Terms, privacy & refunds

1 · Terms of service

Who you are dealing with

Dr Davin Lim is a specialist dermatologist registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, registration number MED0001397991, and a Fellow of the Australasian College of Dermatologists. You can check that registration yourself on the Ahpra public register at ahpra.gov.au.

What you are buying

A virtual dermatology consultation. That means two things, and the fee covers both: a written report, prepared from your questionnaire and your photographs before we speak, and a 15-minute video consultation in which we go through it. The report is yours to keep and to show any other doctor.

What it is not

A virtual consultation has real limits, and it is fairer to say so here than to have you discover it later:

• It is not for urgent or emergency problems. If something is acutely painful, rapidly spreading, or you are unwell with it, see a doctor in person or go to an emergency department.
• It is not general medical dermatology. I practise procedural, laser and cosmetic dermatology.
• It is not a substitute for physical examination. Some conditions cannot be diagnosed from a photograph. In particular I do not perform skin checks, and I do not assess moles or pigmented lesions for skin cancer — those need to be examined in person with a dermatoscope.
• I do not treat warts or the age-related warty spots called seborrhoeic keratoses, cysts or lipomas, or veins below the face and neck.

If what you have turns out to be one of these, I will tell you, and I will tell you who is the right person to see. Where that becomes clear before you pay, the questionnaire will say so rather than take your money.

Booking, age and identity

Consultations are booked at least 48 hours ahead. I consult with patients aged 13 and over, and for anyone under 18 I ask that a parent or guardian is present for the video consultation. The information and photographs you give me must be your own and must be accurate — photographs that are filtered, altered, or of somebody else make the report worthless, and I will not be able to help you from them.

Advice, prescribing and treatment

Neither treatment nor a prescription can be guaranteed. What I am able to prescribe depends on where you are physically located at the time of the call and what is lawful there, which is why the booking form asks. A recommendation in a report is not a prescription. Where a treatment is discussed, I will tell you what I think it will realistically achieve and what it will not; nothing on this site is a promise of a particular result.

If the technology fails

If the video call cannot go ahead because the technology fails — at either end — the consultation is rescheduled at no cost. See refunds and cancellation.

Treatment and in-person requests

Requests to book a treatment, or to be seen face to face, are requests. Nothing is booked and nothing is charged until a person has read your request and replied. You will hear back within one business day.

Your report and this website

Your report is written for you and is yours. The rest of this website — its writing, images and design — is not, and is not to be reproduced without permission.

Your rights, which these terms do not touch

Nothing in these terms removes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law, and nothing here limits liability in a way the law does not permit. Where liability can lawfully be limited, it is limited to re-supplying the consultation or refunding the fee.

2 · Privacy

Your health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which is the most protected category there is. This section says what I collect, why, and what happens to it.

What I collect

• Identity and contact — name, date of birth, sex at birth, email, mobile, country and city of residence, and where you will physically be during the call.
• Clinical — your questionnaire answers, your medical history, your medications, and the photographs you upload.
• Payment — handled by the payment provider, not by me. I never see or store your full card number.
• Technical — basic server logs. There is no advertising tracking on this site and no third-party analytics profile is built about you.

Why

To write your report, to conduct your consultation, to keep the medical record I am legally required to keep, and to contact you about your booking. That is the whole list. I do not sell your information, and I do not use it for marketing.

Your photographs

Photographs are stored securely and are reviewed only for your consultation.

Where it is stored

Your information may be stored on servers in Australia and the United States. Wherever it is held, it is held under contract terms that require it to be protected to the standard required by Australian law.

How long I keep it

Australian law requires medical records to be kept for at least seven years from your last consultation. For anyone who was under 18 at the time, records are kept until they turn 25. After that they are securely destroyed, unless a legal claim or a court order requires them to be kept longer.

If something goes wrong

If there is a data breach likely to cause you serious harm, I am required to tell you and to notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, and I will.

Patients in the UK and Europe

If you consult from the United Kingdom or the European Union, the UK GDPR or the GDPR may also apply to the information you give me, in addition to Australian law.

Complaining about privacy

Come to me first: enquiry@drdavinlim.com, marked for the attention of the Privacy Officer, Name to be confirmed. I will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with my answer, or I do not answer in that time, you can take it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992.

3 · Refunds and cancellation

The consultation fee is AUD $360, paid at the time you book. It covers the written report and the video consultation together.

Changing or cancelling your appointment

• More than 24 hours before your appointment — reschedule or cancel for a full refund, no questions and no fee.
• Less than 24 hours before, or if you do not attend — the fee is not refunded.

That second rule exists for a specific reason rather than as a penalty: your report is researched and written before we speak, so by the day of your appointment the larger part of what you paid for has already been done, and the appointment time itself can no longer be offered to anyone else. If you cannot attend and tell me before the call, your report is still yours — I will send it to you, and you can book a follow-up later if you want to discuss it.

If the technology fails

If either one of us has a failure of technology, the consultation will be rescheduled at no cost.

Exceptional circumstances

Illness, bereavement, an emergency. Tell me what happened and I will use my judgement. This is not a policy I enjoy enforcing.

Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law

Separately from all of the above, you are entitled to a remedy if the service is not delivered with due care and skill or does not match what was described. Those rights cannot be excluded by anything on this page, and this policy is in addition to them, not instead of them.

This report is designed to solve your problem and not to sell you a treatment, acknowledging that there are some problems that have solutions that may not be to your standard of approval or liking. All of these reports are based upon a probability–possibility ratio, with a treatment algorithm based upon peer-reviewed scientific papers. It is not how I feel, it is not how you feel, but it is what it is.

Refunds go back to the card or account you paid from, usually within 5 to 10 business days.

4 · Complaints

If something about your care or this service was not right, I would rather hear it from you than not hear it at all.

Tell me first

Email enquiry@drdavinlim.com with your booking reference and what happened. I will acknowledge it within 5 business days and give you a substantive answer within 30 days. Most things are a misunderstanding or something I can put right, and it is quicker for both of us.

If you are unhappy with the report itself

The aim of a virtual report is to take the emotions out of a consultation, and to give you a treatment algorithm based upon your concerns. This is based upon scientific algorithms which are published in the literature.

If you are unclear or unhappy about the content of the report — the scientific data, the treatment algorithm — I will be more than happy to provide the names of other specialist dermatologists who are experts in the field of procedural dermatology. They can provide you with an unbiased second opinion, or even a third opinion, should you choose. Obviously, the consultations for these second and third opinions are paid by the patient and not by myself.

Again, the aim of this virtual consultation is not to sell you a treatment programme or coerce you into having procedures by myself or my team; they are merely to report on your condition and provide you with treatment options. If you are unhappy with my treatment options, which are based upon scientific algorithms, then you are entitled to second and third opinions as stated above.