THE TRUST CENTER
How BackChannel works.
A verified physician network for career, training and workplace conversations. Discussions are private to approved beta members. Members can participate anonymously or with a pseudonym, with professional context separate from real-world identity.
What we collect
A login email, age attestation, professional demographics and persistent pseudonym. Verification separately collects legal name, NPI, country and institutional email or credential evidence. NPI is a registry credential, not proof of active licensure or competence.
What readers can see
Your chosen pseudonym, or “Anonymous,” with the physician stage and specialty context recorded when you contributed. Your legal name, NPI, login email, institutional email, evidence, private institution and review notes are not public profile fields. Posts and replies are available only to approved beta members. Members can still copy or share material outside the platform. Rare career details or your own words can still identify you.
Two ways to speak
Posts and comments are private to approved beta members, including anonymous contributions. Pseudonymous contributions connect to your persistent community profile. Anonymous contributions hide that pseudonym and do not carry a profile link or public account identifier. The platform retains internal authorship for accountability, notifications, security and deletion.
Who can access verification
Verification administrators review your private credential information. Document access requires a reason and is logged; signed links expire after 60 seconds. Ordinary moderators manage content and account restrictions without routine real-identity access. Super administrators have exceptional access, with the same sensitive-access logging.
How verification works
We check your individual NPI against CMS/NPPES, then require institutional email confirmation or private professional evidence. Membership requires manual administrator review and approval to bind the evidence to the person. Unknown institutional domains and legitimate name differences go to review.
Documents and retention
Credential files are stored privately, with no public URL. Obscure unrelated information before uploading. The default retention schedule is 30 days after approval or rejection, subject to a configured retention policy and documented holds. Scheduled cleanup must be deployed and monitored.
A career that keeps moving
Update your stage, specialty and training year as your career changes. Major transitions, annual deadlines or an administrator request can require reverification. Routine PGY changes do not automatically trigger it. Older contributions keep their original career context.
Reports and moderation
Report patient-identifying information, doxxing, harassment, threats or other guideline concerns on any discussion or reply. Moderators can remove or restore content, warn, suspend, ban or require reverification. Reasons and decisions are logged. Good-faith workplace criticism is welcome.
Blocking and anonymity
Blocking filters visible pseudonymous contributions and limits visible-pseudonym interactions. Anonymous contributions remain independent of account blocking, to prevent block/unblock patterns revealing authors. Use reporting for harmful anonymous content.
Compensation privacy
Individual submissions are private and editable by their owner. Only coarse specialty, region and reporting-year aggregates with at least five contributors are displayed, with rounded medians and contributor counts. No raw notes or participant identifiers appear in aggregates.
Analytics
The app uses internal event names and timestamps linked to account identifiers for community health. It sends no identity, document, full discussion text or compensation submission to third-party analytics. Hosting and authentication providers may process operational security logs under their own configurations.
Deletion and data requests
Use Settings → Privacy to request access, deletion or privacy assistance. Requests enter a staff queue. A deletion request restricts the account and signs you out; staff must review applicable holds and coordinate application, storage and authentication deletion. It does not instantly erase data.
Legal limits
Community anonymity is not absolute confidentiality. The operator may retain or disclose information where required by valid legal process or documented security needs. Legal policies are drafts for licensed counsel review; the app makes no HIPAA compliance claim.
What this platform does not do
No employers, recruiters, ads, paid surveys, public physician directory, private messaging or AI-generated physician conversations. This is not a clinical consultation platform. Discussions do not create medical, legal or financial advisory relationships.