Legal notices and contact information.

This page provides legal, administrative, privacy, accessibility, intellectual property, verification, security, and other contact information for HandshakeMD, located at handshakemd.com, and related services operated by shrinkMD Publishing LLC, a Florida limited liability company.

We refer to the website, directory, tools, and related services collectively as the “Platform.”

1Platform operator

The Platform is owned and operated by:

shrinkMD Publishing LLC
a Florida limited liability company
Website: handshakemd.com
General contact: hello@handshakemd.com

Correspondence. General correspondence is by email. We do not publish a general mailing address, and the reason is worth stating rather than hiding: the address below is the Company's registered agent, not an office. It is the correct address for service of process and for formal legal notice. Post sent there for anything else may not reach us, so email is both faster and more reliable.

Registered agent for service of process in Florida: Northwest Registered Agent LLC, 7901 4th St N Ste 300, St. Petersburg, FL 33702

The Company may operate other websites, educational resources, publishing properties, or digital services that are separate from the Platform. Those are described in the Ownership, Independence and Financial Disclosure.

2Legal notices

Legal correspondence concerning the Platform may be directed to:

Legal Notices
shrinkMD Publishing LLC
Email: legal@handshakemd.com

The use of this email address does not constitute consent to service of legal process by email unless the Company expressly agrees or applicable law provides otherwise.

3Service of process

Formal service of process should be made in accordance with applicable law.

The Company's registered agent information is maintained in the public records of the State of Florida, and the current agent is named in section 1 of this page.

Unless the Company expressly agrees otherwise, submitting a message through a website contact form, support email, social media account, or general email address does not constitute valid service of process.

4Privacy questions and requests

Questions concerning personal information or privacy rights may be directed to:

Privacy
Email: privacy@handshakemd.com

Our privacy practices are described in:

• the Privacy Policy;
• the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy; and
• the Cookie and tracking notice; and
• the State privacy rights and do not sell or share notice.

There is no separate privacy request form. Email is the route, no account is needed, and there is nothing to sign up for in order to make a request.

5Consumer health data requests

Requests involving consumer health data may be directed to privacy@handshakemd.com with the words consumer health data in the subject line.

Depending on applicable law, we may need to authenticate the identity of the person submitting the request, and we will ask for the minimum needed to do that.

Worth knowing before you write: because search on this Platform runs in your browser and never reaches us, the honest answer to most consumer health data access requests is that we hold none about you. We will say so specifically rather than sending a form response. The Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy explains why.

6Privacy appeals

Where applicable law provides a right to appeal a privacy decision, appeals may be submitted to privacy@handshakemd.com with the word appeal in the subject line.

We will answer in writing, and where a law requires it we will also give you the contact details for the relevant state authority so you can complain if you remain dissatisfied.

7Accessibility assistance

If you have difficulty accessing the Platform because of a disability, or you need information in another accessible format, contact:

Accessibility
Email: support@handshakemd.com

It helps to include the page or feature involved and the kind of assistance needed. You do not need to provide any medical or diagnostic information, and we will not ask.

There is deliberately no accessibility form, because a form is one more thing that can be inaccessible. The Accessibility Statement says what we check and what we have not checked.

8Professional listing questions

Questions concerning professional or practice listings may be directed to:

Listing support
Email: listings@handshakemd.com

This includes questions concerning:

• claiming a listing;
• editing a profile;
• practice administration;
• incorrect professional information;
• duplicate profiles;
• profile ownership; or
• listing removal.

A clinician can correct or remove their own listing at any time, for any reason, without telling us why.

9Verification questions

Questions concerning professional verification may be directed to listings@handshakemd.com.

Anybody may report concerns involving:

• professional identity;
• licensure;
• practice affiliation;
• unauthorized profile claiming;
• inaccurate credentials; or
• other verification information.

What each badge means, and what it does not, is set out in the Verification Standards.

10Verification appeals

A healthcare professional or authorized practice representative who disagrees with a verification decision may request review at listings@handshakemd.com with the word appeal in the subject line.

Please include:

• the professional's name;
• the listing address;
• the verification issue;
• supporting information; and
• current contact information.

11Reporting incorrect directory information

To report materially inaccurate professional or practice information, email listings@handshakemd.com. No account is needed, including if the listing is not yours.

Submitting a report does not automatically establish that the reported information is inaccurate. We may review public records, contact the professional or the practice, request additional information, or take other appropriate action.

One exception to that measured approach. Where a report says somebody has been listed without their knowledge or consent, the listing comes down first and gets investigated second.

12Copyright and DMCA notices

Copyright infringement notices should be sent to the Company's designated copyright agent:

DMCA Agent
shrinkMD Publishing LLC
Email: legal@handshakemd.com
Registered agent for service of process in Florida: Northwest Registered Agent LLC, 7901 4th St N Ste 300, St. Petersburg, FL 33702

Notices should comply with the requirements described in our Copyright, Intellectual Property and DMCA Policy, which lists the six things an effective notice must contain and the four a counter notice must contain.

Being straight about one thing: this agent is not yet registered with the United States Copyright Office through its online directory of designated agents. The statute requires that registration in addition to publishing the address here, so until it is done, the process on this page is one we follow because it is the right way to handle a complaint, rather than one that gives the Company the statutory protection it is modelled on. That changes nothing about how we will handle your notice.

