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Policies and Documents

Policy Statement on Website Content and Regulatory Compliance

Because School of Medicine departments, faculty, and staff regularly interact with both the teaching/research (University) and business (Healthcare) units of Emory, and because each unit maintains an autonomous web presence aimed at distinctly different populations, it is necessary to define appropriate nature and focus of website content in each environment.

To that end, with the approval of AAIT and University Communications, ITS assumes administration authority over School of Medicine website content, placement, and access rights on the University web server. ITS further reserves the right to deny new requests for web server space, access or links from official School of Medicine and/or University websites to individuals or organizations whose intended or actual website content is out of compliance with this policy. ITS may, in consultation with the content owner, AAIT, Health Sciences Communications and/or University Communications, remove content from existing web sites or entire websites from the official University web server should such content exist in violation of the policy stated herein and no effort be made to remedy the violation after a period of time deemed reasonable by ITS and the CIO. In such a case, the response time to be considered within reasonable limits will vary by the severity of the violation and regulatory compliance implications (i.e. any page which identifies by name a clinical study participant will be removed immediately upon discovery per Federal law).

Below are guidelines for appropriate content in University-hosted (emory.edu) websites:

The following items are required elements of University-hosted websites:

1. Website must support or provide information for at least one of the following:
   • Teaching initiatives of School of Medicine Academic Departments, Centers, Administrative Offices, or officially recognized subunits thereof
   • Research initiatives of units named above
   • Administrative structures or procedures of units named above
     
2. Website must have a primary point of contact whose email address or alternate contact information is published on each page of the site.
3. Website must include persistent links to Emory University home page, School of Medicine home page, University search engine and University directory at the top of each page. ITS recommends that webmasters utilize templates located at ../TEMPLATES to provide a pre-fabricated implementation of these requirements in a standard format.
4. Website must not represent itself or its unit at an inappropriate or incorrect level in the University, Woodruff Health Sciences Center or School of Medicine organizational structure. This includes placement outside of the /WHSC/MED/ directory structure. A future policy will clarify requirements for appropriate site placement.
5. Website must be in compliance with other related policies, including but not limited to:
   • Policy on Website Hosting and URL Addressing
     (../POLICIES/web_hosting.html)
   • Domain Name Services Policy
     (../POLICIES/dns.html)

The following items MAY NOT BE elements of University-hosted websites:

1. Content or language targeted for the recruitment or preparatory instruction of patients or clinical study participants. This content is regulated by Emory Healthcare and University IRB respectively, and may not exist outside of the business and regulatory enforcement practices of these entities. School of Medicine units wishing to establish clinically-targeted websites or content should contact Emory Healthcare Marketing Division or HealthConnections.
2. Any research content with implications for regulatory or University policy compliance, including but not limited to:
   • identification or enumeration of study participants
   • representations or descriptions of human or animal studies not explicitly approved by both Woodruff Health Sciences Center Communications Office and University IRB or IACUC, as appropriate.
   • outcomes or data presentation not approved by the appropriate departmental, WHSC, and University entities
     
3. Educational content intended for audiences or programs not sponsored by or affiliated with the School of Medicine. Exceptions to this are officially recognized School of Medicine or affiliated entities whose stated mission is community or external education.
4. Descriptions of or price quotations for any clinical procedures. These must be published and regulated by Emory Healthcare.