OCF complies with the standards of ethical web behavior.

  1. Authority: Any medical or health advice provided and hosted on the OCF web site will only be given by medically trained and qualified professionals, or obtained from a recognized medical or oncology source.
  2. Complementarily: The information provided on the OCF web site is designed to support, not replace, the information provided to the patient / site visitor by their doctor.
  3. Patient Privacy: Confidentiality of data relating to individual patients and visitors to a medical/health web site, including their identity, is respected by the OCF web site. We undertake to honor or exceed the legal requirements of medical/health information privacy that apply in the country and state where the web site and mirror sites are located.
  4. Web Privacy: We are using Google Analytics to analyze the audience of the website and improve our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. For further information on the privacy policy concerning Google Analytics, please go here, https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en
  5. Attribution: Where appropriate, information contained on this site will be supported by clear references to source data and, where possible, have specific HTML links to that data.
  6. Justifiability: Any claims relating to the benefits/ performance of a specific treatment, commercial product or service will be supported by appropriate, balanced evidence in the manner outlined above.
  7. Transparency of Authorship: The OCF web site will seek to provide information in the clearest possible manner and provide contact addresses for visitors that seek further information or support. Click here to contact us.
  8. Transparency of Sponsorship: Support for the OCF web site will be clearly identified, including the identities of commercial and non-commercial organizations that have contributed funding, services or material for the site. In general, the majority of our ability to build this website has been made possible by thousands of individual donors to the foundation. We have had, over two decades, very little sponsorship of this site by corporate entities, and particularly big pharma contributors to its creation, though they may sponsor efforts that allow OCF to engage in public outreach. No big pharma money has been used to promote a product, drug or treatment on this web site.
  9. Honesty in Advertising and Editorial Policy: The OCF web site accepts financial sponsorship to help meet its costs. Support for this web site will be clearly identified, including the identities of commercial and non-commercial organizations that have contributed funding or services for the site. (The foundation reserves the right to approve the appropriateness of products or services that are related to, and which would be benefit to patients, family members or caregivers. While the foundation makes this visibility possible, it does not constitute an endorsement from the foundation of any product or service.) Any promotional material used will be presented to viewers in a manner and context that facilitates differentiation between it and the original editorial created by OCF. In general, discussions of treatments, drugs, or products are mentioned by their type or generic name rather than by a brand name.
  10. While OCF has been privileged to receive some minor funding from the pharmaceutical industry, in no way has that funding been associated with advocacy for any treeatment or drug. OCF is prohibited by its governance policies from any endorsements in trade for financial support. These donations in no way create an advocacy position between OCF and any particular company’s services or products. Pharma industry support accounts for less than 5% of OCF’s total income since its inception. That has been predominantly used in our ability to conduct public events like screening events, not to build this web site.
  11. OCF employs no full or part-time fundraising professionals.

NO FINANCIAL OR OTHER SPONSORSHIP OF THE FOUNDATION BY ANY ENTITY INFLUNENCES THE CONTENT OF THE OCF WEB SITE.

The material and content contained in this web site is for general health information only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users of this web site should not rely exclusively on information provided in this web site for their own health needs. All specific medical questions should be presented to your own health care provider. If a difference in the information presented on this site and that provided by your medical or dental care provider exists, your personal care provider is always your source for the most accurate information as it relates to you.

The Oral Cancer Foundation makes no warranties or representations, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness, timeliness or usefulness of any opinions, advice, services, or other information contained or referenced in this web site. The Oral Cancer Foundation does not assume any risk for your use of this web site. Users of this web site should be aware that information about health care changes constantly; since this web site is only updated periodically, it may not contain the most recent information. The Oral Cancer Foundation reserves the right to update or change information contained in this web site at any time. The Oral Cancer Foundation is not responsible for information appearing at hyperlinks. Many of these link to other entities, organizations, or individuals, not affiliated with the Oral Cancer Foundation. The foundation has no control over these other entities and makes no representations regarding the material contained in their sites, or the suitability or accuracy of that material for any purpose. The use of this web site does not create a physician-patient relationship, and does not obligate the Oral Cancer Foundation to follow-up or contact users of this web site

It is possible that products and/or services may be discussed and presented on this site. Their inclusion in this site is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute an endorsement of those products by the Oral Cancer Foundation, or represent their appropriateness for any particular purpose. In consideration for your use of and access to this web site, you agree that in no event will the Oral Cancer Foundation or any other party involved in creating, producing, or delivering this web site or any sites linked to this web site, be liable to you in any manner whatsoever for any decision made or action or non-action taken by you in reliance upon the information provided through this web site Your use of this web site constitutes your acceptance and understanding these limitations and of these terms, and indemnifies the foundation from any liabilities that may arise out of your use of the information contained herein.

IMPORTANT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY and COPYRIGHT NOTICE

The Oral Cancer Foundation® is the copyright holder of the contents in this site unless stated otherwise. This includes numerous trademarks including the name Oral Cancer Foundation® which has been in extensive public usage associated with our organization, and the cause and constituency it represents, since 1999. Other marks (not an exclusive list, but obviously used ones you may encounter) include; Is a killer hiding right under our nose?®, Check your mouth™, and many others. Documentation of this usage in our field of endeavor is easily proven given all the national and governmental agencies, PR firms, and media outlets we have interfaced since that period of time, and the number of instances these trade marks have been used in commerce since 1999. Infringement of the intellectual property, trade names, trademarks both registered and unregistered, images, background proprietary code associated with the functionality of the foundation’s web site, etc. will not be tolerated. Copy and pasting our information onto other sites is strictly prohibited without previous permission. If you wish to use any of OCF’s copy or content, please contact the OCF office for permission to do so. When this is done in the public good, and especially for causes in the non-profit world, it is usually only a matter of stating in the new location, the attribution to source of the information (www.oralcancer.org) and a link to our web site for additional information. We encourage linking to content our our site and the individual pages within it. Copying content and linking to it are two distinctly different things.

LICENSES

“MD Anderson Cancer Center, part of the University of Texas Medical System, is the owner of the slogan MAKE ORAL CANCER HISTORY and has licensed the slogan to OCF as part of their mutual efforts to fight cancer.” There are limitations and expenses related to OCF’s agreement with MDACC. If you are a supporter of OCF, doing an event to benefit us, writing a newsletter, putting up a banner for a free cancer screening or other event, or in any manner assisting the foundation, please do not use this phrase in your efforts to help us. They have deep pockets, employ way too many attornies for a hospital, are legally aggressive in the pursuit of those that infringe their trademarks.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Please note that the foundation has aggressively and successfully protected our trade names, trademarks, images, artwork, and content as our intellectual property that it has taken more than two decades to develop. Ask first – you will find us ready to help those that are involved in seeing that this disease is brought down from its high ranking as a killer. Taking from OCF first, and asking for forgiveness afterwards, is not a good policy when dealing with the foundation. OCF has forced numerous entities to remove our plagiarized content, and in some cases sought and won legal renumeration of financial damages. Those damages can be a simple to determine as documenting traffic that content has allowed another website to obtain. We would rather spend our funds helping people not in litigation with others. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE OUR CONTENT.