About

FIGIJ Privacy & Confidentiality Toolkit

This toolkit, developed by the FIGIJ Board and Chairs, is intended to guide FIGIJ members, (and affiliated societies seeking FIGIJ endorsement), of FIGIJ’s privacy and confidentiality principles and code of conduct with respect to sharing of health data.

Members of FIGIJ hold a fundamental ethical obligation to safeguard patient information and uphold trust. We trust that our members and affiliates of good-standing already adhere to local health privacy laws and will support and declare their adherence to the FIGIJ privacy and confidentiality policy when sharing or receiving health data under the FIGIJ banner.

Feedback or ratification of this document by member societies is enthusiastically welcomed. Modification requires FIGIJ Board approval. Please contact the secretary-general or your local FIGIJ Board member (https://figij.org/about/current-board/) for further discussion.

Privacy & Confidentiality Policy & Toolkit

The International Federation of Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology (FIGIJ) strives to improve the reproductive health of young people by improving clinical care, research and education in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (PAG).

FIGIJ brings together PAG experts from all corners of the globe to educate those who serve this population and build a community of practice. FIGIJ is committed to ensuring the organisation complies with relevant privacy, confidentiality and security legislation – to protect our clients, our members and our professional body. To facilitate this, individuals are required to understand their obligations and responsibilities when becoming a FIGIJ member.

In medical education, privacy and confidentiality are paramount, both ethically and legally. Confidentiality refers to the protection of patient information discussed between a person and their healthcare practitioners. Privacy, relates to the protection of identifiable personal information, including health information. Direct identifiers are unique to a person and can be used to identify them with a high degree of certainty. They include Name, Address, Phone number, Social Security number, Driver’s license number, Email address, Passport number, Medical record number, Credit card number. Indirect identifiers may not directly identify someone on their own, but can be combined with other information to identify an individual. Examples include: Date of birth, Place of birth, Gender, Race or ethnicity, Occupation, Postcode, Age, IP address, Employment information, General information that could be combined with other data points to reveal an individual (such as unique medical history combined with location of treatment).

Key Principles of Privacy and Confidentiality in Medical Education:

Ethical Obligations: Healthcare professionals have a strong ethical duty to protect patient information and maintain patient trust. This includes protecting information about other individuals, such as family members.

Legal Requirements: Privacy and confidentiality are also legally protected, with laws regulating how personal information, including health information, is collected and handled.

Patient Rights: Patients have the right to access and control their health information, and they should be informed about how their information will be used and shared.

Information Sharing: Information can be shared with other healthcare professionals for education purposes, but only with the patient’s consent or if legally required.

Data Security: Healthcare providers must ensure that patient information is stored and transmitted securely to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure.

Consent and Permissions: Consent is required before any health information is disclosed or shared, unless there is a legal exception.

Digital Communications: Healthcare providers must use digital communications (e.g., email, text messages, group chats, zoom or teams) in a way that is consistent with their ethical and legal obligations to protect patient confidentiality and privacy.

Data Breach Response: In line with requirements for healthcare organizations FIGIJ has a data breach response plan in place to manage and respond to any unauthorized access or disclosure of patient information.

What’s Included:

Introduction (p. 3)
FIGIJ Privacy And Confidentiality Policy (p. 4)
Appendix 1: FIGIJ privacy declaration for presenters (p. 8)
Appendix 2: FIGIJ privacy declaration for event organisers and technical support staff (p. 10)
Appendix 3: FIGIJ privacy declaration for PAG conference committees (p. 11)
Appendix 4: IFEPAG examiner declarations (p.14)
Appendix 5: IFEPAG candidate declarations (p.15)
Appendix 6: FIGIJ patient/guardian example template for consent for presentation at meetings/webinars (p. 16)
Appendix 7: FIGIJ patient/guardian consent template for Case Corner (p. 18)
Appendix 8: FIGIJ privacy declaration for health provider access to Case Corner (p. 20)

Privacy & Confidentiality Policy & Toolkit

FIGIJ educational conference/meeting/webinar presenters

FIGIJ educational conference/meeting/webinar presenters (members, invited guests, contractors, volunteers and students) are personally responsible for maintaining health privacy, and

must sign a privacy agreement indicating

that they are responsible for maintaining the privacy, confidentiality and security of health information,

that they have received written consent from the patient for case reports and case series,

that they have received written consent or a human research ethics approved waiver of consent for presentation of surveys or cohorts.

All data must remove direct identifiers (personally identifiable information) including name, social security number (SSN), email address, medical record number (MRN), other account numbers linked to the patients, biometric data: (unique physical characteristics, such as fingerprints or facial scans), full-face photographs. Facial images with only the eyes blacked out are not acceptable.

Patient consent is required for the use of indirect identifiers (such as date of birth, gender, postcode, occupation, unique medical diagnosis, approximate location or treating centre) if this information is not presented as grouped deidentified data. Someone aware of the patient may be able to identify them through indirect identifiers when combined with other data.

