Does Jane use third-party vendors for messaging?
Yes. Jane uses the following third-party vendors to send messages to patients (sometimes called clients):
- Amazon Simple Email Service (SES): sends email reminders to one patient at a time.
- Twilio: sends SMS reminders to one patient at a time.
- Mailchimp (optional add-on): sends bulk newsletter-style emails to a list of patients.
What data does Jane send to third-party vendors?
Jane does not send medical or health record data from patient charts to third-party vendors.
We limit the information shared to what's necessary to deliver the service, and treat data such as patient names and email addresses as sensitive. We also encrypt all data passed from Jane to third-party vendors.
How do these vendors handle my data securely?
Jane selected these vendors based on their security and privacy practices:
📣 Heads up: SMS availability varies by region and is offered only in select locations. Contact us with questions about availability in your region.
What does it mean to use Amazon SES for email reminders?
Amazon SES routes emails from the data centre associated with the region selected when the Jane account was created. For specifics around data storage location, check out our Cloud Security White Paper.
Where is my data sent when I use these services with Jane?
Jane's third-party vendors are US-based businesses. The minimum data needed to provide the service is sent to their servers in the US.
Can Canadian data be sent to the US?
It's our understanding that, yes, Canadian provincial and federal privacy laws generally allow health practitioners to disclose health-related information to third parties outside of Canada if there are adequate safeguards in place to protect the data, a legitimate purpose to transfer it, and the patient has consented to the use and disclosure of their information. However, we recommend also checking with your college or association, as there may be additional bylaws regarding data residency. Depending on what province you're in, you may also be required to complete a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) first.
Patients are not required to use an email provider hosted in Canada, and most patients use providers such as Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo.
What should I know about using Mailchimp for marketing emails?
The Mailchimp integration for marketing emails is optional. When enabled, Jane transfers the following patient fields to Mailchimp:
- Email address
- First name
- Last name
- Birth date
- Member since date
- Last visit description
- Last visit date
- Visit count
- Discharged status
- City, province, country
To limit the information sent to Mailchimp, export a list from Jane that includes only first name, last name, and email address, then import that list into Mailchimp instead of using the automatic field transfer.
To export this list:
- Go to Reports > Email Marketing Subscribers.
- Click Export to CSV.
🩵 Jane Tip: Mailchimp uses email address as the unique identifier for subscribers, so re-uploading a list only adds new patients and skips any patients already in Mailchimp.
That covers the most common questions about how Jane works with third-party messaging vendors.