, including SSL/TLS encryption, role-based access control, and secure cloud infrastructure. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure.

10. Children's Privacy

This website is not directed to individuals under 18. Minors requiring surgical consultations must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

12. Contact Us