Any FIGIJ member wishing to upload materials onto the internet

Any FIGIJ member wishing to upload materials onto the internet (public or password protected) relating to FIGIJ educational activities must

sign and adhere to the FIGIJ privacy and confidentiality agreement (which will be kept with FIGIJ) and receive the appropriate written consent from the patient/guardian (that should be filed in the local patient medical record). FIGIJ highly recommends that a copy of the consent form be filed in a secure locked location within the institution (eg institutional password protected network drive, computer, or locked cupboard; and a copy provided to the family). It is the presenters responsibility to be able to access this information if required. The patient/guardian consent form should include information about the extent of information to be shared, where it will be shared, the audience who has access and duration of access, who is responsible for publishing the information and the date that the child once 18 years or over may wish the content to be removed;that duplication and dissemination of the content can occur once online.

Not use the FIGIJ logo or reference FIGIJ without Board approval.

FIGIJ meeting organisers and technical support at educational meetings

FIGIJ meeting organisers and technical support at educational meetings: must provide

written agreement stating that the presentations (power point or video material) cannot be shared unofficially with attendees or online and

will be destroyed after the conference, unless official arrangements have been made (see below).

FIGIJ conference committee will

FIGIJ conference committee will

provide written agreement that they will abide by the FIGIJ privacy and confidentiality policy

will be responsible for reviewing abstracts and ensuring appropriate privacy and confidentiality agreements have been received.

Apart from abstracts, educational materials (slide presentations, videos) will not be retained by organisers longer than six months after the conference.

IFEPAG candidates and examiners

IFEPAG candidates and examiners:

Candidates and examiners are responsible for sharing transmission and storage of health data and will sign and adhere to the FIGIJ privacy and confidentiality agreement (which will be kept with the Director of IFEPAG)

Direct identifiers including hospital UR numbers will not be reported outside the health centre setting. Candidates may record the hospital ID in their own records within the institution and have a supervisor verify that the cases are genuine on their submission. If needed by IFEPAG examiners, these can still be re-identifiable by local institutional members to ascertain details about the case.

Only the IFEPAG committee and examiners will have access to the case reports. They will not be published or shared outside of IFEPAG and will be destroyed after the examination.

CASE CORNER

Cases may be used for educational purposes after parent/guardian consent. The consent form will outline the extent of information being shared, who it will be shared with and how it will be transmitted, stored and for how long. The consent form should be filed in the local patient medical record and on the local password protected departmental computer or network drive of the treating institution for three years . The patient/guardian consent form should include information about the extent of information to be shared, where it will be shared, the audience who has access and duration of access, who is responsible for publishing the information and the date.

Approval will be required by the Resources committee, prior to uploading into Case Corner

Cases will be deleted from the FIGIJ Case Corner site within nine years.

FIGIJ members wishing to access Case Corner will need to be verified members (email verification of FIGIJ from Head of Department or PAG secretariat or local societal subscription) and will need to sign a privacy agreement. Members are not permitted to download cases from the website.

Endorsement of PAG and other Society conferences

Endorsement of PAG and other Society conferences: FIGIJ remains committed to supporting member societies for medical education and professional development. Where a society seeks endorsement of FIGIJ and use of the FIGIJ logo to promote a conference or educational event

Approval by the Board is required.

The applicant should provide

Conference name year and location
Organising society
Conference Chair name, affiliation, email
Aims and learning objectives
Audience
Name and affiliations of Conference Organising committee
The Conference Program (titles of talks with speakers and affiliations)
Conflicts of interest and funding sources

While FIGIJ cannot be responsible for all content presented at external conferences, FIGIJ will require a signed declaration from the conference chair that the presenters organisers and technical support will abide by the principles of the FIGIJ Privacy and confidentiality agreement.

Storage

Storage:

For conference presentations, consent forms will be stored in the patient medical record (this is the responsibility of the treating clinician/presenter sharing information about the case). FIGIJ highly recommends that a copy of the consent form be filed in a secure locked location within the institution (eg institutional password protected network drive, computer, or locked cupboard; and a copy provided to the family).

Presenter /technical support/committee declarations will be stored with the conference committee/chair then handed over to the Secretary General of FIGIJ for uploading in the FIGIJ google drive.

In the event of a report of data breach or scientific fraud

In the event of a report of data breach or scientific fraud:

The Secretary-General and President will be notified

Further reported to executive (VP, Treasurer) and senior Board members (past president and Chair of By-laws)

Contact author to request removal of offending materials.

FIGIJ will try to verify extent of involvement and how breach occurred and its extent

Report will be sent to Board and reporting person

If fraud or breach has occurred then FIGIJ has the right to temporarily suspend membership until formal report undertaken by relevant regulatory body.

If external: encourage reporter to report to medical governance body with our full cooperation

Notify Professional Society of person potentially responsible for breach

Consider legal advice. Legal jurisdiction FIGIJ: official address is USA, but has global membership.

21st World Congress PAG 2026

San Francisco, California, United States

CONTACT

FIGIJ President, Marisa Labovsky
E: marisa.labovsky@gmail.com

Secretary General, Yasmin Jayasinghe yasmin.jayasinghe@unimelb.edu.au

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