Terms of service

Who we are and acceptance of these terms

mappamedica.it is a public directory of healthcare professionals, operated from Switzerland by Beatrice Dalla Via, Frohburgstrasse 301, 8057 Zurich. By browsing the directory, or by requesting and managing a professional listing, you accept these terms. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the site.

What MappaMedica is

MappaMedica helps people find healthcare professionals by specialty, location, and language, and gives verified professionals a page to present their practice. The directory is free for visitors; today being listed is free for professionals too. If we introduce a fixed listing fee in the future, we will tell the professionals concerned in advance; the fee will in no way influence the order of results.

Order of results

The order of search results is determined by the following parameters, listed in order of importance:

1. Relevance to the search — by far the main parameter: the match with the specialty, the language, and the location searched for, and the relevance of the listing's content (biography, services, conditions treated, frequently asked questions) to the text typed.
2. Geographic proximity — when the search names a place, at equal relevance the closer listings appear first.
3. Average rating on Google — if the professional has chosen to link their Google listing, the average rating affects the order, with less weight than the two parameters above.

At equal score, the order is determined by the declared availability to accept new patients, by the listing's publication date, and by alphabetical order.

Verification of registration with the professional order is not a ranking parameter because it is a precondition for publication: every listing in the directory is verified, as described in "Professional listings and accounts".

No payment, of any kind, influences — or could ever influence — the order of results or the visibility of a listing: there are no paid placements.

Not medical advice

MappaMedica is a directory, not a healthcare provider. Nothing on this site is medical advice, and a listing is not a recommendation or an endorsement of a professional. Always seek the advice of a qualified professional for any medical question. If you believe you have a medical emergency, call your local emergency number (112 in Italy) immediately.

Professional listings and accounts

Listings are reserved for qualified healthcare professionals and come about exclusively by self-registration: we do not create listings on behalf of professionals who have not asked for one. When you request a listing you confirm that you are the professional named (or are authorised to act on their behalf), that the information you provide is accurate and lawful, and that you will keep it up to date. Before publication we verify professional identity against the public registers of the professional orders, we may ask for supporting evidence (such as registration with a professional order), and for each listing we record the outcome of the check. We may refuse, suspend, or remove a listing where the information proves inaccurate, misleading, or unlawful, where registration with the professional order cannot be verified or lapses, or where the listing breaches these terms. Any decision of this kind is communicated to the professional with its reasons and a review of it can be requested, as described in "Reporting problems and removal"; save for cases requiring immediate action, manifestly illegal content, or legal obligations, the definitive removal of a listing is notified with at least 30 days' notice.

Who may be listed

MappaMedica lists healthcare professionals recognized under Italian law (Law 3/2018): physicians and dentists (FNOMCeO), pharmacists (FOFI), psychologists (CNOP), nurses and pediatric nurses (FNOPI), midwives (FNOPO), biologist nutritionists (FNOB), and the technical, rehabilitation, and prevention professions — including physiotherapists, speech therapists, dietitians, podiatrists, orthoptists, occupational therapists, dental hygienists, and radiology and laboratory technicians (FNO TSRM-PSTRP). Every professional must be enrolled in the register (albo) of the relevant professional order where one is established; for recently recognized professions whose register is not yet operational, such as osteopathy, we may ask for equivalent proof of qualification. Professions not recognized as healthcare professions under Italian law cannot be listed.

Content you provide

You keep ownership of the content you add to your listing (text, photos, practice details). By publishing it on MappaMedica you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, and promote it as part of the directory for as long as your listing remains published. You confirm that you hold the rights to everything you upload, in particular to photos, and that it does not infringe the rights of others. Listing content must also comply with the rules on informational communications in healthcare (in Italy, in particular, Art. 1, paragraphs 525 and 536, of Law 145/2018 and the code of conduct of your professional order): only truthful and transparent information serving the safety of treatment is permitted, to the exclusion of any promotional or suggestive element. We may ask you to amend, or to remove, non-compliant content.

Automatic translation of your content

If you write your listing in Italian or English, we offer an automatic translation into the other language. A translation is never published without your review: you can edit it freely and then approve it, or choose to publish your listing in one language only. Once approved, the translation becomes your own content in every respect, just like the original text — you therefore warrant its accuracy and are responsible for it, under the same rules described in "Content you provide". We do not verify the quality of automatic translations and are not responsible for inaccuracies in text you have approved.

Our role: hosting content

Listings are content provided by professionals. Under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) we act as the provider of an information storage service ("hosting"): we have no general obligation to monitor content and are not liable for it, provided that we act diligently, as we do, to remove it or disable access to it as soon as we obtain actual knowledge of its illegality.

Reporting problems and removal

If you believe a listing is inaccurate, unlawful, or infringes your rights, report it to the contact address below stating: the listing's address (URL), a sufficiently reasoned explanation of why (where possible with reference to the rules you believe are breached), and your name and a contact detail (except where the law allows anonymous reports), together with a statement in which you confirm in good faith that the information in the report is accurate and complete. We confirm receipt of every report without delay and tell the reporter its outcome. We examine every report in a timely, diligent, and non-arbitrary manner (each report is assessed by a person, with no automated decision-making tools) and we remove or correct content where justified. If we remove or restrict content, we give the professional concerned a clear and specific statement of reasons for the decision; the professional can request a review of it by replying to that communication and will receive the outcome within a reasonable time. Listed professionals can request the removal of their own listing at any time, as described in the privacy policy.

Third-party content and links

If a professional links a Google Place ID to their listing, we show the live average rating, the review count, and up to five review texts from Google. This content belongs to Google and to its respective authors: we do not create, select, edit, or store it (we keep only a 24-hour technical cache). To dispute a review you must contact Google; at a professional's request we can disable the display at any time by removing the Place ID link. Listings may also contain links to external websites (such as a professional's own site or booking service) that we do not control and are not responsible for.

Availability and liability

We run MappaMedica with care, but the directory is provided "as is": we cannot guarantee that it is always available or free of errors, nor that every detail of every listing is accurate: professionals are responsible for the information they publish, as described in the section on our role. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for damage arising from the use of the site or from reliance on listing information. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time, for example when the service changes or the law requires it. The current version is always published on this page with the date shown above. Material changes will be communicated by email to the professionals listed in the directory with at least 30 days' notice: if you do not intend to accept them, you can ask for your listing to be removed before they take effect. Continuing to use the site after that date means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by Swiss law and the courts of Zurich, Switzerland have jurisdiction, without prejudice to the mandatory rules and the non-derogable heads of jurisdiction provided by European Union or Italian law, including those protecting consumers and professionals that apply in your country of residence.

Point of contact (Digital Services Act)

Under Articles 11 and 12 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, our single point of contact, both for the authorities of the Member States, the European Commission, and the European Board for Digital Services, and for recipients of the service, is the email address shown below. Communications may be sent in Italian or in English. Our legal representative in the Union under Article 13 of the same Regulation is named in the privacy policy.

Contact

For any question about these terms, contact: beahiveproject@gmail.com