The following policy, defined by the TMA Board of Trustees and agreed to by members individually, governs the release of information from the Texas Medical Association's membership database.
Information relating to individual members:
Individual members may prohibit any and all data elements, with the following exceptions, from release to any individual or organization, unless required by law. Those exceptions are:
- Name
- County medical society
- TMA membership status
- AMA membership status
1. The following data elements from the TMA membership files shall be considered public data elements, meaning they will be made available to any individual or organization who requests them, subject to the other provisions of this policy:
- Name
- Office address
- Office phone
- Office fax
- Specialty
- Practice type
- Medical school
- Medical school graduation date
- County medical society
- TMA membership status
- AMA membership status
- TEXPAC membership status
- Sex
- Map to office
2. The following data elements from the TMA membership files shall be considered private data elements , meaning they will be made available only to TMA, TMA members, the TMA Alliance, the TMA Foundation, TEXPAC, the AMA, component county medical societies, or under written agreement with other organizations with approval from the Board of Trustees.
- Home address
- Home phone
- Mobile phone
- Spouse's name
- E-mail address
- Years in practice
- Legislative district
- TMA Service information
3. Members may opt-out of the release of private data elements to any outside individual organization on a case-by-case basis. TMA will provide the member with the opportunity to opt-out before any data is released. The opt-out notice shall specifically state what data elements will be released to whom and for what purpose.
Information about multiple members
Mass membership information, that is information about more than one physician at a time, from the TMA membership files shall be made available only in one of these three manners, subject to the other provisions of this policy:
- Online physician directory
- Mailing labels
- Electronic media
1. Unless otherwise prohibited by the individual member involved, the following data elements from the TMA membership files shall be available to be published in TMA's online physician directory :
- Name
- Directory address
- Directory phone
- Directory fax
- Specialty
- Practice type
- County medical society
- TMA membership status
- AMA membership status
- TEXPAC membership status
2. TMA will not sell mailing labels to outside organizations. TMA may provide mailing labels on a cost basis to those organizations and activities that further TMA's mission and goals. Approval to donate labels may be made only by the Executive Vice President or his/her designee. TMA may, at its discretion, provide such labels in an electronic format to bonded mailing houses that sign appropriate single-use agreements. Only the following data elements from the TMA membership files shall be included in mailing labels:
- Name
- Office address
- Member identification number
3. Private data elements from the TMA membership files may be provided via electronic media such as tape, diskettes or e-mail only for internal use (TMA, Alliance, TEXPAC, TMA Foundation) or under written agreements with the AMA, component county medical societies , or other organizations approved by the Board of Trustees (unless the member opts-out of release of that data to other organizations).
4. Public data elements from the TMA membership files may be provided via electronic media such as tape, diskettes or e-mail for internal use, under written agreements with the AMA or component county medical societies, or under written agreements with TMAIT, TMLT, the Texas Medical Foundation, and vendors endorsed by TMA.
Approved in principle by TMA Board of Trustees, October 2007
Revised, July 2011