Chicago Infectious Disease Physicians — also referred to throughout this website as "CIDP" or "the Practice" — is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal and health information. This notice describes how medical and personal information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can access that information.
Information we collect
We collect information you provide directly — such as your name, contact details, and the content of messages submitted through this website — as well as information generated in the course of providing care. Website contact-form submissions are delivered to a Practice-controlled mailbox.
How we use your information
We use your information to respond to inquiries, schedule and coordinate appointments, provide treatment, and operate the Practice. We do not sell your personal information.
Protected Health Information (HIPAA)
As a healthcare provider, the Practice complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Protected Health Information is used and disclosed only for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, or as otherwise permitted or required by law. Please do not include sensitive clinical details in website messages; call the clinic for anything urgent or confidential.
Online scheduling and third-party platforms
Appointment requests submitted through this website's booking form are received and stored by the Practice itself and are used only to schedule and coordinate your visit.
The Practice also offers an optional online scheduler provided by its electronic health records platform — a secure, federally certified system operated by a third party, separate from this website. Anything you enter in that scheduler is governed by that platform's own terms of use and privacy policy; this website cannot see, store, or transmit what you type inside it. Your right to electronically access and direct your health information is protected under the 21st Century Cures Act (Information Blocking Rule).
"Ask us" text assistant (terms of use)
This website offers an optional text assistant ("Ask us"), powered by ElevenLabs, a third-party conversational-AI service. Its purpose is narrow and practical: to answer common questions about CIDP — our clinic locations and hours, the services we provide, and how to request an appointment — and to help you start a booking without having to phone the office. It is a text-only chat (there is no voice), and it is off by default — nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose to open it and type a message.
When you use the assistant, the text you type is processed by ElevenLabs to answer you, subject to ElevenLabs' own privacy policy and terms. If you ask it to request an appointment, the details you provide (name, phone, preferred time, reason for visit) are forwarded to CIDP staff to schedule your visit — the same as if you had submitted the booking form. The assistant does not access your medical records.
No file sharing. The assistant does not accept photographs, lab results, or documents, and the Practice does not store patient files through this website. Please call the clinic to share anything clinical.
The assistant is not a clinician and does not provide medical advice or diagnosis. It cannot handle emergencies — if this is a medical emergency, call 911. Please do not share detailed medical history, insurance numbers, or other sensitive information with the assistant; a brief reason for your visit is enough, and our team will collect anything further by phone.
By using the assistant you accept these terms. If you prefer not to use it, every service on this site remains available through the contact form, the booking form, and our phone line.
Phone line and call recording
Calls to the practice line, (708) 808-CIDP, may be recorded and transcribed for quality, training, and care coordination — the phone menu states this at the start of each call. When we connect you onward to a hospital's own scheduling desk (for example, Thorek Memorial Hospital), that connected call is carried on our line and is covered by the same notice.
Recordings and transcripts are stored securely, are accessible only to authorized practice staff, and are retained briefly: call audio is kept for a limited period and then deleted automatically, while transcripts are kept as part of your scheduling record. De-identified transcripts — with the date reduced to the day and handled under our data-masking controls — may be used to improve the practice's own scheduling assistant. They are never sold, and our service providers are barred by agreement from using them to train their own systems.
Your choices
You may request access to, or correction of, your information, and you may contact us with any privacy questions using the details on our Contact page.
Contact
For privacy questions, email contact@chicagoidphysicians.org or call (708) 808-2437.