13Trademark complaints

Questions or complaints concerning trademarks, trade names, logos, or other brand rights may be sent to legal@handshakemd.com with the word trademark in the subject line.

Please identify:

• the mark involved;
• your claimed rights;
• the Platform page or listing involved;
• the nature of the concern; and
• your contact information.

14Other intellectual property matters

For other intellectual property questions, email legal@handshakemd.com.

This may include issues concerning:

• photographs;
• biographies;
• practice logos;
• written content;
• database content;
• branding; or
• other proprietary materials.

15Security reports

If you believe you have identified a security vulnerability involving the Platform, contact:

Security
Email: legal@handshakemd.com

A machine readable version of this contact is published at /.well-known/security.txt, which is where a researcher will look first.

Please do not publicly disclose a vulnerability before giving us a reasonable opportunity to investigate it. We will not threaten a researcher who reports something in good faith, and we will tell you what we did about it.

Do not treat vulnerability testing as authorization to:

• access another user's account;
• obtain patient information;
• damage data;
• disrupt the Platform;
• perform denial of service testing;
• send malware; or
• violate applicable law.

16Account security concerns

If you believe a professional listing has been claimed, impersonated, or edited without authorization, email legal@handshakemd.com.

Include the affected listing address. Do not send passwords, and note that there are none to send: this Platform has no passwords. A clinician confirms a listing by clicking a link in an email, so anybody asking you for a HandshakeMD password is not us.

17Good Faith Estimate tool questions

Questions about the Platform's Good Faith Estimate tool may be directed to support@handshakemd.com.

The Company cannot provide individualized legal, billing, or compliance advice about whether a particular healthcare professional is legally required to provide a Good Faith Estimate in a particular situation. The Good Faith Estimate Tool Terms set out when one is generally required under federal rules, and users should consult appropriate counsel about their own circumstances.

18Complaints about a listed clinician

The Platform is not a licensing board, a malpractice tribunal, a hospital medical staff, or a governmental regulator.

Where a concern involves professional misconduct, quality of care, malpractice, abuse, or licensure, the appropriate state licensing authority or another regulator is usually the right organization to contact, and they can act where we cannot. Every listing links to the board lookup for the states that clinician practices in.

You may nevertheless tell us if information displayed on the Platform is inaccurate, or if continued publication raises a legitimate Platform policy concern. Email listings@handshakemd.com.

19Emergency and clinical matters

Do not use any contact on this page to request medical treatment or emergency assistance. Nobody monitors these addresses around the clock, and the Platform does not provide medical or psychiatric care.

If you are experiencing an emergency, call 911 or seek appropriate emergency care. For a mental health or suicidal crisis in the United States, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, any time.

20Media and press inquiries

Media inquiries may be directed to hello@handshakemd.com.

Nothing provided in response to a press inquiry constitutes medical, legal, or professional advice.

21Business and partnership inquiries

Business or partnership inquiries may be directed to hello@handshakemd.com.

Submitting a proposal does not create:

• a partnership;
• exclusivity;
• confidentiality;
• agency;
• contractual rights; or
• other legal obligations

unless the parties enter into a separate written agreement.

One thing not to propose: paid placement, sponsored listings, or any arrangement that moves a clinician up a result list. Those do not exist and will not, which is a commitment rather than a current policy. See the list of things we will never do.

22Confidential information

Do not send confidential business information, patient information, trade secrets, or other sensitive information through a general contact address unless we have expressly asked for it and an appropriate method has been established.

Sending unsolicited information does not create a confidential, fiduciary, attorney client, healthcare provider, or other protected relationship with the Company.

23Unsolicited professional or legal proposals

The Company does not accept unsolicited legal representation proposals, healthcare consultations, or other professional engagements merely because information is sent to a contact address.

No professional relationship is created unless expressly agreed in writing.

24Electronic communications

Email is not guaranteed to be secure.

Do not send anything through ordinary email that you would not want exposed to somebody other than the intended recipient.

None of the addresses on this page is intended for the transmission of protected health information, and none of them is a HIPAA compliant channel. If you are a clinician and you need to send us something about a patient, the answer is almost always that you do not.

25Response times

We make reasonable efforts to read and answer everything that arrives. We do not guarantee a particular response time unless applicable law requires one.

Where a law sets a deadline, we work to it: privacy and consumer health data requests are answered within the statutory timeframe, which is generally 45 days, and we will tell you before taking any extension a law permits. Accessibility requests aim for five business days.

26Language

The Platform communicates primarily in English.

Where applicable law requires assistance or notices in another language, we will address those obligations as required. If English is not the language you would rather use, write to us in whichever language you prefer and we will find a way to answer.

27Legal entity clarification

References to HandshakeMD are references to the brand and Platform operated by shrinkMD Publishing LLC.

HandshakeMD is not a separate legal entity unless expressly stated otherwise. The operating company is shrinkMD Publishing LLC, a Florida limited liability company, and that does not change if the brand does.

This matters for a practical reason. Every legal document on this site is written against the operating company rather than the brand name, so if the brand or the domain ever changes, the operator, the venue, and the governing law stay put and only the name and the address change.

28Changes to contact information

Email addresses, service providers, and mailing arrangements may change.

This page is the current version, and every other legal document on the Platform points here rather than restating an address of its own. That is deliberate: ten documents each carrying their own copy of a contact block is ten places for it to go stale, and one page is one place to fix it.