Terms of Service
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and OA [legal entity name and state of incorporation to be confirmed] (“OA”, “we”, “us”). They govern your use of the OA participant platform at app.oa-bio.com and any related communications (together, the “Service”). By creating an account you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle your information, including your health information. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
1. What OA does, and does not do
OA connects people who want to take part in medical research with organizations that run studies: academic labs, biotechnology and diagnostics companies, and other research sponsors (“Study Teams”). You build one profile; OA shows you studies you may be eligible for; you decide, study by study, whether to request to join.
- OA is not a Study Team. Each study is designed, approved, run and paid for by its Study Team, under its own protocol, ethics review and consent form.
- OA is not a healthcare provider and does not give medical advice. Nothing in the Service is a diagnosis, treatment or a recommendation to start, stop or change any medication or care. Talk to your clinician before making health decisions.
- OA does not guarantee that you will be eligible for, invited to or enrolled in any study, or that any study will pay you.
2. Who can use OA
To use the Service you must:
- be at least 18 years old;
- live in the United States (studies are recruited by state; we cannot serve participants outside the US yet);
- use the Service for yourself. You may not create a profile on behalf of another adult or a child;
- during the closed beta, hold a valid invitation code. Codes are personal and may not be sold or posted publicly.
3. Your account
- Give accurate, current information and keep it up to date. Study eligibility, safety screening and payment all depend on it; inaccurate information can put you or a study at risk.
- Keep your password and sign-in links private. You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us at once at support@oa-bio.com if you suspect it has been used without your permission.
- One account per person. We may close duplicate accounts.
4. How taking part works
Every study on OA has a page describing what it involves, who it is for, where it takes place, the time it takes and the compensation offered. Requesting to join a study (“applying”) tells the Study Team you are interested and lets them see your profile for that study. It is not enrollment.
- The Study Team decides who qualifies. They may contact you, through the channels you allowed, for screening questions, a call or a visit.
- Before anything starts, the Study Team obtains your informed consent under its own study consent form, which is separate from these Terms and may be governed by additional rules (for example federal human-subject regulations or HIPAA).
- Participation is always voluntary. You can withdraw a request, or leave a study you enrolled in, at any time without penalty, subject to the study consent form’s own terms about data already collected.
- You agree to follow the reasonable instructions of the Study Team for any study you join, including safety instructions, and to be truthful in screening.
5. Compensation
- Compensation, if any, is set and paid by the Study Team, under the terms shown on the study page and in the study consent form. OA displays these amounts as provided by the Study Team.
- Compensation is for your time, effort and inconvenience in taking part in a study. It is not a payment for your data, and OA does not sell your data.
- You are responsible for any taxes on compensation you receive. Study Teams may need identifying and tax information from you to pay you.
- OA does not currently process payments. Rewards, referral bonuses and similar programs, if we introduce them, will have their own terms.
6. Your health information
The conditions, medications, allergies and other health details you enter are self-reported by you. You choose what to share; sharing is optional but affects which studies you are matched with. Your health information is consumer health data protected by state law, and we treat it that way. Our Privacy Policy describes what we collect, why, who sees it and your rights, and you give a separate, versioned consent before adding any health information.
- Only enter information about yourself.
- We do not verify self-reported information. Study Teams will confirm what they need during screening.
- Do not use the Service as a medical record. Keep your own records with your clinicians.
7. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- provide false information, impersonate anyone, or apply to studies you know you do not qualify for;
- access or attempt to access other people’s accounts or information, or probe, scan or test the Service for vulnerabilities without our written permission;
- scrape, copy or redistribute study listings or other content except for your personal use;
- use the Service to send spam, harass anyone, or for any unlawful purpose;
- interfere with the Service or its infrastructure, or circumvent any access control.
8. Communications
- We send transactional emails you need for the Service (sign-in links, confirmations, study updates, security notices). You cannot opt out of these while you have an account.
- You control whether Study Teams may reach you by email, text message or phone call in your profile. If you allow text messages, message and data rates may apply and you can reply STOP to any message to stop receiving texts from that sender.
- We do not send marketing messages during the closed beta. If we start, you will be able to opt out.
9. Content and intellectual property
- The Service, including its design, text, software and trademarks, belongs to OA or its licensors. We give you a limited, personal, non-transferable licence to use it under these Terms.
- You keep ownership of the information you enter. You give OA the permission it needs to store, process and display it to run the Service as described in the Privacy Policy, and to share it with a Study Team when you request to join that Study Team’s study.
- Study descriptions are provided by Study Teams, who are responsible for their accuracy.
10. Closing your account
- You can pause matching and contact at any time (“Opt out of studies” in your profile), download a copy of your data, and delete your account. Deletion is immediate and removes your account, profile, health information, consents and applications from the Service. Study Teams you already enrolled with keep the records they collected under the study consent form.
- We may suspend or close your account if you break these Terms, if we must for legal or safety reasons, or if we stop offering the Service. Where reasonable, we will notify you in advance and let you export your data.
11. Disclaimers
The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, OA disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, and does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or that any study will be suitable, safe or beneficial for you. Risks of taking part in a study are described in that study’s consent form; the Study Team, not OA, is responsible for the study.
12. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, OA and its officers, employees and suppliers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service or your participation in any study. OA’s total liability for any claim relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you paid OA in the twelve months before the claim. Some states do not allow these limitations; in those states they apply only as far as the law permits. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
13. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [Delaware — to be confirmed], without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at support@oa-bio.com so we can try to resolve it informally within 60 days. [Counsel to decide whether to include arbitration, class-action waiver and venue clauses, and to assess enforceability state by state.]
14. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms as the Service evolves. Each version has an effective date and a version number. For material changes we will notify you (by email or in the app) and ask you to accept the new version before you continue; your consent record stores which version you accepted and when. Continued use after a non-material change means you accept it.
15. General
- If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
- You may not transfer your account or these Terms. OA may assign them as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, subject to the Privacy Policy.
- These Terms, the Privacy Policy and any study consent form you sign are the entire agreement between you and OA about the Service. A study consent form governs the study it covers.
- We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.
16. Contact
Questions about these Terms: support@oa-bio.com. [Postal address to be added.]